Call centres must change, says analyst

Call centre analysts say the announcement earlier this week that Atelka is closing its doors in Saint John signals a need for the industry in the city to change.

Atelka, an IT-related customer service call centre established in 2003, announced Tuesday that it will close on May 6, putting a total of 142 people out of work over the next three months.

This is the third winter in a row Saint John's call centres have shed jobs.

In 2010, 175 people lost their jobs when Eddie Bauer closed its call centre.

A year later, 300 people at the RCI division of Wyndham Worldwide were laid off.

David Campbell, who was instrumental in bringing call centres to New Brunswick in the 90s when he worked under then-premier Frank McKenna, said if the industry hopes to survive here, employees' skills will need to change.

"As customer interaction changes, we need to evolve with it. So it's a different set of skills," said Campbell, who is now an economic development consultant in Moncton.

"Instead of talking on the phone, people are going to have to learn how to craft short messages, and work more with copy and text than in the past," he said.

"But I think it's a natural evolution of the industry and I think it'll be good for New Brunswick because the jobs will be higher paying."

There are up to 20,000 people currently employed in the call centre industry in New Brunswick.

It contributes an estimated $1.5 billion to the provincial economy; $900 million of it in payroll.

Mike Bacon, executive director of Contact NB, a call centre association, said a shift in the skill set could be good for business.

"It will either be what stabilizes the industry, and causes us not to see decreases in the future, or it could actually see an increase as it just makes communicating with companies so much easier that people will do it more often," he said.

Despite the recent layoffs, there is hope, said Bacon.

"Although an announcement like this is what catches the headlines, in fact many centres in Saint John are actually looking to hire, and have been having problems finding enough employees to meet their requirements," he said.

Some of the Atelka employees in Saint John weren't surprised by the layoffs.

Shylo McLeod said there had been a recent cutback in hours. "There was no explanation as to why.

"You kind of had a clue it was going to happen, but we figured it was either a campaign change or whatnot. We weren't sure the whole centre was closing down," McLeod said.

"It's not good at all," said co-worker Chris Oliver. "I have kids at home, I'm not sure what I'm going to do after I get laid off. There's a bunch of other places hiring, but it's just a roll of the dice really."

Under the former premier Frank McKenna, call centres started to receive provincial money as an incentive to set up in New Brunswick — between $5,000 and $10,000 in forgivable loans for every job created.

However, Atelka is not one of those companies.

A spokesperson has said the company intends to keep its other centres open, including the one in Fredericton.