Guatemala’s Advantages – Serving the US Market with Outsourced Call Centers and BPO Services

 

 

 

Guatemala Overview

• Largest population in Central American Region (over 13.5 million)
• Close proximity to the US due to its location in the northern part of Central America
• Due to human resource availability, operations can scale significantly
• GDP is US$ 67.8 billion, and currency risk rating of the quetzal is BBB – by Standard and Poor’s.
• Ranked 100 out of 183 countries in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2010; and 91 out of 178 countries in Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index
• Same time zone as US, and air travel time to Guatemala is approximately 3 hours
• Workforce of 4.1 million, with 70% of the population below the age of 30.

Labor pool

• Largest student numbers in Central America with 170,000 students enrolled in ten universities
• Students are very Americanized – No need for cultural immersion programs when they’re hired
• Heavy flow of people back and forth from the US – People very in touch with North American culture
• Approximately 25,000 Guatemalans in the US lose their visas and return home every year
• English proficiency is strong, plentiful and growing in terms of available English resources due to various government, private and business organizations’ impact on schooling and eduction to serve the industry
• Spanish-based voice services quality are deemed among the best due to a neutral Spanish accent of Guatemalan workers that can be used to service other Hispanic countries and US Hispanic markets

Golden Gate BPO – Guatemala City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compensation Relative to Central American Competition

• Lower wage rates relative to its Central American competition
• With salaries in Costa Rica continuing to rise and an increasing saturated labor market in Panama, call centers in Guatemala are more attractive for cost savings
• A bilingual call center rep earns approximately $500-600 per month, excluding benefits, while a non-bilingual agent’s wage could be as low as $300-400
• The entry-level IT programmer’s salary is around $700-800 per month
• Employees are obliged to contribute 10.67% of the annual wage as social security, and also pay a 13th month wage, common in many countries in the Latin America Caribbean (LACAR) region

Infrastructure

• Strength of Guatemala telecommunications networks
• Country privatized telecommunications in 1996, as well as the IT and information service providers in the country
• Central America’s most open regulatory frameworks, a fast growing telecom sector, and strong infrastructure due to both local and foreign competition
• With access to an ocean on either side, Guatemala ensures 99% redundancy in connections to both Pacific and Atlantic fiber optic cables
• Guatemalans are very connected – there are 1.2-1.5 cell phones for every person in Guatemala City, and social media is huge
• Guatemala has the lowest mobile phone rates in Latin America