Yasir Rafiq

BPO talent acquisition leader at Ibex

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Yasir Rafiq is a BPO professional and a Director at Ibex, where he rose from the operations floor to lead talent acquisition. He has over 20 years of experience in BPO operations and talent strategy. He joined Ibex in 2006 as a customer service agent while studying computer science, and has since held roles as a sales agent, trainer, in QA and in back office.

Education

Yasir Rafiq was studying for a bachelor's degree in computer science at a university when he joined Ibex. He had not completed the degree when he started at Ibex, and was in his seventh semester. He planned to work at night and attend his two or three daytime classes. [1]

Career

Rafiq joined Ibex in 2006 as a customer service agent and started in sales, selling phone lines. He said he and his colleagues in the early sales work took home six-figure paychecks. He said he decided computer science was not his calling and made a career at Ibex. [1]

Rafiq has held roles at Ibex as a sales agent, trainer, in QA and in back office. He said he asked his manager for a new role every two or three years because he was bored. He said a trainer inspired him, and he wanted to become a trainer himself. He initially did not want to be responsible for other people. For a long time he worked in operations, looking after everything. He credits a mentor at Ibex. [1]

About three years ago by his account, after a predecessor left the company, the country head told Rafiq he would be the right fit for the role. He said the country manager told him he was going to do recruitment. Rafiq had never worked in recruitment before taking on the role. At Ibex he designs hiring systems and works with operations to build teams. He estimates he has personally hired about 35 to 40 people for his company. [1]

Ibex

Rafiq said Ibex is the biggest BPO in Pakistan and that it operates in seven countries. He described a BPO as a firm that takes on functions such as customer service, payroll and IT for other companies. [1]

Rafiq said the pandemic drove one of Ibex's biggest growth cycles. During the pandemic, Ibex could not hire in its other locations, and its directors suggested working out of Pakistan. A retail client that Rafiq called the biggest retail giant in the world began working with Ibex from Pakistan, first agreeing to Pakistan only for the season. He said Ibex ranked number one in customer satisfaction with that client's first 200 seats, and that about four years later Ibex made up 35 to 40% of that client's workforce. He said another client, unable to hire, also came to Pakistan. [1]

Rafiq said Ibex had about 8,500 staff after COVID and doubled its size in four years. He described its growth over the last four years as tremendous. He hopes Ibex reaches 10,000 staff by the end of the year, and he expects it to double in size within two years and then double again. [1]

Outsourcing in Pakistan

Rafiq said there has always been a stigma associated with Pakistan, and that before COVID it held clients back from considering the country. He said a client from the US visited the facility and was amazed. He said many companies realized after COVID that Pakistan is a viable option, and that businesses are realizing the country has talent available at a reduced cost. [1]

Rafiq said clients are moving work from other locations to Pakistan, and that they expect to save 30% by doing so. He said Pakistan's costs are about 30% lower than those of the Philippines and India. He said ideally more BPO companies should set up in Pakistan. In his view, opening Pakistan to more BPO players, as India did, would widen the talent pool. [1]

Hiring and talent

Rafiq said Pakistan has a large English-speaking population, but many do not speak well with native speakers. He said most people Ibex hires come from O and A level schools, and that SSC and HSC graduates have far weaker English than O and A level graduates. He said the main hiring challenge is finding people with strong English skills. [1]

Rafiq said he has trouble finding enough people ready to work for Ibex. Only one or two of every 100 applicants make it through Ibex's hiring, he said, and at a 2% hiring rate he needs a lead pool of almost 20,000 to hire 200 people. He said talent acquisition is one of the hardest things he has done in Pakistan. He said Ibex does not generally require a degree, and that the minimum is HSC or SSC pass. [1]

Rafiq said most of Ibex's workforce is in level one customer service. He said Ibex also has many level two and level three staff doing IT-related services, and that it has doctors and health specialists on its staff. [1]

Workforce and workplace

Rafiq said about 35% of Ibex's workforce is female, mostly on night shifts. He said the female share was about 15 to 20% when they started and is now 35%. Ibex's goal is a 50-50 female workforce within two or three years, he said. [1]

