The efforts by Marketing Derby, which are backed by Derby City Council, hope to safeguard the future of hundreds of jobs at the Egg site by attracting new business keen to utilise the workforce in its state of the art contact centre. The contact centre, which currently employs 600 staff, is closing following the acquisition of Egg's 1.15 million UK credit card accounts earlier this year by Barclaycard.
Work previously carried out at the centre is set to be transferred to the credit card firm's other customer service centres from November, including sites in Merseyside and Northamptonshire. Marketing Derby hopes to emulate the successful sale of the Goldfish contact centre in North Lanarkshire to Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) in 2008 under similar circumstances.
The deal secured the future of 800 employees, and provided SSE with the capacity to cost effectively expand its customer service operations and recruit a highly skilled workforce.
John Forkin, managing director of Marketing Derby, said: "The economics of operating contact centres have dramatically shifted in the UK's favour over the past 12 months, and the opportunity to secure a world class workforce should not be underestimated. Derby is an ideal city for inward investment thanks to its central location and highly skilled workforce and we're confident we will attract a new business eager to take up this great opportunity."
Overall 3% of the UK workforce are employed in contact centres, with the average cost of hiring a contact centre worker estimated by the CIPD to exceed £6,000. In contrast to the high levels of staff turnover encountered at many contact centres, the Derby site has historically experienced a low level of employee churn, and the chance to secure hundreds of highly trained and motivated workers is a highly cost effective opportunity for any business looking to invest into the area.
Marketing Derby's campaign, which kicked off with advertisements in property magazines, intends to ensure business leaders recognise the potential of Derby as a business location.
Thanks to 35 high-speed direct train services to London, the city is a hub for jobs across the East Midlands where service jobs have risen by 86% over the last 25 years to reach 1.5 million and 11.8% of the city's employment is in high technology across major employers such as Rolls Royce and Toyota.
The Egg customer service centre located on Pride Park, Derby is one of the largest purpose-designed contact centres ever completed in the UK and within minutes of the train station As part of the campaign, a jobs fair at the Pride Park site on September 14th, will broker introductions between the workforce and potential employers. Thirty-two employers and agencies, including some FTSE 100 businesses, have already confirmed interest in attending.
