Jobs of Kiwi call center go to Manila

By Amy Williams

Telecom is shifting a chunk of its broadband internet call centre to the Philippines, resulting in 85 job losses at its Auckland-based call centre provider.

This follows the transfer of Telecom's dial-up internet helpdesk to the same offshore outfit last year.

Telecom's call centre provider TeleTech will start to transfer its portion of the helpdesk service - 85 jobs - to Manila in the Philippines from October this year.

Telecom media executive Sarah Berry said both companies would look to redeploy staff in-house where possible. The 240 staff based at Telecom's in-house broadband helpdesk would remain.

Ms Berry said Telecom decided to outsource the helpdesk as part of a contract review with TeleTech, and after that company's successful three-month trial using its staff in the Philippines.

She said the service in the Philippines proved helpful when Telecom's new Xtra Bubble internet and email service failed and customers clogged the helpdesk line.

"It's becoming part of our business reality that we are having a mix of on- and offshore," Ms Berry said.

She did not rule out the possibility of Telecom outsourcing more contact centre roles.

"We are quite open about the fact that we are looking at those options."

A total 1800 call centre staff take incoming calls for Telecom, of whom about 200 are based offshore. Calls to Telecom's helpdesks about internet, pre-paid mobile phone calls and broadband billing are answered overseas.

TeleTech country manager Jason Lock this week advised his staff, based in Newmarket, of the job losses due to the change in contract with Telecom.

Mr Lock said TeleTech is a global company with 50,000 staff of whom 13,000 are based in the Philippines.

"It's a major international trend to take these types of activities from home locations to destinations like the Philippines because of the quality of service that can be offered and cost economies," he said.

"New Zealand will be following suit because of the strengths of the service industry in places like the Philippines."

The number of TeleTech staff based at the Newmarket office in Auckland will halve to just over 60 when the changes are complete next January.

TeleTech and another supplier, Sitel, have managed some of Telecom's call centre services since 1998.

Courtesy of New Zealand's National Business Review