Rafiq said four to five parents visit the facility most weeks to check on safety. He said Ibex has cameras and guards on every floor, and that it provides door-to-door transportation. He also said phones are not allowed onto the floor. He described inviting people in D Pharmacy who were not working anywhere to come and work for Ibex. [1]

Ibex Learning Academy

Ibex launched the Ibex Learning Academy. Ibex's language partners could not supply the people it needed, so it started its own academy. The academy was free for participants and covers English grammar, comprehension and vocabulary. Its module runs three to four weeks. [1]

Rafiq said that in its early days the free training ran for months, and some people dropped out. He said Ibex does all of its training in-house and that he could put about 30 to 40 people in a class. He said a goal is to train 5,000 people over the next four to five years to work in BPOs. [1]

Retention and alumni

Rafiq said Ibex's churn is about 6 to 7% a month, and that many staff move up or leave after two or three years. He said some Ibex alumni now work in project management and that alumni generally do well in their careers. [1]

Views

Rafiq said Ibex is investing in AI, including chatbots, to reduce costs for clients. He said callers are more likely to accept an answer from a human who empathizes with them. He also said people want to go from zero to 100 in one jump, skipping the steps. In his view, work ethic is not really ingrained in Pakistanis, and Pakistanis might have talent, but that talent needs grooming and molding. [1]

Timeline

2006
Joined Ibex as a customer service agent[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2025-04-25 Out of 100 applicants, Ibex hires two — and that is the problem Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Yasir Rafiq?

Yasir Rafiq is a BPO professional and a Director at Ibex. He has over 20 years of experience in BPO operations and talent strategy. He started on the operations floor and rose to lead talent acquisition.[1]

What does Yasir Rafiq do?

Yasir Rafiq is a Director at Ibex. At Ibex he designs hiring systems and works with operations to build teams.[1]

When did Yasir Rafiq join Ibex?

Yasir Rafiq joined Ibex in 2006 as a customer service agent. He started in sales, selling phone lines.[1]

What did Yasir Rafiq study?

Yasir Rafiq was studying for a bachelor's degree in computer science at a university when he joined Ibex. He was in his seventh semester and had not completed the degree at that point.[1]

What roles has Yasir Rafiq held at Ibex?

Yasir Rafiq has held roles at Ibex as a sales agent, trainer, in QA and in back office. He worked in operations for a long time and rose to lead talent acquisition.[1]

What is the Ibex Learning Academy?

The Ibex Learning Academy was launched by Ibex, where Yasir Rafiq is a Director. It was free for participants and covers English grammar, comprehension and vocabulary. Its module runs three to four weeks.[1]

What does Yasir Rafiq say about AI in BPO?

Yasir Rafiq said Ibex is investing in AI, including chatbots, to reduce costs for clients. He also said callers are more likely to accept an answer from a human who empathizes with them.[1]

What does Yasir Rafiq say about hiring in Pakistan?

Yasir Rafiq said the main hiring challenge is finding people with strong English skills. He said only one or two of every 100 applicants make it through Ibex's hiring.[1]

