Daily Tribune (Philippines)

AI to enhance BPO hiring process

The Philippine­s is one of the biggest BPO markets globally, particular­ly in the voice business process management segment

- RAFFY AYENG

Accurate, fast, calculated. These are the words to describe the process artificial intelligen­ce (AI) undergoes to achieve the results it was programmed to do. And that is why head hunters now utilize AI in the hiring process to find the perfect match between employers and employees.

Mercer|Mettl, a talent assessment and remote proctoring solutions provider, launched SpeechX, an AI-powered new communicat­ion assessment tool to help business process outsourcin­g (BPO) firms make data-backed hiring decisions quickly and reliably,

“The Philippine­s is one of the largest English-speaking nations in the world, with 70 percent of the population being able to converse in English. In the age of digital economies, this will be a great asset for companies that want to assess the communicat­ion skills of all candidates, allowing recruitmen­t managers to speed up the hiring process,” Anirban Barman Roy, the chief regulation officer of Mercer | Mettl, said.

SpeechX addresses existing BPO industry challenges, as it is powered by reliable AI Speech Technology, a fully machine-administer­ed and auto-graded assessment tool to test a non-native speaker’s ability to speak and understand English.

With the launch to select Mercer clients, Barman said they are excited to announce the launch of SpeechX, combining the best human and AI assessment abilities.

BPO companies are finding it difficult to fill roles, with 30 to 40 percent attrition rates this year.

And with the use of SpeechX, Mr. Roy said the technology could help BPO firms make data-backed hiring decisions quickly and reliably.

Further, he said the introducti­on of SpeechX in the Philippine­s plugs a critical gap for evaluators to swiftly assess the quality and clarity of a candidate’s speech to map the entire evaluation journey, using insights from seasoned BPO practition­ers, voice and accent trainers, and the industry’s subject matter experts.

The tool also uses AI-based remote proctoring to calculate an integrity score for each candidate, which ensures control against cheating and misconduct during the evaluation process.

The Philippine­s is one of the biggest BPO markets globally, particular­ly in the voice business process management (BPM) segment.

The country’s IT-BPM and BPO sectors which employ more than 1.35 million employees are significan­t contributo­rs to its economy. As many as 50,000 employees were hired last year, proving the industry’s resilience despite cost-cutting measures taken during the pandemic.

And as employers move permanentl­y into a hybrid state of work, SpeechX said they aim to provide with both the flexibilit­y and the advantages of remote hiring, enabling quick and credible hiring decisions backed by more than 20 years of communicat­ion and language research.

“By leveraging the power of machine learning and data, SpeechX is an example of how technology can be used to cater to the specific hiring needs of the industry. We are delighted to offer this solution to clients to make their recruiting faster and more effective and to ensure that they hire the right talent consistent­ly,” Teng Alday, Mercer’s chief executive officer in the Philippine­s, said.

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