
Newly merged mobile and broadband operator VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) has today announced that they’re bringing over 400 customer contact jobs, which were previously based in India, back to the United Kingdom. The roles will now be based out of the Belfast and Sheffield centres of the operator’s partner, Concentrix.
Despite the fact that mergers of major companies often result in some redundancies as roles are reduced to remove duplication and improve efficiency, there can sometimes also be areas where they’re increased or improved and this seems to be one of those examples.
The newly onshored roles, delivered by partner Concentrix, will focus on Vodafone and Three UK specialist care and sales, with 200 based in Belfast and 200 in Sheffield. Recruitment for these has already started and training of new agents is said to be underway in Belfast. The new recruits will add to the 830+ customer specialists based in the existing Stoke and Glasgow locations.
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Across the UK, around 9,000 engineering, construction and maintenance jobs will also be created through the business’s £11 billion investment in upgrades to their existing networks and services (e.g. the deployment of 5G Standalone technology), rising to 13,000 during the peak of the build
Jon Shaw, Consumer Operations at VodafoneThree, said:
“We firmly believe in having care teams where our customers are, and that means having teams based across the UK. It’s an exciting time to join VodafoneThree as we build the UK’s best network and set new standards for customer care in the industry.”
Lord Stockwood, Minister for Investment, said:
“This is a major boost for our digital and tech sector, which will not only create over 400 jobs in Sheffield and Belfast but open up new opportunities for local communities and put more money in people’s pockets. Our modern Industrial Strategy is all about unleashing the potential of our cities and regions, so it’s great to see VodafoneThree investing and creating opportunity in every part of the country.”
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Should be Illegal to outsource any customer service role they involves UK citizens financial details.
A credit card company I used to have did it and I cancelled
Three mobile did it and I cancelled
I don’t trust these people at all.
The Coinbase operation found out the hard way when people working at their call centre were bribed into handing over hundreds of thousands of peoples details.
It needs to be banned for security reasons.
I hate outsourcing but don’t think for one minute your details are any safer in the UK! I worked in a call centre in Manchester years ago. The Police marched in one day and arrested a male. Turned out him and a team of others were taking credit card details over the phone and taking down the details personally which they then used to order stuff to different addresses.
We got informed that the one person had made over £12,000 of purchases using all different cards.
Just in time to be replaced by AI.
That’s a rather pleasant development from the merger. As the article mentions, usually we get less jobs and not more. Though I suspect it’ll balance off with cuts to IT, HR, etc.