References

  1. Out of 100 applicants, Ibex hires two — and that is the problem . Thought Behind Things , 2025-04-25.
Show the source passages (85 statements)
  1. Yasir Rafiq joined Ibex in 2006. So I joined Ibex back in 2006.
  2. He joined Ibex as a customer service agent. I joined as a customer service agent.
  3. When he joined Ibex, Yasir Rafiq was studying for a bachelor's degree in computer science at a university. Back then I was studying Bachelors in Computer Science from KU.
  4. Yasir Rafiq had not completed his degree when he started at Ibex; he was in his seventh semester. Fresh grad, even didn't complete my graduation. I was in my seventh semester
  5. Yasir Rafiq planned to work at night and attend his two or three daytime classes. I was like okay raat mein kaam kar loonga, din mein do teen hi classes hain, I'll go get those classes.
  6. He started in sales at Ibex, selling phone lines. I started off in sales. We were selling phone lines
  7. Yasir Rafiq said he and his colleagues in the early sales work took home six-figure paychecks. we were taking home a paycheck of, you know, six figures easily at that time.
  8. Yasir Rafiq said he decided computer science was not his calling and made a career at Ibex. Maybe computer science is not my calling. Maybe what I'm doing right now, I'm enjoying myself and I'm making good money, why don't I make a career out of this?
  9. Yasir Rafiq credits a mentor at Ibex. I had a really great mentor, Fahad Ashraf.
  10. Yasir Rafiq initially did not want to be responsible for other people. I don't want to be responsible for anybody else.
  11. For a long time Yasir Rafiq worked in operations, looking after everything. So for the longest time I was in operations, I was looking after everything.
  12. About three years ago, after a predecessor left the company, the country head told Yasir Rafiq he would be the right fit for the role. recently like three years back, one of my predecessors, they they left the company and the the country head, he came to me and he said ke you know what, we think you'd be the right fit for the role.
  13. Yasir Rafiq had never worked in recruitment before taking on the role. And imagine that I have never done recruitment at all
  14. Yasir Rafiq said the country manager told him he was going to do recruitment. now the country manager said ki yaar you know what, you're going to do recruitment now.
  15. Yasir Rafiq has held roles at Ibex as a sales agent, trainer, in QA and in back office. I was a sales agent, I was a trainer, I was in QA, I was in back office
  16. Yasir Rafiq said he asked his manager for a new role every two or three years because he was bored. Every two, three years I'd go back to my manager and I'd tell him, yaar main bore ho chuka hoon.
  17. Yasir Rafiq said a trainer inspired him, and he wanted to become a trainer himself. So I'll get inspired by the trainer. I'm like, I got to go out and I got to be a trainer.
  18. Yasir Rafiq has over 20 years of experience in BPO operations and talent strategy. over 20 years in BPO operations and talent strategy
  19. Yasir Rafiq is currently a Director at Ibex, according to the episode description. currently a Director at ibex
  20. Yasir Rafiq started on Ibex's operations floor and rose to lead Talent Acquisition. Starting on the operations floor and rising to lead Talent Acquisition
  21. At Ibex, Yasir Rafiq designs hiring systems and works with operations to build teams. he designs hiring systems and partners with operations to create high-performing teams
  22. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex is the biggest BPO in Pakistan. in Pakistan, I think Ibex is the biggest BPO.
  23. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex operates in seven countries. So Ibex is in seven countries across the globe.
  24. Yasir Rafiq described a BPO as a firm that takes on functions such as customer service, payroll and IT for other companies. They take on that responsibility. They're like, we'll do your customer service for you, we'll do your payroll, we'll even do your IT, tech, whatever you need.
  25. Yasir Rafiq said there has always been a stigma associated with Pakistan. I think one of the reasons was there's always a stigma associated with Pakistan.
  26. Yasir Rafiq said a client from the US visited the facility and was amazed. One of our clients sort of came in from US and when he's sort of was here, he looked at our facility and he was just amazed.
  27. Yasir Rafiq said a stigma before COVID held clients back from considering Pakistan. the stigma was there ke Pakistan is not really a viable option, we shouldn't go to Pakistan
  28. Yasir Rafiq said many companies realized after COVID that Pakistan is a viable option. after COVID, a lot of companies sort of realized ke it's a viable option.
  29. Yasir Rafiq said the pandemic drove one of Ibex's biggest growth cycles. one of the biggest growth cycles that we have seen is due to pandemic.
