Call centre workers are attracted to the job because of site location, career opportunity and pay, a report has revealed.
Nearly half (47%) of 800 call centre workers surveyed by employment services company Adecco said location was the top factor for working in a particular call centre. Forty-three per cent chose career opportunities as their number one attraction, and 39% opted for the pay rate.
The study signals a move towards employees seeing call centres as long-term places of work, with opportunities for moving up the ladder, according to Billy Hamilton Stent, managing director of market research company Loudhouse, which helped conduct the report.
He told Personnel Today: “Over the past five years, call centres have gone from being filled by part-time employees and students to providing an established form of employment for white-collar workers. They’re not viewed as a stop-gap any more.
“Call centres are such a pervasive part of our lives, that blue-chip companies have utilised them to make sure there is a higher level of satisfaction in the role. As a result, people don’t leave after a short time,” Stent said.
Paul Sharpe, Adecco managed services director, said: “Call centres now touch everybody’s lives, giving them recognition and status. In some towns they are one of the key employers.”
Stent predicts that 3% of the UK’s workforce will be employed by call centres at the end of 2007. In addition, the survey found that for employees over the age of 26, happiness at work was a greater motivator than pay.
“From a competitive point of view, people will choose to work for good employers,” he said.
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