Amica workshop Copenhagen, September 4, 2007

1. Amica workshopCopenhagen, September 4, 2007 Ursula Huws, Director, Analytica, and Professor of International Labour Studies, London Metropolitan University

2. Call centres are NOT a unitary phenomenon • National differences • Sectoral differences • Differences according to the stage of development • Differences relating to different corporate cultures • High skill versus low skill • In-house versus outsourced • Public sector versus private sector values

3. Call centre workers also vary • ‘professional’ identities - related to particular skill-sets, bodies of knowledge or sectoral background (career path lies in the profession) • ‘technical’ identities (career path as a ‘techie’) • Identities as call centre professionals (career path via progression to call centre management) • ‘corporate’ identity (career path lies in progress within a specific company) • Identity as an ‘ordinary’ call centre worker (typically – no great career ambition: a job that can fit in with family etc.) • ‘just passing through’ identity (students, artists, stopgap emploment in life course transitions)

4. This lack of coherent identity is reflected in statistical invisibility ‘team leader in sales call centre’ (STILE coding exercise) • UK – 911 ‘street vendors and related workers’ (‘elementary occupations’) • Ireland – 419 ‘other office clerks’ (‘clerks’) • Hungary – 343 ‘administrative associate professionals’ (‘technicians and associate professionals’) • Netherlands – 122 ‘production and operations department managers’ (‘legislators, senior officials and managers’)

5. Nevertheless there are some common issues • High staff turnover • Flat hierarchies • Tendency towards standardisation of work processes • Time pressures (stress) • Changed character of interaction with client

6. vicious circles can develop

7. What you save in minutes you may lose in days

8. Breaking the vicious circle • Trust • Respect tacit knowledge • Collaboration not competition • Delegate responsibility • Judge by quality as well as quantity • Allow time for development, process and reaction • Understand that there are many options in the (re)organisation of work

9. The underlying dynamics of structural change • The transformation of tacit knowledge into codified knowledge • Standardisation of existing processes; which in turn makes possible: • Management by results (or performance indicators); which in turn makes possible: • Remote management – displacement in terms of time and space • Organisational disaggregation - either internally or externally; which in turn leads to: • Elaboration of value chains – contractually (proliferation of separate legal entitities) or spatially or both • An incremental process: (standardisation > market testing > outsourcing > offshoring > global sourcing) • Modularisation can be the basis for aggregation or disaggregation; centralisation or decentralisation

10. Reskilling New working practices separate cost centre market testing benchmarking Individual freelancers/ consultants outsourced to dependent company Outsourced to SME Outsourced to global supplier outsourced to strategic partner Outsourced via intermediary Different forms of restructuring in-house outsourced • Use of temp agency staff • body shopping • spin-off company • external supplier on premises • Transfer of personnel to outsourcer on the original premises • Remote back office • home teleworkers • nomadic workers • Own workers on clients’ premises • Own workers in other branch on a remote site

11. for further information • www.worksproject.be • www.emergence.nu • www.stile.be • www.analyticaresearch.co.uk • www.cybertariat.com • www.workinglives.org