Majority of knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services firms in the country are increasing their employee base between 11 percent to 200 percent this year following robust growth in business, a survey showed.

A survey conducted by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) and Outsource2Philippines (O2P) from August 6-24 among 438 KPO industry executives in the country. The type of KPO services offered by respondents firms varied widely, and included advertising and Web 2.0 services, animation, back office KPO such as procurement and supply chain management, business intelligence, and financial and legal KPO.

The survey had a response rate of 30%, or 131 individual respondents. Invitations to the survey were sent to BPO executives exclusively, and did not include industry suppliers, unlike previous surveys.

Based on the survey, almost 60% of respondents providing KPO services said their firms will increase their employee base between 11% and 200% this year. Another 10% will maintain their current employee base and 29% will expand from less than five percent to 10%.

Respondents were optimistic about industry growth. When asked about future prospects for KPO delivery from the Philippines, 94% of respondents whose firms provide KPO services said prospects were good (37%), very good (44%), or excellent (13%).

KPO is defined as an extension of BPO involving greater business complexity and focusing on knowledge-intense business processes that require significant domain expertise. Knowledge workers delivering these services are highly educated and trained, and trusted to make important decisions on behalf of their clients.

North America is the largest market for KPO services providers, with 59% of respondents indicating their clients are primarily located in that region. Somewhat surprisingly, Asia was the second largest market, with 46%. The EU was third with 37%.