Call centres send out SOS

By PETER GRIFFIN

The call centre industry faces a major labour shortage as operators come up short in their search for a new generation of higher-skilled workers.

Employing 18,000 people and estimated to be worth $840 million this year, the call centre industry has long been considered a part-time earner for university students and a stop-gap for those between careers. The basic nature of the work meant anyone could apply.

But new research from Sydney-based industry analyst group Callcentres.net finds nearly half of call centres are having difficulty recruiting skilled staff, up from 32 per cent a year ago.

It is a problem that threatens to slow the progress of the industry, which is expected to increase by 12 per cent this year, attracting foreign companies to relocate call centres to New Zealand, where costs are lower.

Callcentres.net chief executive Martin Conboy said a growing demand for multilingual call centre agents and employees who can operate sophisticated software systems and queries via the internet was posing problems for recruiters.

"It's not a matter of answering the phones and acting like a traffic cop any more. They need to have a much more sophisticated skill-set these days and clearly they're harder to find."

Staff turnover rate is also up, from 15 per cent last year to 21 per cent. Call centres were paying more to try to retain staff, forcing the average salary up from around $28,000 to $33,000. An entry level call centre agent working shifts and meeting performance targets could make around $40,000 a year.

The major call centre employers are the telcos, airlines, banks and financial institutions, utility companies and government departments. Many companies outsource their call centre operations to the likes of Auckland-based Telnet.

Telecom employs 1200 call centre workers. Spokesman John Goulter said keeping staff was a challenge.

"We're having to put more and more effort into training and development in order to retain the key staff. Pay rates is part of it."

TelstraClear said it had difficulty filling vacancies at its Christchurch call centre as a number of call centre operators had relocated there, absorbing available labour.

Telnet chief executive John Chetwynd said finding people who had good spoken English was often more difficult than finding multi-lingual workers. Employing 160 people and deriving 60 per cent of its revenue from outbound telemarketing calls, Telnet was cutting staff turnover by employing more full-time workers and giving them opportunities to further their careers.

Chetwynd said New Zealand faced a barrier in attracting call centre work from overseas as it was difficult to scale up operations quickly.

"We're getting a lot of inquiries from overseas but these companies want a plan allowing for you to scale to 500 or 1000-seat call centres. That's very difficult to do in New Zealand."

But the industry is in a good position to win work from abroad, particularly from across the Tasman. Conby said transaction costs in New Zealand call centres were 23 per cent lower than in Australian call centres.

"New Zealand sits off the coast of Australia and its biggest advantage is its lower operating costs. It should have its guns squarely on Australia."

The market:

* Among the country's biggest in-house call centre operators are Telecom, Westpac, Bank of New Zealand, Air New Zealand, Inland Revenue Department.

* Key call centre outsourcing specialists include Datacom, Teletech and Telnet. They run call centres for many New Zealand and international corporates, including some of the above companies.

* In the past year, call centre costs have decreased by 13 per cent and technology spending by call centre operators has fallen 29 per cent from $8000 a seat to $6000 a seat.

www.callcentres.net