Interest keen to work in new Bay contact centre

17 October 2014

Interest keen to work in new Bay contact centre

When Kiwibank opened its recruitment campaign for the first batch of Hastings-based regional office roles this week, there were over 600 possible candidates primed to apply.

Over 750 people responded to a social media campaign run by Business Hawke’s Bay, Hastings District Council, Napier City Council, EIT and Ministry of Social Development to develop a ‘big picture’ view of the potential employee pool, and what level of customer service experience exists within the region.

Respondents who included their email address have since been contacted with details of Kiwibank’s first round of local positions, which has impressed the recruiters tasked to find the right people for the jobs. More positions will progressively come on stream over the coming months as Kiwibank establishes its new regional office in Hastings.

“We were delighted with the response to the campaign and more importantly, with the calibre and profile of the respondents and what that means for the region from a business attraction viewpoint,” says Susan White, CEO of Business Hawke’s Bay.

A summary of results reveals a good spread across all age groups with 90 percent of respondents aged under 55 years, 87 percent female, 75 percent qualified at or above NCEA level 1, and just over half who were currently in paid employment.

Experience wise, 30 percent indicated that they had had contact centre experience, 91 percent had worked in a customer service environment at some point in time, and a large number of respondents were willing to work flexible hours. The bulk of survey participants live in Napier and Hastings but there were 41 from Central Hawke’s Bay and four respondents from Wairoa.

Those behind the Contact Centre Shout Out! Campaign see the results as particularly helpful in confirming this region as a viable option for more contact centre and service oriented businesses to set up here.

Lindsay Scott, regional commissioner for the Ministry of Social Development says the results show there is “a skilled and active workforce in the region and the creation of new jobs opens up many opportunities for all job seekers”.

Local human resources specialist, Murray Cowan confirms this. “The ongoing development of contact centres represents a great opportunity for the region to further promote and create much needed job opportunities.

“Additionally Hawke’s Bay has all the required resources to provide, assess, develop and support contact centre operations. The impact of the Kiwibank and other potential contact centre opportunities for our people and our local economy is huge.”

Hastings Mayor, Lawrence Yule also believes the results reinforce his Council’s confidence in the local workforce having sufficient depth and skill to support large-scale corporate contact centre and office processing operations.

“We are also an attractive region providing a great and affordable lifestyle and solid opportunities for people to move here and take up employment or invest in business. In short, we’re open for business and welcome new investment.”

The Contact Centre Shout Out! social media campaign ran over four weeks and is thought to be fairly unique. Joshua Woodham of Snapp Mobile (formerly Social Kiwi) said it was “totally different” to his company’s usual assignment.

“I think it was a great use of the various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to reach a large targeted audience with cost-effective spend.”

James Rowe, Napier City Council economic development manager says the team was “wholeheartedly pleased with the success” of the campaign, while Mr Scott said it was “a great example of a collaborative initiative”.

The ‘big picture’ information gleaned from the survey will be used to strengthen approaches by local agencies to businesses considering setting up or moving contact centre services to Hawke’s Bay.

ENDS

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