HR professionals at troubled telecommunications support firm Openreach have been praised as the company claimed it had put its problems behind it.
Openreach was set up as a separate entity within BT in January 2006 to ensure that all internet service providers have equal access to phone lines.
It was criticised last year by regulators for failing to deliver infrastructure services quickly enough.
Openreach managing director of sales, products and marketing, Anne Heal, admitted that the firm had faced problems, but insisted it was now on top of them.
“Our HR team has been very busy, but they’ve been very, very brilliant,” she said. “They had a big role to play and they’ve been instrumental to our turnaround.”
Openreach was caught out when a number of internet providers started offering free broadband or special offers, escalating the demand for infrastructure.
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“We had the challenge of building a business from scratch, and while we were doing that, the market exploded,” said Heal.
“We recruited more than 1,600 engineers last year, and also trained lots of existing engineers. We have made enormous strides and I think we are well placed now.”
