Page Personnel on trends and remuneration in the SSC/BPO sector

The past few years have been a period of an extraordinary dynamic expansion of the business services sector (SSC/BPO) in Poland. It is estimated that this market is growing at a rate of around 20% per year. There are currently nearly 500 centres operating in this country, putting Poland in the 1^st place among countries in the CEE region, and one of the highest in the world in terms of localisation. “This trend will continue in the near future, as many global brands are still interested in opening centres in Poland. It is for them that we have prepared this snapshot of data on the potential of our domestic market and SSC/BPO sector,” explains Wojciech Bartz, Executive Manager at Page Personnel, which has just published a brochure presenting the business services sector in Poland.

Over 128,000 people currently work in the SSC/BPO in Poland, accounting for 40% of all those employed in this sector in Central Eastern Europe. It is estimated that the number of employees is set to rise to around 200,000, mainly due to the dynamically expanding financial services. ABSL (Association of Business Service Leaders in Poland) data for 2013 shows that other fields of centre specialisation popular in Poland are: finance and accounting (59%), IT application services (48%), customer service such as IT support (42%), IT services included in infrastructure (35%) and HR (32%).

What is it that attracts global brands to Poland? There are several factors, which concern various fields and combine to create an environment conducive to doing business in this sector. “In Poland investors can count on employing both top class specialists and graduates from the many academic centres who know languages and are able to work in an international environment, as proved by, for example, their participation in the Erasmus programme. Also important for them are relatively low labour costs, developed infrastructure, amount of convenient locations, access to free office space and financial incentives such as tax breaks and investment support from government or EU grants,” says Wojciech Bartz from Page Personnel.

The Polish market is highly attractive for investors in terms of labour costs. According to the report by Page Personnel, gross monthly salaries in business service centres in 2014 ranged from 2,300 PLN for entry level positions such as Junior Accountant, up to 45,000 PLN for management posts, e.g. Director of a Shared Services Centre. The highest salaries are those of specialists in IT and finances, with lower ones usually offered in customer service and call centres. It is common practice to award annual bonuses and rises in line with inflation. In Poland, perks are offered to employees of the centres on top of their salaries, these are most commonly medical packages, subsidies for language courses and passes for sports clubs.

The SSC/BPO sector in Poland is characterised by the advanced nature of the processes it serves, geared towards knowledge based projects, but this is not accompanied by any decrease in the basic services provided. Since 2010, a very dynamic increase has been noticeable in positions connected with servicing the banking and investment funds market, which has previously been the speciality of Dublin, London and Luxembourg. Poland is also home to an increasing number of strategically important centres, playing key roles for Europe, as well as the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region.