New Delhi, Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008: Who says there is a slump in hiring in the Indian BPO industry? Even if there is one, there are companies that are hiring in India and taking such candidates to overseas destinations, especially the Philippines.

Media reports say that companies like Genpact and Sitel are hiring staff in India and taking them abroad while others like Accenture and Citibank too are preferring Indian talent for their offhshore centres in other geographies.

A report in the Economic Times quoting Raman Roy, MD of Quatrro BPO Solutions says that while Philippines has the talent at the associate level, there is a gap at both the middle and senior management level where the Indians are better than the rest.

Philippines has emerged as an active rival to India's BPO business due to fiscal incentives given by their government and the large pool of English speaking talent.

BPO managers interviewed by the Economic Times admitted that they were losing middle level managers to the companies employing them abroad.

The paper says that Genpact went to the Philippines in 2006 and since then, has built a sizeable presence there. It quotes Genpact CEO Pramod Bhasin to say that the company's goal was to have grooming and training for local talent to manage the Philippines operations within two years.