New era, new opportunities for Aussie call centres
Amid the disruption, job losses, new ways of working in isolation, and other challenges, there is a beacon of hope post-COVID-19. (The attached headline news articles, below, caught our eye).
It has opened up a host of opportunities for the local contact centre industry. Business has had to recognise the importance of Australian, onshore, call centres to deliver customer service in isolation. For Australians who have lost jobs or are seeking new roles, there are openings for people of all ages and all skill levels.
“The closure of off-shore contact centres has been a wakeup call for Australian businesses and government,” says Luke Jamieson, a former award-winning contact centre manager and now adviser on workforce engagement and measurement for the industry. “Now, more than ever before, Australians want to talk to locals in local call centres. It is encouraging to know that people who have lost their jobs in other industries due to the coronavirus, may now find a new role in our industry.” “I believe that call centre workers are essential, frontline workers and we need to acknowledge that.”
Paul Smith, of Citrus Group, agrees: “Now is the time for us, as contact centre leaders, to open the doors to people who previously have not considered a role in this industry. Evidence is there, that a lot of big business and government entities are bringing roles back onshore post COVID-19. (Reference articles: *Telstra & Services Australia Herald Sun (9 April 2020, see below) **Optus AFR (17 April 2020, see below)
Luke Jamieson lists his Top 6 challenges / opportunities post-COVID-19, for our contact centre industry, below:
- The KPI system needs a review: “Traditional KPIs only work for about 25% of employees. We need to measure more than just numbers and tick boxes. We need to reward the different motivations we have as humans – there are many more ways to measure success, while still delivering results.”
- Mature adults look for mature engagement: Says Luke: “They are not there for the theme days or birthday cakes or group hugs, they are there for purpose and meaning. They have a motivation to help.”
- Work from home has been the dream for many workers, but post-COVID-19 the honeymoon is over: “Some will want to work from home, they LOVE the autonomy and thrive at home. However, others will want to return to the office environment, because they thrive on the social activity that happens in a workplace. The challenge is to find the balance.”
- Apply equal measure to work from home or the office: “How do managers measure the performance of their teams if 25% or 50% of them are at home? The key in this post-COVID-19 era is to ensure equity for employee attention and the work being done, whether at home or the office.
- Revise training methods for new recruits, or to upskill current employees: “Zoom/Microsoft Teams/Skype and other online meetings are the new normal now. We need to review training modules for staff and repurpose them as the classroom model, pre-COVID-19, may not be viable. Let’s explore new methods like micro-learning.”
- The real estate challenge for business: “What happens to big office spaces, no longer 100% occupied? With a new mix of home workers and office workers, surplus real estate will need to be managed.”
Says Luke Jamieson: “What I hope at the end of all of this, is that organisations see the benefit and the value of employing local staff, onshore, and giving the staff opportunities to find purpose and meaning in their work. These are Australians who have ready-made empathy for the Australian customer.”
Paul Smith says now is the time to act: “It is a once in a generation opportunity for our call centre industry to work alongside businesses to provide solutions to 1) deliver great customer service, and also 2) to provide meaningful and enjoyable jobs for people in Australian-based contact centres.”
For contact centre recruitment solutions, support, deployment we’re here to help at Citrus Group.
E: [email protected] T: 02 8203 5760 W: www.citrusgroup.com.au
***************************************************************************************
Articles from The Herald Sun, and from The Australian Financial Review, are subscription only.
*Telstra told the Herald Sun (9 April 2020, see below) that 2500 of upcoming recruitments would be for customer facing roles. And Services Australia (in charge of Centrelink and Medicare) in the same article, reportedly was to recruit 5000 additional staff members to help handle the increase in calls to hotlines.
**Optus told the AFR (17 April 2020, see below) it would make coronavirus era work-at-home measures a permanent feature of its call centre operations in Australia, with an ‘experts at home’ focus.
*The Herald Sun: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/australian-companies-struggling-to-take-calls-after-coronavirus-closed-offshore-call-centres/news-story/b57611b8601143d1ffd111de130c3b32
**The AFR: https://www.afr.com/companies/telecommunications/optus-staff-to-work-from-home-permanently-20200417-p54kro
