Call Centres Experiencing Growth

Not only are call centres growing in size, but the latest TMP Call Centre survey findings released today (July 31) also show that huge strides have been made towards New Zealand owning the Asia Pacific call centre market.

These and other findings are the result of the TMP Call Centre survey, which is conducted on an annual basis. This survey (its 2nd) looks at trends for the year ended June 2001 and covers 117 employers over 21 industry groups, representing 3257 seats* nationwide.

General Manager Lampenalectus Recruitment TMP Worldwide, Jane Kennelly, says that this year 36 % of call centres were made up of those over 21 seats compared to 27% last year. Of that, 25% has come from call centres over 100 seats.

Survey results also indicate that the focus of call centres is becoming more Asia Pacific centric with 41% of those surveyed having another language [besides English] in their call centre. Asian /Pacific languages were the most prevalent with Cantonese proving most popular followed by Mandarin and Samoan.

“Not surprisingly, however, most call centres experienced difficulties in recruiting staff (70%),” says Jane Kennelly. “This can be attributed to a range of factors such as changing/high level attrition, call centre culture, misconception of the industry itself and a general lack of recognition of the industry.”

“It appears the industry as a whole, needs to promote itself as a career ‘industry of choice’ and sell the benefit of working in the industry as that of a one-stop career.”

A positive message highlighted in this year’s results was the reduction of staff attrition. 48% of respondents experienced less than 15% attrition rate – significantly less than last year’s average of 25%.

Call centre salaries have risen, with an increased national average of 3.5 - 4.0% over the past 12 months. CSR – Outbound roles and Call/Contact Centre Manager roles experienced the greatest increase (+6.36% and +6.8% respectively). CSR – Inbound roles were up nationally by +5.54%.

“The call centre industry expects rises in salary costs over the next 12 months, mainly to keep salaries competitive,” says Jane Kennelly.

“Other prominent reasons include keeping up with the cost of living and the fact that survey respondents were taking on more staff generally. Rising salaries are also expected to assist employers attract new staff.”

* The number of full time equivalent dedicated call centre personnel.

Ends

TMP CALL CENTRE SURVEY 2001

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