Polyglot Employees: Their Motivations to Apply to and Remain in the BPO Industry

Abstract

This study explores what attracts polyglot or multilingual employees to work for business process outsourcing (BPO) or shared service business firms and how many, through their human resource (HR) department, remain. It adopts a pluralist industrial relations (IR) perspective to assess
polyglot employees and BPO companies as distinct units driven by different needs and motivations. The survey reveals that more than the salary, work schedule attracts polyglot employees to work in BPOs and shared service industries, while career advancements and harmonious relationships are what help companies retain them. Despite the high salary and benefits, HR managers still struggle to recruit polyglot employees due to their scarcity. Thus, HR must improvise strategies to ensure employee retention.