Convergys Call Centre

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NL: Convergys defends layoffs; employees fear more to come
By Terry Roberts, Transcontinental Media

Source: The Telegram, March 23, 2010

[ST. JOHN'S, NL] — Less than three weeks after being assured their jobs were safe, 34 employees in the human resources management (HRM) division at Convergys were shown the door last week.

And sources say more layoffs are on the way.

A spokeswoman for Convergys, Amy Williams, confirmed in a written statement to The Telegram Monday the employees were let go from its Torbay Road contact centre.

She said the decision was made in order to bring the number of agents there in line with the volume of calls.

“Because of the nature of the business, we often simultaneously see growth and decline in customer volumes that can affect employment levels at individual locations,” she wrote. “We remain dedicated to the St. John’s site and our talented employees there.”


Convergys on Torbay Road is the largest of the call centres located in the metro area. The layoff of 34 staff last week is feared to be a forerunner of more layoffs to come. — Photo by Gary Hebbard/The Telegram

The layoffs come as a deal is being finalized to sell the company’s HRM line of business to NorthgateArinso, a leading global human resources software and services provider.

A spokesman for the United Kingdom-based company stated emphatically in a recent interview with The Telegram that the 500 Convergys employees affected by the deal in St. John’s would not be negatively affected by the deal.

NorthgateArinso had promised to offer employment to the approximately 2,300 employees of Convergys’ HRM line of business, including the 500 who work in St. John’s.

“We operate in a very stable business. We want to offer our customers that same stability, and obviously that will be reflected in not changing anything to the location of the workforce,” NorthgateArinso spokesman Michael Custers stated.

Both companies stressed at the time this transaction represented a unique opportunity for Convergys’ HRM clients and employees to become part of a company with a strong record of accomplishment in the human resources sector.

“We only see changes for the good in the sense we will be an entirely HR-focused group right now,” Custers added.

Convergys is one of the major players in the province’s contact centre industry and employs about 950 people in the capital city.

The company announced March 4 it had signed an agreement to sell its HRM division to North-gateArinso. The deal is worth approximately $85 million in cash at closing, and $15 million in cash over three years.

As expected, news of the layoffs took employees by surprise.

In an e-mail to The Telegram, one employee described what happened.

“Without notice and while working at their cubicles, they were tapped on the shoulder and walked to the door by supervisors,” the employee wrote. “Supervisors then came back and gathered their belongings in bags or boxes. No prior notice was provided. No chance to say goodbye to people they had worked with for years, in some cases.”

The employee feels more layoffs are pending.

“So much for safe jobs,” the employee wrote.

Another employee said the layoffs were directly related to the pending deal with NorthgateArinso.

“They were also told that this was just the first wave, that by the end of it the reduction will impact about 50 per cent of the HRM workers in St. John’s,” the employee wrote.

NorthgateArinso has offices in 31 countries and delivers services in more than 70 countries via a network of eight service delivery centres. The company employs approximately 5,000 people and serves more than 20 per cent of the Fortune Global 500 companies. It is one of the five largest HR service providers in the world.

Custers did not respond to an interview request on Monday

Comments:
Andrew
Convergys lies… they are moving completely out of Canada, just google Convergys Layoff Canada, they are trying to do it quietly. It’s a sad day in NorthAmerica but nothing we all didn’t expect to happen.

Mar 23/2010
Warden
\what specifically does this center do and who is the client?

Mar 23/2010
anon
They do Comcast (not HRM), General Electric(HRM), and one other project, they neglect to mention what happens to the Customer Management portion of this Site :)

Will they be moving to a new location? Or will HRM be moving to a new location? There are many un awnsered questions Convergys Needs to awnser.

Mar 24/2010
John
Convergys does seem to be pulling out of Canada to places where they can get a new set of subsidies to exploit the local population.
Puerto Rico and Phillipines are 2 such locations, where they are setting up.

Mar 27/2010