Wage Gap Between Aust and NZ No Disadvantage for Telnet

New Zealand’s largest privately owned call centre Telnet says the New Zealand wage gap is a big selling point when winning big business in Australia – and it’s an advantage which creates jobs and helps many of its staff into managerial and higher paid positions.

Telnet, which has more than 200 employees operating from its down-town Auckland office in Queen Street, last week appointed a Business Development Manager based in Sydney with a view to securing more Australian business.

Telnet chief executive John Chetwynd says its innovative technology is a key attraction when pitching against firms in call centre competitive countries such as India or the Philippines. But New Zealand’s lower wage rates and exchange rate is also a big selling point.

“The key spinoff of low wage rates in New Zealand is that we get to create more jobs and profit. And for the Government that means less unemployment benefits and more tax revenue. Just because we don’t like being the poorer cousins that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do the best we can now by marketing our competitive advantage.”

Chetwynd says the majority of Telnet’s management staff started at the bottom of the firm as telemarketers, working their way up into positions of management. This gives rise to the argument that while staff may start on lower wages, they can also rise to the top of the salary scale – effectively closing the wage gap.

There is no better example of this than Telnet business development manager Candice Rea, who began with the firm as a telemarketer in 2000 and moved to Sydney last week.

“When we hire a telemarketer, we are giving them an opportunity to build a career path and increase their own standard of living,” Chetwynd says. “That’s real, and that is something that we should consider when looking how we market ourselves, overseas.”

Telnet says Australia presents a significant growth opportunity for Telnet. “We see our cost saving competitive advantages, including the combination of lower wage rates and lower exchange rate as an opportunity to grow our business into Australia.”

Lower labour and exchange rates save Telnet customers in Australia approximately 35 per cent on their final bill - of which 15 percent comprises labour savings and 20 per cent in the exchange rate differential.

Chetwynd says New Zealand companies must play to their strengths. “Companies need to analyse where they sit in the international marketplace and focus on that, rather than crying over what once was or should be.”

ENDS

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