US Call-Center Jobs — That Pay $100K a Year 362
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timothy
from the payment-for-the-gift-of-gab dept.
from the payment-for-the-gift-of-gab dept.
bheer writes "BusinessWeek profiles a call center company called iQor which has grown revenues 40% year-on-year by (shock) treating employees as critical assets. It's done this not by nickel-and-diming, but by expanding its US operations (13 centers across the US now), giving employees universal health insurance, and paying salaries and bonuses that are nearly 50% above industry norms. The article notes that outsourcing will continue and globalization will continue to change the world's economic landscape. 'But the US is hardly helpless. With smart processes and the proper incentives, US companies can keep jobs here in America, and do so in a way that is actually better for the company and its employees.' Now if only other companies get a clue as well."
Re:Um, I'm doubtful (Score:5, Interesting)
It doesn't matter what the starting wage is, as long as the ladder is there and you can work your way into a decent pay rate.
More companies should consider this, rather than designing their jobs to have a single pay rate with no possibility of advancement apart from leaving to work elsewhere.
Wishful Thinking (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Call centers are in the more depressed parts of the U.S. I have a sneaking suspicion the workers are happy-ish to be there, but aren't part of a healthy middle class.
2...U.S. employees universal health insurance. What kind? PPO. I'm tired of hearing this topline chant when the details of the policies are depressing.
3....and pays salaries and bonuses that are nearly 50% above industry norms. So, are the call center workers still the working poor?
4. The best of iQor's front-line call-center workers make more than $100,000 per year The best one serving an uber-tight niche. More spam.
That's Ironic (Score:5, Interesting)
The CEO of this company was born in India!
I think it says something very nasty about U.S. corporate culture that it takes an immigrant the see value in hiring Americans.
HIdden Cost (Score:2, Interesting)
I won't name names, but one of our competitors does this. The down side, they over-inflate their prices to the customers to compensate for 6 digit salaries for sales people. They are lucky to be in a business where they can pull this off because of the complexity of pricing, but as with any market, the margins get thinner and thinner and they just won't last.
wealth generation by industry (Score:5, Interesting)
When you hear about these compensation packages the execs are getting, it makes you wonder how far that could stretch if divided equitably amongst the workers.
The sad truth is that people don't seem to want to pay more for quality, they'll only pay more for fashion. When Macs were sold based on their utility, they eventually lost out to the up and coming Wintel systems that weren't as good but were a whole lot cheaper. The Mac CEO at the time was advised to cut the price and he said "No, people will pay for quality." No, they didn't. Not enough of them. And Mac didn't really make a comeback until Steve Jobs made them sexy again, made technology dance to the same tune as fashion. Suddenly Apple is chic and cool and people are happy to pay ridiculous gobs of money.
Go figure.
Dell's a great example. (Score:5, Interesting)
They moved their first call center out of Austin not because their employees were demanding high wages, but because they'd so pissed off everyone even remotely technical in town that they couldn't hire anyone in the first place.
The great thing about following Dell is at least you know you're going to go into bankruptcy really, really slowly. I guess that's a business plan.
CWA 1701 (Score:4, Interesting)
I know at IBM, most mainframe operators (including myself) made over $100k. It wasn't that hard. IBM just worked us to death, and paid us time and a half over 40. When you're working 12-hours a day 7 days a week (84 hours), the dollars add up ($27 RG, $41.50 OT). Add in the fact that I worked the night shift at the time, so I literally couldn't spend the money I was making. I left after a few years.
I imagine a call-center like this is counting those 6-figure salaries in the same way. They pay their top employees to work 70 / 80 hours a week.
Google the title. I agree that any company that gets a union deserves one.
Re:This... (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep-
And that attitude works on a large scale too... one of my company's founders said this about 80 years ago:
"When all is said and done, this business is nothing but a symbol. And when we translate this, we find that it means a great many people think well of its products, and that a great multitude has faith in the integrity of the men who make this product.
