Privately owned contact center, Sitel Palawan, addresses issues thrown at them related to their recruitment and employment in social media which is garnering attention and negative comments in few job hunting pages particularly on Facebook.
Early November of this year, a netizen posted on a job hunting page asking the reason behind why there are so many people avoids or refuses to apply or work in Sitel Palawan which was later deleted. The aforementioned post garnered hundreds of comments, which mostly discusses the unfair practices of the company during recruitment, such as they were not notified, if they passed or failed the application process. Some also claimed that they have not received payments for their Academy training classes, while majority disses out the issue they call “straw mentality” or “sipsip culture” in order to prolong their employment contract or get promoted to a higher position.
Other comments raised concerns about receiving a lower salary compared to employees being brought in from Metro Manila as well as about the offices having a very cold temperature in their air conditioning system.
Sitel Palawan Vice President for Operations Eden Gutierrez, who’s been running the said center for more than two years, answered all the allegations in an exclusive interview with Palawan Daily. She was surprised and sad why those assertions were being spread on social media and not through their organizations to which she guarantees that they have a best procedure in handling employees’ complaints.
Recruitment and delayed allowances
On recruitment, she stated that it is impossible for their company to not notify or inform applicants whether they passed or failed during the application process. There are many processes, depending on the account an applicant needs to pass, and there is an accurate system to know who qualified.
“The recruitment process is very long [and] it varies from account to account so when you claim na hindi kami na-inform kung pumasa ka o hindi, kailangan ko munang maintindihan at what point sa recruitment process ka na-drop. But normally upon entering the site or upon getting through the screening, doon pa lang malalaman mo na kasi it’s impossible for the recruiter to just leave you there the entire day. Meron kasi kaming logs ng pumapasok na applicants…maybe people who have applied online, or they submitted [their] resume via referral,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez admitted that she was unaware of the late payments regarding the allowances of their employees who attended the academy training. She disclosed that she is the one who approves the release of these payments and can’t remember an instance when they were late in releasing funds. And if they miss an individual during payouts, she requests the person to speak up so that they can investigate.
“I’m pretty sure may mga delays din because of approval process. Hindi naman siya maliit na halaga kasi hundreds of people ang pini-payout mo ng allowances for that. But again for us to be able to trace and go back kung saang batch ‘to nagkaroon ng gap or what, they have to let us know ‘yung name nila, anung batch nila, sinong trainor nila [kasi] do’n ko sila matra-trace kung ano ang naging cause of delay. [There is] no reason for Sitel to delay payment [kasi] naka budget [na] talaga ‘to para sa Sitel Academy,” Gutierrez explained.
The straw mentality
On the part of “Sipsip” culture innuendo in Sitel Palawan, Gutierrez says it’s not a fair statement to just accuse them in social media. She assures that all recruitment, employee regularization, and promotions are being measured and checked by several system application and a lot of people are involved in reviewing, analysing and approving it.
“Just like any organizations, we make sure that there is an audit system in place to ensure fairness across all levels. Siguro, some people might think [that because] nagkakataon na may mga na-promote na close sa sinumang leaders or key personality in the organizations but I think it is also not fair to assume na just because these people are friends, here in Sitel kasi pino-foster namin ang culture ng joy that we treat each other as family, na dahil close sila kaya ka na-promote. Kasi that person went definitely through the same, you know ordeal to be able to get that promotion,” VP Gutierrez added.
Sitel Palawan has the highest employees net in all the Sitel branches nationwide according to Gutierrez. They scored 36.1, which is considered very high, in terms of how satisfied and happy their employees are.
“People can always come up with an opinion based on their perspective. Parang ayaw kong makipagtalo kung ‘yan ang tingin nila, ‘di ba? I want facts. Give me a name [and]…a violation and I will investigate it. As far [as] I’m concerned, and under my leadership which I have handled it since last year, that’s not something [the gossip] we tolerate,” Gutierrez said.
Compensation of locals versus Manila employees
Gutierrez defended the procedure they follow in employing non-Palaweños, who have higher positions and income, compared to locals. She said that these are requirements they need in order to follow certain standards. And in Palawan, having a first call center with Sitel, they really need to import experts to handle the operations.
“What we do is that we plant 20% to 30% existing employees from other sites [outside the Province of Palawan]. Ipinapadala namin dito so they teach, they train fellow agents, and they start the account para maging successful. And after a while, binabalik [na] namin sila [sa branch kung saan naming sila nakuha]. That’s why hindi naman fair porke’t nilipat namin sila dito babaaan ko suweldo nila para lang hindi ma-feel bad ang mga taga Palawan. These people are uprooted and [are] really designed to start-up new accounts kasi mga experts ang mga yan,” she added.
Sitel Palawan pays more than 30% in the local minimum wage required per employee. According to Gutierrez, comparing the rates from provincial to metro cities is unfair since they both have different cost of living.
Cold temperature
VP Gutierez laughs at why having a cold air conditioning in their offices became an issue. As a BPO, they have machines and systems which need a certain temperature level in order to function properly. However, the management is able to adjust the temperatures if employees feel cold or are not used to having a freezing AC, if requested.
“There’s a certain temperature na we maintain to protect the computers and the hardware kasi hindi pwedeng mainitan yung mga computers. Naturally siyang umiinit so kailangan namin i-maintain yung certain thermostat,” she added.
Employees can file complain anonymously
Lastly, Gutierrez assured the company employees that they have various resources in filing a complaint once they deem the administration is unfair. She also mentions the system Ethics Point where they can lodge their complains unnamed.
“Maraming paraan na magkaboses ang lahat ng empleyado namin to tell us what’s wrong [with the management]….[however] these people are choosing the social media platform [to express their disappointments and concerns]. [And] I don’t know for whatever reason but probably they are not employees [of our company]. Kasi if they are, they would know that there’s an Ethics Point capability na doon talaga sila valid na makapag-reklamo anonymously,” Gutierrez said.
Sitel Palawan currently has 2,000 employees, both from their Citywalk Office and in the newly opened hub at Chinatown Mall. They started their operation in Puerto Princesa in 2016.
“That’s concerning but its subjective. People can always say that probably because they came from Sitel already [and] probably they don’t like graveyard shifts. Hindi naman talaga pang lahat ang pagpu-puyat ‘di ba? Or probably some of them have relatives that had bad experiences with Sitel. Hindi na nararapat siguro pagtuunan ko pa ng pansin itong opinion, unless these people would come forward and tell me exactly why. What’s the experience all about? So that’s the only time I can act on it,” VP Gutierrez said in closing.