Call Centre
Pay - Briefing No 71
Introduction
Incomes Data Services (IDS) has recently published
its seventh annual report on call centres in the UK. The report
is the most comprehensive source of information that has been
made available on the UK call centre industry to date. The report
includes estimates of the size of the UK call centre industry,
details of salaries for call centre operators as well as covering
recruitment and retention issues and staff turnover and absence
levels across the industry.
The report itself is based on an IDS survey
of call centre managers responsible for managing over 300 centres
with a combined workforce of 112,000. The main sectors represented
in the survey were financial services, public sector and not-for-profit
organisations. The report is presented in 4 main sections, these
being overview of trends, recruitment and retention, analysis
of pay and terms and conditions. Summaries of the important
points from each section are given below.
Overview of trends
A recent Sector Skills Council survey has estimated
that approximately 867,000 people in the UK were employed in
the call centre industry in the first quarter of 2003. This
figure represents a three-fold increase on the numbers who were
employed in UK call centres in 1998. This rise is mainly due
to the expansion of existing operations and continued growth
into new sectors such as telecoms and, more recently, public
services.
The report highlights that the use of call
centres to deliver public services is expanding significantly,
and that there is a growing trend for organisations to outsource
their call centre services. The report states that the UK call
centre industry will continue to expand, albeit at a slower
rate than in previous years and that the number of call centres
in the UK will number 6,900 by 2007 (an increase of 21% on number
of UK call centres in 2001).
Trade union representation in call centres
Call centres without a recognised trade union now form a minority
of the industry according to the results of the IDS survey.
More than half of the organisations surveyed negotiated pay,
terms and conditions with a trade union while more than two-thirds
of all call centre workers are now covered by a collective agreement.
According to the IDS report 55% of those organisations
taking part in the survey recognise a trade union for formal
negotiations over pay and conditions. This is the highest proportion
of respondents with trade union recognition since IDS began
recording this information in call centre surveys in 1999. In
1999 only 44 % of organisations in the call centre industry
recognised a trade union.
Within the call centre sector the spread of
trade union recognition remains uneven. Most trade union members
are clustered into three distinct industrial sectors: financial
services, privatised utilities and the public sector. Union
recognition is most prevalent in the public sector and UNISON
is one of the main unions representing call centre public sector
workers. Companies in the outsourced services sector were least
likely to bargain over pay and conditions with unions, with
only one-in-three having a recognition agreement.
Recruitment, Retention, Turnover and Absences
The IDS survey found that 36% of the organisations surveyed
had problems with staff recruitment. Unsurprisingly, the survey
also highlighted the strong link between recruitment and retention.
Over 80% of those organisations that reported problems with
recruitment also declared that they had experienced problems
retaining staff.
The survey also showed that Scotland had the second highest
proportion of respondents within the UK reporting retention
problems. Over 60% of those Scottish based call centre organisations
reported problems with retaining staff with nearly all retention
problems being experienced in either Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Average staff turnover across all the organisations in the
survey was 25%, an increase in the figures for 2002. Average
staff turnover was highest in the leisure and transport sector
(39%) and in outsourced services (29%). The lowest average staff
turnover figure was lowest in the public/not-for-profit sector
(15%). The survey also found that organisations do not recognise
a trade union were more likely to have a higher rate of staff
turnover compared to those that do negotiate terms and conditions
with a union.
According to the IDS survey, call centre workers took an average
of almost three weeks off work due to sickness in the 12 months
between June 2002 and June 2003. The average rate of absences
amongst the organisations that provided this information in
their survey responses was 6.2%. This is much higher than the
average level of absence recorded by both the CIPD and the CBI
for the whole of the UK economy.
Analysis of pay
The survey found that the average starting salary for a customer
adviser was £12,800, an increase of 3.2% on last year’s survey.
The typical (median) pay range for a customer service adviser
starts at £12,200, has a mid-point of £14,000 and a maximum
of £16,000.
Pay differences between sectors
The variation between different sectors in the average salaries
for customer advisers is more significant than regional pay
differences. There was a gap of £2,700 between the average mid-point
salaries in the lowest and highest paying sectors. The lowest
salaries on average were found in call centres in the retail
sector. The average salary there was £12, 600, which was 13%
lower than the average for all sectors. Other sectors with lower
than average salaries were leisure & transport (£12,700)
and outsourced services ((£13,400).
The highest average customer adviser salary was in the public
and not-for-profit sector, at £15,300. This was 6% higher than
the overall average. This is partly a consequence of the broader
range of kills often required for many of the call centre roles
in the public sector, for example staff in many local authority
call centres need to be able to answer enquiries and give advice
on a wide range of council services.
Call centres in the telecoms and utilities sectors and in financial
services also had higher than average salaries, at £15,000 and
£14,600 respectively. Interestingly, the survey also highlighted
that the sectors with the lowest average pay levels for advisers
were also those with the highest turnover of staff. The retail,
leisure, transport and outsourced sectors all had higher than
average staff turnover rates. These same sectors also had lower
than average pay rates.
Action for Branches:
This briefing is primarily for bargaining purposes, however
if branches wish they can access the full report from the P&
I Team at West Campbell Street. Branches should use the report
to inform staff and activists who are engaged in representing
and bargaining on behalf of UNISON members who work in the call
centre industry.
Further Information:
Call centre focus http://www.callcentre.co.uk/
TUC ‘Its your call’ campaign http://www.tuc.org.uk/theme/index.cfm?theme=yourcall
Call Centre Association http://www.cca.org.uk
‘Raising the Standard’ - UNISON Scotland’s charter for Scotland’s
call centres www.unisonscotland.org.uk/briefings/cccharter.html
Whilst UNISON does not support the findings of this report,
branches should nonetheless be aware of the following Scottish
Executive guidance
Call Centres in the Scottish Public Sector http://www.scotland.gov.uk/government/c21g/Call_centre_c21g.pdf
Further Reading:
‘Holding the Line – UNISON’s Guide to Making Call Centres a
Better Place to Work - available from the UK website
Contacts list:
Dave Watson - d.watson@unison.co.uk
@ The P&I Team
14 West Campbell St
Glasgow G26RX
Tel 0870 7777 006
Fax 0141-307 2572
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