Contact Center Employment Growing in Europe

The call center industry is going through a transition as consumers continue to use self-service options. But, there is still a large percentage of the population that continues to rely on call centers to address their needs. The 2014 European Contact Center Benchmark, which was just released, revealed contact center employment grew at 3.6 percent in 2014.

The report was sponsored by Altitude Software, along with collaboration from consultancies Areia Consultoria and Call Communications, and it has been endorsed by the European Confederation of Contact Center Organizations (ECCO).

The large scale study of the contact center market covered 30 countries in Europe. According to the report, in 2014 there were more than 35,500 centers in these countries employing 3.8 million people. One of the goals of the study is to provide a picture of the industry across the 30 countries with detailed accounts of the market structure, practices as well as similarities and differences.

As a whole, the activities in the call centers of Europe were divided into 75 percent outbound and 19.3 percent outsourcing. The study revealed good and bad news.

The good news is there was a 5.7 percent increase in seats from the 2013 study, going from 2,724,438 to 2,880,743. The average seats per call center also increased from 78.2 to 81.3 for a 3.9 percent improvement, so did the number of call centers from 34,830 to 35,429, for a 1.7 percent increase.

The biggest change in the study was the decline of the growth rate, which was -18.20 percent, from 4.40 percent to 3.60 percent. When the study was dissected into the different countries, the inconsistencies were quite noticeable. Austria for example was experiencing negative growth rate at -2 percent, while Bulgaria, Russia and Serbia saw an impressive 19 percent gain.

The migration to Eastern Europe and Russia by companies is reminiscent of the move to India and the Philippines. Today this particular region is growing at faster rates than other parts of the world as the labor force is beginning to be recognized for their ability to speak multiple languages, a reliable infrastructure and governments offering financial incentives.

The disproportionate number of the activities highlights what the market is looking for in this region, in particular inbound activities, which accounts for 77.1 percent. The services are being used by several different industries with ICT and media activities leading the way, followed by finance, professional services, retail, public services, utilities and manufacturing.

“It is very important to have better data and a better understanding of the contact center industry in Europe in order for it to evolve and assume its place as net contributor to the economic and social development of the continent,” said David Romero, Chief Marketing Officer at Altitude Software (News - Alert).

Edited by Stefania Viscusi