  30. During the pandemic, Ibex could not hire in its other locations, and its directors suggested working out of Pakistan. in our different GEOs we were not able to hire due to pandemic. So our sort of company, you know, sort of directors, they said that you know, why don't you try and you know, see how we could sort of do work out of Pakistan
  31. A retail client that Yasir Rafiq called the biggest retail giant in the world began working with Ibex from Pakistan. I'm talking about the biggest retail giant in the world. They came in, they said, okay, we'll work with you, do seats leke aa jao, we'll work.
  32. The retail client first agreed to Pakistan only for the season, Yasir Rafiq said. We'll okay Pakistan, but only for the season.
  33. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex ranked number one in customer satisfaction with that client's first 200 seats. even with those 200 seats, we were number one in customer satisfaction scores
  34. Yasir Rafiq said that about four years later Ibex made up 35 to 40% of that client's workforce. Four years from now, we make up of 35 to 40% of their entire workforce.
  35. Yasir Rafiq said another client, unable to hire, came to Pakistan. Same thing happened with them, same thing because they couldn't hire they came to Pakistan
  36. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex had about 8,500 staff after COVID. After COVID, we are around 8500.
  37. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex doubled its size in four years after COVID. So in just those four years, we have doubled our size completely.
  38. Yasir Rafiq said he hopes Ibex reaches 10,000 staff by the end of the year. hopefully by the end of the year, we're going to be touching 10,000
  39. Yasir Rafiq said clients are moving work from other locations to Pakistan. they're moving their business away from different GEOs to Pakistan.
  40. Yasir Rafiq said clients expect to save 30% by moving work to Pakistan. We're going to save 30% straight off the gate and we're going to get better quality.
  41. Yasir Rafiq said Pakistan's costs are about 30% lower than those of the Philippines and India. essentially we are 30% less than Philippines and India.
  42. Yasir Rafiq said Pakistan has a large English-speaking population, but many do not speak well with native speakers. we have the biggest English speaking population, but when it comes to talking to the natives, that's not the case.
  43. Yasir Rafiq said most people Ibex hires come from O and A level schools. if I were to sort of uh pull out a spectrum of all the people that I hire, most of these are from O and A levels.
  44. Yasir Rafiq said SSC and HSC graduates have far weaker English than O and A level graduates. when we talk about SSC, HSC, their language of uh you know, English language is far below O and A levels
  45. Yasir Rafiq said the main hiring challenge is finding people with strong English skills. the kind of people that we need to hire, they need to have good English like sort of linguistic skills
  46. Yasir Rafiq said he has trouble finding enough people ready to work for Ibex. I don't have the manpower that's ready to sort of come in and work for us.
  47. Yasir Rafiq said only one or two of every 100 applicants make it through Ibex's hiring. when we hire uh out of the 100 people that apply, barely one or two actually make it through.
  48. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex has doctors and health specialists on its staff. we have doctors, we have uh health specialist, uh you know, we have uh sales insurance specialist as well.
  49. Yasir Rafiq said most of Ibex's workforce is in level one customer service. obviously major workforce is level one customer service that we sort of do.
  50. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex has many level two and level three staff doing IT-related services. we have a lot of level two and level three as well that is uh IT related uh services.
  51. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex is investing in AI, including chatbots, to reduce costs for clients. We as a company are also invested in AI, we're doing a lot of chatbots and all of that so that, you know, we could reduce the cost for our clients.
  52. Yasir Rafiq said callers are more likely to accept an answer from a human who empathizes with them. But if you know there's somebody across, you know, in front of you and they're empathizing with what you're going through, you're more likely to sort of take that answer.
  53. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex's growth has been tremendous over the last four years. the growth has been tremendous in the last four years and I don't see that stopping
  54. Yasir Rafiq expects Ibex to double in size within two years and then double again. what I expect is that in the next two years, that's going to double again and then it's going to double again.
  55. Yasir Rafiq said businesses are realizing Pakistan has talent available at a reduced cost. now people are realizing that there is talent pool available at a reduced cost
  56. Yasir Rafiq said ideally more BPO companies should set up in Pakistan. ideally what I want to do, I would love to see is more and more BPO sort of pop up in Pakistan
