Call centre moves bad for Scotland

Published on Sunday 24 August 2003 01:00

THE call centre industry will be hit harder in Scotland than any other part of the UK if more jobs are transferred to India, according to a new survey.

ContactBabel, the call centre industry analysts, said Scotland’s reliance on the industry and the lack of alternatives left it uniquely vulnerable to the current trend to outsource customer services roles to India.

The report, entitled ‘UK Contact Centres in 2003’, found that the UK call centre industry as a whole presently employs over 790,000 people, or 2.83% of the working population in 4,300 call centres.

Although the south-east of England has the greatest number of call centre jobs with over 152,000 working in the industry, it is in the north of England and Scotland where such jobs are most vital. ContactBabel said 3.9% of the working population, or 93,000, people relied on the call centre industry in Scotland.

ContactBabel said the "spectre of mass unemployment" hung over Scotland if move firms follow the example of groups such as BT, Aviva and HSBC in opening major call centre operations in India.

But ContactBabel said serious questions remained over whether the Indian call centre industry is capable of replacing UK operations. It highlighted a high turnover of staff in India, inexperienced management and language problems as major stumbling blocks for UK companies considering moving.

The report’s author, Steve Morrell said: "The UK’s future lies in greatly improving the quality of service offered to customers, through empowering call centre agents to do their job to the best of their ability, as well as improving the training offered to them."