"In a very short time, the machines that are now so lively will soon become obsolete. And the big buildings, for all their solidity, must some day be replaced.
"But a business which symbolizes can live so long as there are human beings alive. For it is not built of such flimsy materials as steel and concrete; it is built of human opinions, which may be made to live forever.
"The goodwill of the people is the only enduring thing in any business. It is the sole substance... the rest is shadow."
They take care of us, and we do our best to make the company successful.
Re:Um, I'm doubtful (Score:5, Interesting)
Interestingly enough, the city I'm from had a "near-shore" call centre. I'm Canadian, and we've got the Western Pacific accent here.
They were considered an excellent bargain because the staff spoke fluent, unaccented English. The customers loved it.
It messed up our local economy in a strange way -- West paid $10 / hour to start, which meant that every store in town, from KFC to the Dollar Store, had to pay at least that or they wouldn't get staff. West employed thousands of people, and had a voracious appetite. When you can get $8 frying burgers or $10 + bus passes + tuition bonuses + entry into car draws, we had stores "closed today due to lack of staff".
When our dollar reached parity last year, it became more expensive to run West than it was to just pay for Americans to do the job. They closed.
Re:Um, I'm doubtful (Score:2, Interesting)
As a programmer that works directly with the call centers for a Fortune 500 company: there are a -lot- of other pieces of technology that helps efficiency other than robocallers. Live speech recognition to tell what common customer problems are, smarter call routing (you've called recently before, you must have a problem, let's move you to a higher-level agent), even simple things like better screenpops.
As to robocallers, though: Our company uses a plain dialer for contacting customers in collections, but it's fully agent-backed - you never hear a machine voice. Robocallers piss off customers.
But to lump all call center technology into one group of "I hate these things" isn't particularly fair.
Re:What a load of crap... (Score:3, Interesting)
It seems to me that this company is the perfect "second tier" tech support line. The first tier being the guys in India who just go down the list regardless of what problem you have because 75% of the time it's the same dumb problem again and these guys get paid way too much to spend all day telling people what a mouse pointer is or how to double click.
I've always had the fantasy that if I owned a tech company that had direct contact with customers, that I would have two support lines. The first is right on the front of the support page and sends you to "first tier" support in India. They can escalate your call to second tier, but only after going through all of the easy fixes. The second tier support would have its number listed at the end of the FAQ/support database. People who went through the online support and still had to call would be send directly to the second level techs.
Of course I tend to have this fantasy every time I call tech support and are forced to go through everything their FAQ already covered that I already tried before they send me off to someone who can actually help.
HP Way (Score:3, Interesting)
Even HP/Agilent have lost their way after the founders left. Back in the 50's-80's when the founders still called the shots they valued people (down to the janitors), treated them well, and fostered an environment that was aimed at excellence (i.e. you were inspired to keep up with your coworkers, not constantly dragged down to their level). Once the MBA's got in charge it has been steadily downhill.
The lure to cut costs vs. the hard to quantify benefits of nurturing employees through creating a rewarding work environement is one few business majors who have not come up through the ranks can appreciate. Sadly it feels like virtually all corporate cultures have succumb to the dark side.
I used to work 60 hour weeks happily, but having been outright screwed by too many MBA driven nickel and diming fiascos I no longer do. I work my 8 hours and go home, keeping my head down the whole time. I pour my creative juices into home projects instead of unrewarding work ones (3 industrial sewing machine actually come close to the fun of microwave IC design, who'd of thunk?).
Re:This... (Score:1, Interesting)
evil end of the prism
great name for a band
Re:Um, I'm doubtful (Score:1, Interesting)
Interestingly enough, the city I'm from had a "near-shore" call centre. I'm Canadian, and we've got the Western Pacific accent here.
They were considered an excellent bargain because the staff spoke fluent, unaccented English. The customers loved it.
