MONTEGO BAY, St James — As COVID-19 makes a resurgence in some countries the local business process outsourcing (BPO) sector is keeping a watchful eye on cases here and has again stressed the need for reliable Internet service that will facilitate work from home on a larger scale.

“We’re watching this closely and so far there has been no uptick or no change of pattern, whether it’s people reporting sickness or reporting absenteeism etc,” President of the Global Services Association of Jamaica, Anand Biradar told the Jamaica Observer.

“Those are some lead indicators which tell us that there is a problem [but] we’re not seeing that yet in Jamaica,” he added.

Noting that the local BPO sector has been seeing greater growth than the global average, he stressed that this impressive performance could be undermined if, because of an increase in COVID-19 cases, there is a need for more employees to work from home and Internet support is not beefed up. Pointing out that at least 50 per cent of workers employed in the sector now work from home and it would not be difficult to adjust that number upwards, he said the only constraint would be lagging technology.

“If at all it gets to a point like the last time, surely work from home will be the tool that will be used,” said Biradar.

“We’re really waiting on that broadband initiative to really take place quickly so that the Internet for people at home is ideally secure, it’s fast — and not just in main cities, everywhere. We managed before through COVID with some back up but it’s not stable; the connections keep dropping. It’s not stable and it’s not fast,” he pointed out.

A reliable Internet supply, he said, would make it possible for more jobs to be added to the sector.

“If someone is somewhere in May Pen or somewhere in Port Antonio, wherever they are, we can hire them, train them, employ them, — wherever they are,” he said.

The sector, Biradar noted, needs skilled workers.