Call centre exodus from UK shores continues

The number of call centre agents in the UK and across Europe is on the increase despite growth in outsourced and offshore facilities.

There is a perception that offshoring call centre operations - typically to India or Ireland in the case of the UK - will halt the growth in call centre operations domestically. However, the latest estimates from e-Skills UK put 867,000 Britons now working in call centres, accounting for 3.1 per cent of the total workforce.

More growth is expected over the next six months with 43 per cent of facilities polled saying they expect to be adding headcount.

Separate research from Datamonitor forecasts outsourcing call centre operations - usually those deemed 'non-core' - will be a trend too, though companies in mainland Europe are more conservative about offshoring, even within the region.

The analyst house says 150,000 of 1.2 million EMEA call centre positions at the end of 2002, or 12 per cent, were outsourced and that will increase to 16 per cent by 2007.

Robin Goad, managing analyst at Datamonitor, said: "When it comes to outsourcing, users are looking at quality and expertise. India, with around 50,000 positions [serving the UK] will continue to grow but so will domestic [European] markets."

He said many banks, for example, are looking at outsourcing simple transactions with customers who are relatively low value. Those accounts that generate more money for them are more likely to be handled closer to home.

There are discrepancies with the e-Skills UK figures, he said, because there are often several agents to each agent position. This takes into account part-time employees and around the clock availability, meaning a position is most simply defined as a desk with a phone.

However, all is not rosy in the industry, whether for in-house or outsourced operations. Some 35 per cent of UK operations report vacancies, with 11 per cent experiencing difficulties filling them, while some staff lack the relevant skills needed for centres to develop.

Andrew Palmer, sector lead for contact centres at e-Skills UK, said: "We must focus on ensuring that the workforce has the right skills, drive and motivation to deliver exceptional levels of customer service and be competitive on a global scale."