BT recruitment drive falls short for new Accrington base

2:02pm Monday 29th October 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Bill Jacobs, Local government reporter

TELECOMS giant BT has called in outside help to recruit workers after finding just a third of the staff needed for a flagship new East Lancashire office.

The firm has employed just 111 of the 300 people they need for the call centre in Accrington after six months, despite having had more than 1,500 applications.

This has raised fears about the standard of education and qualifications of the local workforce.

In April BT announced the new base in The Globe Centre in St James Square after US-based outsourcing company Sitel announced it was moving to India and making 250 people redundant.

The company expressed confidence it would be able to find the 300 staff needed before the facility opened this Autumn.

Now, bosses have admitted just 111 staff have been found and they are using recruitment agencies and Lancashire County Council’s employment service to find the rest.

East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive, Mike Damms, said: “BT have to find people with a certain skill set. However this does raise questions about the education, training, qualifications and suitability of local applicants from the East Lancashire workforce.”

To get county council help BT promised to run a pilot scheme for 10 jobless youngsters through its WorkStart programme and employ local people where possible.

A BT spokeswoman said: “We have recruited 111 new members of staff as of this week. We are using recruitment agencies and ongoing advertisements to attract candidates who are then assessed and those which are successful are appointed.

“These roles are not simple, so many people who applied were not suitable for these particular positions, but we have no concerns around filling the positions as we did expect it to be an ongoing and gradual process.”

County leader Geoff Driver said: “We worked hard to bring this new BT call centre to Accrington. We have continued to work with BT, who have committed to recruiting local people where possible and to helping people who are currently out of work back into the workplace, through Lancashire County Council's WorkStart scheme.”

Comments(15)

Dave_P says...
2:12pm Mon 29 Oct 12

answering and redirecting telephone calls needs a certain skill set.. yes being able to speak English properly.. which most of the youth these days haven't got a clue about, whatever ethnicity they are.

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Dogsbolloxs says...
2:17pm Mon 29 Oct 12

1500 applications and they can only find 111 people. Why don't they try training the staff? Just a thought, offering to train people up instead of looking for people with a full skill set should be the way forward. There are obviously people out there who want these jobs, so train them to do it. This is BT not a small business, invest in the people.

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martintheaker says...
2:40pm Mon 29 Oct 12

Why should BT have the extra expense of training them?

If the applicants haven't reached the required minimum educational qualifications then BT are quite right to look elsewhere for staff.

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ToffeeGuy says...
3:11pm Mon 29 Oct 12

martintheaker wrote:
Why should BT have the extra expense of training them?

If the applicants haven't reached the required minimum educational qualifications then BT are quite right to look elsewhere for staff.
BT's profits this year were £2.4bn.

To quote BT's website for these jobs -

"We want people who are brimming with energy and enthusiasm; people with customer service and sales experience, who can communicate confidently and clearly; people who our customers can trust to put things right if they go wrong and people who take ownership of problems and see them through to resolution."

Slightly more than just a minimum education. There is an on-line application form, if they think you are suitable then they will ring you back. Then to quote their website again -

"If successful, we’ll then invite you to our Assessment Centre, where you’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate your talents in a group exercise, a written task, one-to-one interview and through role play."

I know if you are unemployed you are meant to go through every hoop possible to get a job. But really. I think even highly motivated individuals can be put off by such a rigorous recruitment process.

BT aren't alone in this. But I think a one-to-one interview with a short test should be good enough for these types of jobs.

But if anyone is interested the details are here.
http://www.btplc.com
/Careercentre/Ourloc
ations/UK/Accrington
/index.htm

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Major Tom says...
3:21pm Mon 29 Oct 12

They should frog march the jobless to the work. No more of this leave school and benefits for life. 6 months max in any 5 year period from 18 years old. Under 16 no benefits. We're trillions in debt because of this and 10 billion more is needed.

