Ireland continues as a ‘Global hub’ for contact centres services according to Deloitte report.
According to a report released by Deloitte indicates that employees in Ireland’s customer contact centres are serving customers across the globe and the demand for talent in the sector is set to grow over the coming years.
Ireland is an important global hub for customer service talent, stretching worldwide with respondents supporting customers in Ireland (92%), the UK (52%), Western Europe (37%), Eastern Europe (27%), US & Canada (22%), Africa (15%), Asia Pacific (17%) and Latin America (9%).
Fifty five per cent of respondents indicated they will increase the number of customer contact employee in the next two years.
The report shows that career advancement and investing in people are central to attracting and retaining customer contact talent, while language and technical skills are the key drivers of external recruitment.
The lead time for recruiting multi-lingual staff is longer than that for English only speakers with German and Dutch speakers the hardest to come by in the Irish market requiring almost seven weeks lead time.
Executives surveyed highlighted work permit processing time as the single biggest challenge when recruiting people from abroad. An additional challenge brought to light in the survey is the housing crisis. Although not one of the key reasons, 4% of survey respondents indicated access to affordable housing as an issue for attrition.
Cormac Hughes, Partner, Human Capital, Consulting at Deloitte said,
“These results highlight the important role customer contact centres in Ireland are playing in the Irish and the global markets today. With respondents expecting a decrease in outsourcing, the talent pool in Ireland will become increasingly important as the sector grows. The shift in customer demands when it comes to customer services will require the need for additional technical skills.”
He added, “The growth of the global market for Irish customer contact centres will continue to demand high language skills from talent in Ireland. As many organisations compete for talent within the same pool in locations such as Dublin and Cork, companies need to start looking beyond these areas for the right people to fill the roles.”
Additional Information
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