  57. Yasir Rafiq said opening Pakistan to more BPO players, as India did, would widen the talent pool. let's let's sort of open it up just like India did it. And and the talent pool will then increase.
  58. Yasir Rafiq said that at a 2% hiring rate he needs a lead pool of almost 20,000 to hire 200 people. I got to hire and you know 100 people that means at 2% I I got to have a you know lead pool of almost 20,000 to be able to hire 200 people.
  59. Yasir Rafiq said talent acquisition is one of the hardest things he has done in Pakistan. I think talent acquisition is one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do in Pakistan.
  60. Yasir Rafiq estimates he has personally hired about 35 to 40 people for his company. maine maximum apni life mein shayad mera khayal hai 35-40 log hire kiye honge on and off apni company ke liye.
  61. Yasir Rafiq said people want to go from zero to 100 in one jump, skipping the steps. We want to go from zero to 100 in one jump. We don't want to take that step one, step two, step three, step four.
  62. Yasir Rafiq said work ethic is not really ingrained in Pakistanis. And work ethics is something that is not really, you know, engulfed in Pakistanis.
  63. Yasir Rafiq said Pakistanis might have talent, but that talent needs grooming and molding. We might have talent, but talent needs to be groomed and molded, right?
  64. Yasir Rafiq said phones are not allowed onto the floor. phones leke floor pe nahi jaane diye jate.
  65. Yasir Rafiq said about 35% of Ibex's workforce is female, mostly on night shifts. almost 35% of workforce are female and I'm talking predominantly all of these are working nights.
  66. Yasir Rafiq said the female share of Ibex's workforce was about 15 to 20% when they started and is now 35%. when we started off, we were very low at around like you know 15-20%, now we're at 35%
  67. Ibex's goal is a 50-50 female workforce within two or three years, Yasir Rafiq said. the goal is in the next you know two, three years we keep it right down the middle 50-50
  68. Yasir Rafiq said four to five parents visit the facility most weeks to check on safety. almost on a weekly basis four to five parents visiting just so that they feel safe
  69. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex has cameras and guards on every floor. there are cameras, monitoring as well as guards on every floor.
  70. Ibex provides door-to-door transportation, Yasir Rafiq said. to sort of counter that, we provide door-to-door transportation.
  71. Yasir Rafiq described inviting people in D Pharmacy who were not working anywhere to come and work for Ibex. even though you work in D pharmacy, you're not working anywhere right now. Come work for us.
  72. Ibex launched the Ibex Learning Academy. So we sort of launched Ibex Learning Academy.
  73. Ibex's language partners could not supply the people it needed, so it started its own academy. we were working with the linguistic institutions and they they were just not able to crack the code and they were not able to give us the kind of people that we wanted
  74. The Ibex Learning Academy was free for participants. It was free for uh free for all, ke you don't need to pay a single cent.
  75. The Ibex Learning Academy covers English grammar, comprehension and vocabulary. So we talk about uh linguistics mein, English mein grammar, comprehension, vocabulary.
  76. The academy module runs three to four weeks. eventually what we sort of came up with was a module that was sort of three to four weeks long.
  77. In its early days the free training ran for months, and some people dropped out, Yasir Rafiq said. initially in the early days we were giving free trainings and everything for six months for three months even people would drop out
  78. Yasir Rafiq said he could put about 30 to 40 people in a class. I could probably put in 30, 40 people in a class.
  79. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex does all of its training in-house. So uh we do all in-house trainings.
  80. Yasir Rafiq said a goal is to train 5,000 people over the next four to five years to work in BPOs. our goal is in the next four to five years, we train 5000 people to sort of uh work uh in BPOs
  81. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex's churn is about 6 to 7% a month. In terms of churn, we like 6-7%, you know, uh churn hota hai hamara and that's understandable. Yeah, that's per month.
  82. Yasir Rafiq said many staff move up or leave after two or three years. a lot of people they move up or after two or three years they move out
  83. Yasir Rafiq said some Ibex alumni now work in project management. So some of our alumni right now are sort of in project management.
  84. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex alumni generally do well in their careers. So our alumni, they generally fare really well.
  85. Yasir Rafiq said Ibex does not generally require a degree; the minimum is HSC or SSC pass. So generally we don't require a degree for uh for anybody to work for us. At at the very minimum we want them to ensure that you know they are HSC or SSC pass