Can it help to recover the Polish post-COVID 19 economic recession by the BPO/SSC sector? The results of the "Business Services Sector in Poland 2020" survey by ABSL seem to be a source of hope.

Corporate facilities are still growing

A recent study by the Polish business-service leaders association forecasts that the business services market will become one of the most significant components of the Polish economy (ABSL). After 2016 the overall workforce in the area has risen by 58% - as from June 2020, in 1.513 business service centres (including BPOs, SSC/GBS, IT and R&D companies) in Poland, the industry hires 338.000 qualified professionals.

While the pace of job growth is projected to slow as the industry progresses through maturity of production, the vast majority (77%) of businesses in this sector announce plans in the coming months to further increase employment. Jobs in the Polish BPO/SSC is expected to increase another 3 -7% in 2021 (a decline from the average of 12 per cent per year recorded between 2016-2020).

International corporations

According to ABSL, 970 business services centres operating in Poland belong to multinational companies and produce more than 80% of all employment in the industry. Foreign investors respect Poland's physical proximity to its clients (the same time zone) and well-trained foreign-language specialists in the region. In addition to native-born staff, more than 90% of business services centres employ native foreign-language speakers:

One of the defining features of the sector is its multicultural nature – centres in Poland hire workers from 65 different countries and 12% of those employed in the sector are foreigners. In 38 languages, the sector offers services.

The role of enhancement

The study by the ABSL reports that increasingly complex and knowledge-intensive processes provided by Polish business services (especially R&D and IT centres) seem to indicate that the need for qualified professionals in the industry is continuing to grow:

The business services sector changes substantially in quality in addition to this quantitative growth. There is a clear move towards more complete processes (a transition from the back office to middle office), generating more value-added.

In AI-powered organisations, however, soft skills - such as empathy, teamwork or problem solving - which cannot be replaced by technology are required to play a growing role:

A soft skilled IT expert can become a genuine boss, who can convert consumer issues into reliable solutions and write them as code.

A modern problem

The industry seems to have reacted well to the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic, describing the BPO / SSC sector as being very durable and adaptable to changes. ABSL results reveal that within days of the declaration of a state of emergency in Poland initiatives like company continuity plans or home arrangements have been adopted by BPO/SSC businesses.

Although it is difficult to forecast at present the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, the present problems can be interpreted as a new chance for progress. ABSL says that the Polish BPO/SSC sector will also benefit from the crisis because a large number of enterprises are expected to move into nearshoring, switching company operations to closer locations:

Western Europe will be favourable in Central and Eastern Europe, while US institutions in Central and Eastern Europe and in Latin America will prefer positions.