It messed up our local economy in a strange way -- West paid $10 / hour to start, which meant that every store in town, from KFC to the Dollar Store, had to pay at least that or they wouldn't get staff. West employed thousands of people, and had a voracious appetite. When you can get $8 frying burgers or $10 + bus passes + tuition bonuses + entry into car draws, we had stores "closed today due to lack of staff".
When our dollar reached parity last year, it became more expensive to run West than it was to just pay for Americans to do the job. They closed.
Actually, it had a lot more to do with your management in Victoria being a bunch of assholes who thought they didn't need to listen to the folks that actually owned the company, and instead serve the client alone. Dollar parity was A reason, but not THE reason, that the call center lost money. It's cute they told you that though.
And then what? (Score:2, Interesting)
This whole offshore call center crap may, as a practical matter, push Congress too far one day. Which is to say, push (us, lower-case note) Americans who vote for cretins too far one day.
Sooner or later a power-hungry politician will come along and note, loudly and rhetorically, that some businesses are turning into giant wads of foreign money using computers and hirelings to harass Americans by phone call, from outside the country.
What happens then is anybody's guess. If I could insert an "eating popcorn" emoticon here, I would.
Re:Dress up a pig (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Um, I'm doubtful (Score:1, Interesting)
"The best of iQor's front-line call-center workers make more than $100,000 per year."
Yeah but it looks like they outsourced their CEO [iqor.com]
Right because the USA never allows people from asia to legally emmigrate!*roll eyes*
Oh and before the "whooshes" start flying, I do realize that this was intended as a joke. However, it is a very stupid one!
Re:Um, I'm doubtful (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, but from what I've seen, programmers and network admins usually don't make more than $100k except in CA (where the cost of living and ridiculous taxes overwhelm the pay differential).
Re:Um, I'm doubtful (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't judge a an entire industry by the majority of the businesses that comprise it. I work for a managed web hosting company that's doing splendidly even in the recession because we bend over backwards to please our customers. Even when it means that once in awhile we have to refund an entire month's bill to keep the account or dedicate a tech's shift to solving a particularly troublesome MySQL problem. Although there is much that I disagree with in terms of management decisions here, one thing that I stand behind is their commitment to treating every single employee like gold. The pay is not stellar, but we have full medical and dental; a theatre-style lounge complete with projectors, cable TV, Xbox, and PC gaming rigs; unlimited free soft drinks and the company pays for outings like trips to sports games, amusement parks, newly-released movies, paintball, you name it. Every job here is stressful but the perks and camaraderie make it all totally worthwhile and as a result, we have no problem going the extra mile on a daily basis for the customers.
Re:Um, I'm doubtful (Score:3, Interesting)
Depends on the call center. I work in what is effectively a call center for a large software company at the escallation site (in the US). Me and my peers love our job, Salaries get into the six-figures after you've been here for 2-3 years (not that they start low, mind you), customers don't scream at us, and we aren't taking calls as fast as we can. I have a friend that works escallations for a large PC company and it's a similar experience for him,
I completely understand that my experience is not a typical call center, but not all call centers suck.
Re: This post is also offtopic. (Score:2, Interesting)
Wow, so you just ignore the commonly accepted definitions of terms and apply them as labels to be viewed by everyone else.
Enjoy eating your dresser tomorrow morning before you head off to soap, it really is the most important shoe of the day!
Re:Um, I'm doubtful (Score:4, Interesting)
I've co-founded a start-up or 3. My co-founders and I have never offered 'a theatre-style lounge complete with projectors, cable TV, Xbox, and PC gaming rigs; unlimited free soft drinks and the company pays for outings like trips to sports games, amusement parks, newly-released movies, paintball, you name it'. We do always make sure everyone has good hardware and a pleasant working environment. Also, we make sure our team members are well paid.
IMHO, all else being equal, good pay is a much stronger retention mechanism then toys and free drinks. It's especially critical if you're looking to recruit and retain people with families. Better for productivity too.
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