Call Center On Demand Featured Article

UK Call Center Firm Poised to Create Hundreds of Jobs

By Miguel Leiva-Gomez
TMCnet Contributor

The head of a company that took over a call center in Preston claimed that he hopes to create several hundred new jobs.

Managing director, Charles Cooper-Driver at Careline Services says that he's hoping that he can expand the company workforce at Turket Mill, Ashton. This may happen under one condition: If Careline lands a few contracts with some of the big clients it's pursuing, it will need to hire more people to keep up with the demand.

He continued, saying that he's optimistic about the situation, adding contracts to Careline Services' portfolio, which will allow it to secure jobs for people looking to work at the Preston site.

Careline, a company that provides call center services for companies selling consumer goods, Unilever, and the London Olympics, just took over Talk Talk, a company that had a call center with 250 employees in Preston. Charles Cooper-Driver said, "Everything we have seen shows that Preston is a good location for us to be able to grow to justify the demand for our services. That means having the facilities necessary and the skills in terms of advisors and management and senior staff required to support the growth of our business. I am optimistic we will be successful and able to generate the activity needed to increase the number of roles we support at our Preston site."

Careline has already begun a TUPE transfer of 60 of Talk Talk's customer retention staff as its own hands on deck. They will be hired under a new banner, but they'll have the same terms and conditions of employment they benefitted from with Talk Talk. The other 190 people who worked for Talk Talk are now under consultation regarding changes that are being made and their potential transfer to other pieces of Talk Talk's company.

Cooper-Driver mentioned that Careline hopes to increase its workforce size to employ around 200-250 people in the next few months as they attempt to garner contracts from major prospects. Any employees who have not been in the TUPE transfer would have to agree to conditions set by Careline.

Cooper-Driver adds, "We are recruiting for these roles and recognize that the people have the relevant knowledge of the business and the skills, but they also need to be comfortable with the different terms and conditions we are offering. If these things aligned, it is in our best interest to recruit from this pool of people.

Talk Talk says that there may be "significant new opportunities" for those who want to stay in the company, adding that the company "will also be providing a wide range of support services to employees throughout this period."