Kenya BPO Society launches standards and ethics guidelines

The Kenya Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Society is set to introduce a set of standards and ethics guidelines that is expected to be enacted in Parliament.

"The standards are a major marketing tool for Kenya," said BPO Society Chairperson Gilda Odera. "We need to convince prospective businesses that their information is safe with us and that the society has a way of enforcing the standards."

The society invited the Kenyan ICT community to comment on standards and ethics of management practices relating to leadership, customer service, human and technical resources and operations.

The standards have been developed to cover all aspects of the BPO sector and to provide all customers with consistently good experiences, said David Otwoma, chairperson of the society's Standards and Ethics Committee.

In the past, Western corporations have engaged local companies, only to be disappointed with the level of service. If Parliament makes the guidelines into law, it will be a step toward convincing major corporations to outsource back-office operations to Kenya, Odera said.

The standards will be developed in conjunction with the Kenya Bureau of Standards and benchmarked on the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals code of ethics, Customer Operations Performance Center and the Victorian Government code of practice for call centers.

The standards will allow the society to be a reference point for organizations that are interested in local companies, Odera said.

Paul Kukubo, CEO of the Kenya ICT Board, acknowledged that many organizations in the BPO industry have not joined the society because they feel they can make it on their own.

"There is a cartel of businesses out there who engage local companies, then refuse to pay and move to other countries like Ghana [and] South Africa, among others. The society will help verify such contacts through local embassies," said Kukubo.

Alice Muigai, a trainer in the BPO sector, wondered when the society will develop certification for BPO training, but Odera said there is a committee evaluating basic minimum requirements for training together with the Ministry of Education.

Many people are offering training in the BPO sector; yet, the society doesn't know their backgrounds and whether they are qualified to offer this training in the first place, Odera said.

The standards process will start with employers signing ethics codes with employees, so that employees are liable if they break the codes by stealing information, said Eunice Kariuki, deputy CEO at the ICT board.

Kariuki, who is in charge of marketing Kenya's outsourcing industry locally and abroad, said that the standards must be implemented at all levels of an organization and urged companies to join the BPO Society.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.