Breaking the Accent Barrier: Tapping LATAM’s Hidden CX Talent

I can’t tell you how many times I hear the same line from CX leaders in Latin America:
 “I need to hire more people, but I just can’t find them.”

The irony is that LATAM is full of talented, service-driven people with strong English skills. Enterprises are betting big on the region. Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic are all hotspots. But the way we filter talent means a lot of qualified people never get a chance. 

A BPO leader I spoke with told me that out of 100 candidates, 27% are rejected solely for their accent, even when they pass every other part of the English proficiency test.

I’ve been on both sides of this. My first professional job was as a call center agent in Guatemala. I’d spoken English since I was five, but my CSAT scores took a hit because of my accent. I solved customers’ problems, I knew the material, but perception was stacked against me. Years later, working with enterprises and BPOs across LATAM, I can tell you the problem hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s gotten worse as demand for nearshore talent has grown.

If scaling your CX team in LATAM feels harder than it should, this article explores how to break out of the bottleneck, access untapped talent and grow without sacrificing quality.

LATAM’s Growing Role in CX

Time zones align with the U.S., cultural affinity makes conversations smoother, and the region has a deep bench of customer-oriented talent. You can see the momentum: companies continue opening new sites and expanding headcount. TaskUs, for example, has been growing quickly in Colombia, adding capacity in cities like Cali.

Analysts and regional leaders increasingly describe Latin America as the future of outsourcing. Enterprises are recognizing that LATAM is central to their CX strategy, but without the right approach they risk running into the same roadblocks everyone else faces.  

Hiring Challenges Across the Region

Most LATAM contact center outsourcing is concentrated in “English bubbles” like Bogotá, Medellín, Mexico City, Guatemala City, and Santo Domingo. Talent there is strong, but those markets saturate quickly.

That creates two problems:

• Scarcity. Everyone is competing for the same resumes, and qualified candidates are rejected for something as subjective as their accent.
• Attrition. Agents hop from company to company and burn out. Relocation to capital cities pulls people away from family, which accelerates churn.

Meanwhile, millions of skilled people outside these bubbles never get the chance—not because of their ability, but because of how they sound.

The typical workarounds like English “finishing schools,” long training programs, and relocating agents to Tier-1 hubs are slow, expensive, and hard on people. I’ve seen programs in Guatemala where, out of 148 trainees, only one ended up hired. 

That’s not a talent shortage; that’s a filter problem.

The ROI of Expanding the Talent Pool

Here’s the good news: you don’t have to accept the status quo. Accent translation changes the equation by removing perception bias from the hiring and operations process without asking agents to change who they are.

Here’s what happens when companies make the shift:

• Faster hiring. You’re not stuck fighting over the same candidates in the same five cities.
• Lower costs. Less relocation, less long-cycle training.
• Reduced attrition. Agents can build stable careers closer to home.
• Better CX starts with happier, more confident agents. More consistent staffing and lower churn improve customer satisfaction.

It’s a shift from scarcity thinking (“we’re running out of people”) to abundance thinking (“we’ve been filtering people out unnecessarily”).

Bringing Accent Translation Into Your Workflow

The best part is that accent translation technology isn’t a heavy lift to implement. It runs on devices agents already use, integrates smoothly into existing systems, and starts showing value right away. Many enterprises see results as soon as they expand hiring into new cities or add the technology into their recruitment process.

• In recruitment. Some teams interview with Sanas running on a laptop so evaluators can focus on communication and role fit, not accent.
• In production. Agents handle live calls with the technology running in real time, improving understanding without erasing identity.
• Activating existing resources. Many enterprises don’t realize they already operate satellite offices in Tier-2 or Tier-3 cities, often for back-office work. With accent translation, those same locations can become front-line contact centers. Instead of building new facilities in saturated markets, you can activate existing sites and local talent. That’s faster to stand up, cheaper to scale, and better for retention.

Because it’s simple to deploy and immediately expands the available talent pool, accent translation delivers ROI from day one, not years down the line.

A Smarter Path to Scale in LATAM

If you’re struggling to hire, you’re not alone — but you might be solving the wrong problem. The LATAM CX talent is there. Accent bias is the obstacle, not English proficiency.

My advice: talk to your recruitment teams and listen to real calls. Ask how many candidates are turned away for accent alone. You may be surprised by the number.

The companies that embrace this shift first will have a real edge in LATAM. They’ll hire faster, keep agents longer, and deliver a better customer experience.

It’s not about lowering standards. It’s about removing the wrong filter.

If this resonates, let’s explore it together. Schedule a personalized product walkthrough and see how accent translation can help you scale smarter across LATAM.