You can’t run a company in highly-competitive industries like the ones we serve (i.e. retail, healthcare, telecommunications, travel & hospitality, transportation & logistics, etc.) without making the employee experience a top priority. With the cost of replacing an employee between 50 to 250 percent of their salary, retention is critical in meeting KPIs. More importantly, it impacts company culture, such as productivity and morale, which can ultimately affect the bottom line. In an employee-driven job market, it’s not just about attracting the right candidates, but about keeping them.

I’ve been in the BPO industry for a lot longer than I’d like to admit, and in that time, I’ve learned what a positive work environment means to employees. At Alorica, where I oversee 40,000 employees from our Asia-Pacific operations, there are several award-winning initiatives we’ve created that have had a remarkable impact on our people and business. From our unique approach to onboarding to clear career paths, I’m proud of Alorica’s commitment to prioritize its people and the payoff is significant.

• Innovation in Recruiting & Hiring– We continuously need to hire the right people to add to our growing workforce; we hired 6,000+ employees in the Philippines just in October! To help us hire quickly but efficiently, we’ve leveraged AI tools and chatbots to connect with candidates 24/7. When we piloted this program in the Philippines, we were able to screen 3,000 candidates in a few months, meeting scalability demands, reducing cost-per-hire by 84 percent and saving 12,000 recruiting hours.

• Developing the “Super” Agent– Did you know the total loss to a business from ineffective training is $13.5 million a year per 1,000 employees? To save money and produce better results, we use microlearning, a teaching model integrating short, interactive videos. This on-demand program enables faster learning and deeper comprehension for this digitally-enabled generation. For a retail pharmacy provider of ours, this tool resulted in process compliance of 96 percent to goal 60 days after training, saving about four training hours per full-time employee.

• Gamifying the Work Day– Motivation plays a HUGE role in the success of our business. In fact, many employees agree that gamification makes them more productive (87%), more engaged (84%) and happier (82%) at work. Alorica uses gaming mechanics to encourage high-value activity and loyalty, while reinforcing a fun culture where our employees can keep track of performance metrics, earn points and redeem rewards. This tool also translates to higher efficiency, fewer escalations, increased accuracy and greater customer satisfaction.  

• A Culture of Giving Back – I saw in a Workforce.com article that 82 percent of Gen Z’ers consider Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) a major factor when deciding where to work. This shows that companies need to clearly articulate their core values from the start to attract talent. Choosing causes that matter to candidates helps build an effective CSR program because it ignites passion and interest from employees. Our partnership with global non-profit Making Lives Better with Alorica (MLBA), takes the traditional approach to corporate philanthropy and turns it on its head – instead of the company deciding where to make charitable contributions, the nearly 100 employee-led MLBA chapters around the world, are empowered to support the individuals, local organizations and communities they want to support.

Here are three steps your company can take now to increase employee retention, improve company culture and produce wining results. So far, it’s working for us!

1. Acknowledge the direct correlation between employee satisfaction and bottom-line success. And take steps to combine the two rather than tackling them separately.


2. Get to know your workforce and identify programs that pique their interest. Better yet, let THEM tell you what they like.


3. Act on their Want your employees to know you care? Prove it by listening and then doing something about it.

Want to learn more about how Alorica creates an insanely great culture that leads to passion, performance and possibilities? Go to alorica.com  or email us at [email protected].