Managing diversity in South African call centres

Diversity is a hot topic in any area of South African society. The call centre industry offers more employment and investment opportunities than almost any other, but is it properly exploiting the diversity of its talent pool?

There is a new buzz phrase in the industry, 'socially responsible outsourcing', which advises that those who benefit from job creation in the business process outsourcing industry should be the individuals who need jobs most. But is this approach a shortcut to a fractured workforce, hidden costs in the form of poor agent efficiency, and ultimately, loss of business?

Conventional wisdom recommends cultural matching during the recruitment process. Agents may work in isolation on the telephones, but they still rely on the sort of positive interaction critical to team building and career development.

Incorporating team matching into South African call centres does not take into account the available agent talent pool, nor does it reflect a diverse local consumer demographic or the sensitivity of our country's history of racial groupings.

Management strategy is key to meeting the challenges of call centre diversity; resisting the urge to be caught up in ethnicity and focusing rather on the commonalities that draw diverse individuals into a common corporate culture.

Bulelwa Koyana, former interim CEO of BPeSA, believes: “There is ethnicity even among people of the same colour, so it is best to keep in mind that people are individuals. It is the overriding organisational culture inculcated in call centres that is critical to operations.”

Johann Kunz, Managing Director of Cape Town-based Fusion Outsourcing, believes it is possible to draw people into a corporate culture irrespective of their ethnic or cultural background. “Ingraining a corporate message into everything you do, using focused communication via multiple channels, does pay off.”

Kunz believes it is important to provide the necessary support to help individuals to fit into this common culture, which might, for instance, be one of customer-centricity, built into company values, HR processes and all interactions from the top down.

The industry accounts for 180 000 jobs in South Africa, and the Department of Trade and Industry has recently rolled out an incentive scheme that will cut operational costs by a further 20%. The objective is to further grow the industry and alleviate poverty through the creation of wealth and jobs. There are few sectors better positioned to deliver than BPO.

According to Bulelwa Koyana, the industry faces many challenges in the year ahead. “We need to competitively market ourselves and enhance our talent pool. We are working with SETA to professionalise the sector. This is very important. We must improve the customer experience through training and providing clients with customer assurance through a system of professional accreditation.”

As for South African call centre diversity, it is alive and well, demographically representative and flourishing organically in organisations that are putting in the time and effort needed to develop strong and clearly defined corporate cultures and identities. For those that do not, government-backed industry incentives may not be enough to keep them in business in one of the fastest-growing and competitive industries on the planet.