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mavrick says...
5:20pm Mon 29 Oct 12

Major Tom wrote:
They should frog march the jobless to the work. No more of this leave school and benefits for life. 6 months max in any 5 year period from 18 years old. Under 16 no benefits. We're trillions in debt because of this and 10 billion more is needed.
You are a complete moron. you believe every lie the government peddle. Try reading the article and the responses. English comprehension is obviously not your strong point.

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Slippery _Genius says...
6:12pm Mon 29 Oct 12

Venomp wrote:
I heard most of the workforce came from Blackburn. As before the BT centre was there and the reality is only 150 were being offered when a cousin enquired for a job.
As one of the 111 lucky individuals that passed the stringent yet extremely fair application process I can say that the above is absolutely not true as the vast majority of the new starters are just that new starters, what would the benefit of moving the Blackburn staff to Accrington be? to then have to re-staff Blackburn.
I can't help but feel the tone of this article is ridiculously negative, why should BT not try and staff it's call centre with the creme de le creme, would the journalist prefer a call centre that Accrington can be proud of a call centre for the future that will stand the test of time or one that will employ oik's and be in danger of closure by xmas 2013.

p.s I think Saf will back me up on that

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colin 15 says...
6:37pm Mon 29 Oct 12

Major Tom wrote:
They should frog march the jobless to the work. No more of this leave school and benefits for life. 6 months max in any 5 year period from 18 years old. Under 16 no benefits. We're trillions in debt because of this and 10 billion more is needed.
Couldnt agree more Major Tom, if they cant find a job after 6 months get em in the army. Afghanistan would kill em.

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2 for 5p says...
10:05pm Mon 29 Oct 12

Perhaps they would rather sign on. :-)

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mys says...
6:57am Tue 30 Oct 12

Sorry but there's a lot of educated and well spoken people out there that could do the job, just face it, it was another con, 300 jobs available for the accrington people, mmmmm I wonder how many from this area have been employed, we all know how the government and council promise things then it never happens,look at the new new tesco, how many low life's have been employed there, when there's more respectable people still unemployed, look at asda, half the staff can't speak proper, there are a lot of people that would take anything that pays right but these company's would rather employ foreigners and pay less wages.

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mys says...
6:57am Tue 30 Oct 12

Sorry but there's a lot of educated and well spoken people out there that could do the job, just face it, it was another con, 300 jobs available for the accrington people, mmmmm I wonder how many from this area have been employed, we all know how the government and council promise things then it never happens,look at the new new tesco, how many low life's have been employed there, when there's more respectable people still unemployed, look at asda, half the staff can't speak proper, there are a lot of people that would take anything that pays right but these company's would rather employ foreigners and pay less wages.

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Venomp says...
9:00am Tue 30 Oct 12

The branch in Bburn is closing

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accstan says...
3:23pm Tue 30 Oct 12

This article has really got my back up - I applied for one of the jobs at the new BT centr when they were first advertised, I am currently employed but wish to expand my working week as I am only in a part-time job at the moment. Although I have no call centre experience, I have an very good, broad administrative background which includes reception/switchboar
d experience & a range of other admin skills all which I thought could have been utilised within the scope of the posts advertised, but it seems BT did not think so as I didn't even reach interview stage, just a thanks but no thanks email response to my application & although I was disappointed I put it down to the sheer number of applicants they must have had & presumed most must have had more experience than me.
To now read that they are struggling to fill the vacancies & that they feel this is a reflection on the educational standards of applicants I take as a direct insult. Maybe I had a lucky escape if this is their attitude?

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nwRecruiter says...
8:33pm Tue 30 Oct 12

I own a North West Recruitment Company and if companies like BT gave us a chance to look at staff for them instead of going to the larger companies, where people are just a number and maybe not as quality member of staff then they may be better off. Big companies like these just go straight for companies on there 'Preferred Supplier List' where people from these company are just bothered about money and not looking after the Clients interest and service they provide to them.

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flatlander says...
10:15am Fri 2 Nov 12

"Half the staff can't speak proper". Is this supposed to be ironic?

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