Unprepared is how COVID-19 caught the world when it introduced itself through the thousands of lives gone in many countries. The global economy faced a tremendous challenge as businesses closed down one by one and the healthcare sector struggled to accommodate the surge of COVID-19 cases. In addition to that more and more industries were collapsing each day, but not the bread and butter of the economy - the outsourcing industry.

Businesses, especially BPO Companies, have long been implementing a centralized control of the company operations through performing work in an office setting until COVID-19 brought to light the shortcomings of this system in times of worldwide health crises. Hence, contact centers have enforced necessary adjustments to business continuity plans, working set-ups, and more, including these 3 major transformations that BPO Companies have put into effect during the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. The Work from Home Transition. To prevent the virus from spreading in close contact environment, like the production floors of a BPO Company, and thereby endangering the lives of the workforce, contact centres have implemented remote working arrangements. Agents were provided with the essential tools and equipment to carry out the BPO operations even when staying safe at home. Thus, providing income for the workers in this time of crisis and lessening the negative impact of unemployment on the economy. Most importantly, client operations have continued to run amidst the pandemic.
    
2. Leadership and Performance Governance. The execution of the Work from Home approach brought another obstacle. It is how to lead and monitor the performance and productivity of the workforce. As opposed to working in an office setting, working remotely poses numerous distractions, internet connection capability issues, timeliness, etc. To address these concerns, each BPO Company has formulated their own governance policies tailored to the emerging needs of their clients and accounts, and leadership teams have been trained to adapt to the new systems.
    
3. Strengthening the Data Security. More than ever, data security has now been a matter of the utmost importance. There’s a number of reasons why BPO operations are run and managed in one place and that is to avoid data security breach, and control and limit the associate’s access to sensitive data information. With Agents working from home, the risk of data breach has become higher. Thus, contact centers have deployed more IT professionals and support to heighten their security systems and put in place processes that will limit the security risks resulting from the remote working environment strategy.
    

Not only did COVID-19 bring about challenges, but it also opened the doors to a wide range of opportunities that the outsourcing industry has yet to discover. All these transformations proved that BPO Companies continue to find ways to stand stronger in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the outsourcing industry is thriving. With resilience as one of the key attributes of a BPO Company, one can rest assured that more contact centres will ride out the COVID-19 storm, continue to grow, and come out better than ever in the ‘new normal’.