Bellcom , http://www.bellcom.co.uk, recognise that a highly skilled, highly motivated and happy workforce makes sound business sense. Many employees have been with the company for five or six years, previously unheard of in the business.
Training and development are key elements for Bellcom who invest heavily in their staff. Bellcom often work in conjunction with their clients to train staff to the levels of product knowledge expected of the clients’ own personnel. With international blue chip companies such as Xerox and Dell on their books, and being a business to business (B2B) orientated company, their staff have to be highly trained and skilled.
So how do they attract and retain these individuals whose skills are very much in demand in the contact centre industry?
Rob Reid, Communications Manager gives an insight into the company’s ethos and staff strategy. “Simply put, we make it interesting for people to work here. We appreciate the pressures that exist in the contact centre environment and counter them with incentives as well as exciting and fun ways to motivate. We build a strong loyalty with our staff by investing in their development and well being.”
Bellcom is a genuinely people-centred work environment where none of the high pressure techniques and practices that have given the industry such a bad name are employed. Various schemes are utilised to motivate staff and the Bellcom staff awards are a case in point. These quarterly events, which are only possible through extensive planning & effort, are enjoyed wholeheartedly by the team who completely get into the spirit and fun.
There is nothing low key about the competitions or the prizes. Trips to Florida, Dubai, Egypt and Valentine’s weekends in Paris were some of the more recent awards won by staff members.
Building on this, there are team-building weekends and events as well such as Bellcom’s own version of the “The Apprentice” which is no less gruelling as the TV programme. Highly motivated team members get to apply their skills to every area of the business in a series of challenges. The interest and professionalism of the Bellcom participants is testament to the esteem with which the competition is held.
Katarzyna Ziomek, a candidate from Bellcom Quality Department, says “For me personally the Apprentice was very exciting. I have always been very ambitious. And I knew that this was my chance to show there is more of me to be discovered.”
It’s obvious that the person chosen to undertake this opportunity will have had to prove him or her self capable – so plenty of extra-curricular work is necessary in order to be the ultimate winner. During the scheme the tasks chosen were to develop the following skills: Sales, Recruitment, Planning, Organisation, Innovation, Leadership, Decision Making, Negotiation and Prioritisation.
Marc Thomas, the current Bellcom Apprentice, said “A long journey starts with the first step. I don’t regret the hours spent working in my free time. It has been the most fantastic professional experience of my life.”
Marc is one of Bellcom’s native French speakers. So to overcome the challenges set in, what is to him, a foreign language shows that there is a company ethos in place that engenders such application to the job.
Company Information:
Contact:
Rob Reid, Communications Manager
Bellcom Ltd.
0141 274 4000
www.bellcom.co.uk
info@bellcom.co.uk
