Competencies of Thai Migrant Workers in the Shared Services and Outsourcing Industry in Malaysia

Abstract

The competency of Thai migrant workers in Shared Services Outsourcing (SSO) industry in Malaysia is the part of the research in “Assessing Opportunity of Thai Transnational Labors in AEC: An Exploratory Survey on the Shared Services and Outsourcing Industry of Malaysia”. This article bases on the objective to study the competencies of the Thai migrant workers in the SSO industry. This study uses the mixed research methods combining quantitative research by questionnaire and qualitative research by the interview method. This study focuses 3 groups of economic activities in SSO industry: banking, finance and insurance; information  technology; and energy and petro chemical industry. Due to the lack of the statistic of Thai migrant workers in Malaysia
in SSO industry, this study uses the snowball or chain sampling to disseminate the questionnaire to Thai transnational workers in SSO industry until reaching 110 set of questionnaires. Moreover, there were 26 cases of in-depth interview in 3 groups: the personnel staff in the SSO firms; Thai migrant workers; and the government officers in relating SSO organizations. The analysis is analyzed by the computer statistics program. When applied the concept of KSAOs competency model to the required competencies of Thai migrant workers, findings suggest that the most required competency is Others competency (O) which required more than Knowledge competency (K). To be concluded that Knowledge competency which is known as hard skill is also
required but it does not require more than Others competency (O) such as honesty, service-minded, the problem-solving skills and the articulate Thai. In addition, English is the weakest competency that needs to improve of Thai migrant workers in SSO industry in Malaysia.