5 years ago... BT to employ 400 more call centre staff

17.11.99: BT is recruiting 400 more call-centre staff to gear-up for a new range of products and services.

The company has teamed up with Kelly Recruitment to find permanent and part-time staff for its Warrington centre.

Lorraine Hammond, head of marketing for Kelly Recruitment, said the centre was currently not operating at full capacity. She said full details of the new services would be announced in the new year.

17.11.04: The call centre industry has seen some changes over the past five years - the most important development by far has been the move towards offshoring, whereby call centre jobs are going to more cost-effective overseas workforces such as India.

The UK call centre industry has long been the self-inflicting victim a Catch-22 situation. Many large call centres are beset by poor quality staff and high churn rates which mean training is then limited due to an unwillingness to invest in a transient workforce, meaning standards remain low - and dissatisfaction high (leading to unfortunate incidents such as this, perhaps).

Many large businesses tired of this state of affairs and moved operations to India where they could guarantee graduate level staff who would remain in their jobs due to the relatively high wages offered.

But the overall effect of this hasn't been the vast job-cull in the UK that many feared. The domestic call centre industry has continued to grow and appears to still be booming - with new call centres still opening and still creating jobs.

If anything it could be argued the scare of offshoring has forced companies to readdress issues such as staff retention and quality of service after years spent in a self-perpetuated malaise.