Sky UK Boosts Engineers and Support Staff with 1,000 New Jobs

Customers of UK ISP Sky Broadband and Sky TV (Comcast) will be pleased to learn that the internet and media giant intends to create 1,000 new jobs in the United Kingdom, which includes 500 engineers. The rest will be used to boost customer support staff via a new call centre in Leeds.

The decision, which is intended to help keep up with “growing customer demand” (Sky no longer release detailed customer figures so it’s hard to know what’s happening), will see the employee base for Sky’s UK and Ireland divisions grow to 25,000. At present 3,500 of this base are UK engineers (soon to be 4,000) – mostly focused upon their Sky satellite TV products.

Apparently the other 500 recruits will find their home in customer service roles at Sky’s new contact centre at the No 1 Leeds building in the city centre. It’s noted that over 1,000 people already work for Sky in Leeds (mostly at Sky@Leeds Dock – the company’s tech hub that opened in the city in 2015), making it one of the biggest employers in Leeds.

Last month, Sky also announced the creation of a new Sky Studios Innovation Hub, also based in Leeds and focussed on the development of talent, scripted partnerships and new content experiences. Over the next 5 years Sky intends to more than double its investment in original content through Sky Studios.

Stephen van Rooyen, Sky CEO for UK & Ireland, said:

“Our customers love viewing all their favourite shows in one place with Sky Q, so it’s great that 500 new Sky engineers will be hitting the roads right across the UK this winter to meet growing customer demand. Together with our expanded team in Leeds, these 1,000 new employees are a real testament to Sky’s commitment to customer service and investment to create a diverse workforce right across the UK.”

According to Ofcom, Sky typically receives some of the fewest consumer complaints of all the largest broadband, phone and pay TV providers in the UK. As such the addition of new staff to help cope with growth is a positive sign that they intend to retain that position, as oppose to allowing their standards to slip.