Several years ago I managed a large project for BT. This was to help identify transferable skills and underlying ability amongst staff to see if they would be successful in the move to another department. One of the areas I researched was call centres. I really thought these would be horrible places, but I found the buildings modern and light, people liked the working environments and it wasn’t anything like as noisy as I had expected. Yes people are measured and monitored and you need to spend a lot of time at your desk, but once your shift is finished off you go. A couple of years later I did some recruitment for Vodafone and again found the environment pleasant and the people I spoke with really liked their jobs. There was plenty of flexiblity over hours, so parents and those doing part time study were happy to have work that fitted in with their life.
Today I have read in the Guardian of a call centre employee from British Gas exposing some of the bad working practices. you can read the article here:
http://money.guardian.co.uk/utilities/story/0,,1967738,00.html
It’s pertinent to me as this week I have been intervewing people to work in a banking call centre. The applicants have been aiming to impress me with their experience of meeting targets and in almost every case people are tellling me about how they have to persuade people to buy things, take out warranties, sign up for premium services, regardless if it is their interests or not. There is a heavy focus on selling, and you have to be comfortable in doing this much more than a few years ago.
I may add some more to this later …
