Call centre jobs outsourced to India by Aviva

Insurance
provider Aviva is moving up to 1,000 call centre jobs to India in a bid to cut
costs and improve its 24-hour service.

John
Ainley, HR director at Norwich Union Insurance, one of Aviva’s UK trading
companies, told Personnel Today that many late night shifts are unpopular with
UK workers, and moving some of the call centre function to a different
time-zone will allow for a comprehensive round-the-clock service.

Ainsley
is hopeful of avoiding any compulsory redundancies through natural turnover and
internal staff transfers in the UK.

The
company’s values will be retained through training, and already many staff have
volunteered to help with this process.

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Ainley
said Aviva spent three months preparing for the announcement, and managed to
maintain morale through effective communications.

Research
by Mintel estimates that the number of large-scale call centres in the UK is
set to fall this year from 3,100 to 2,600.