My line of business - the group organisation and resource director

Do you find the multitude of roles that exist in the call centre sector a bit mind-boggling? Well, worry no more. Call Centre Helper is on hand to give you the low-down on the variety of jobs that exist in the world of call centres. Each month, we’ll be hearing from an individual who works in the sector and will not only discover what they do for a living, but also what their tips are for getting in to that line of work.

This month, we profile Bibi Bajwa, group organisation and resource director at MM Teleperformance.

I have always been a free spirit and very independent from a very early age. I always dreamt of being an air hostess as a little girl and the first time I did fly I was very ill. Then I thought I would be a nurse but fainted on my first time inside a hospital. I clearly must have had an urge to look after and be responsible for people in some way.

My school assessments showed that I was very analytical and excelled at languages and maths and they recommended that I pursue economics. I found data analysis, statistics, data response and sampling very interesting. This led me to study economics at the London School of Economics.

I come from a very ‘typical’ Asian family where my father, like most, wanted me to be a lawyer, doctor, solicitor or accountant. You can imagine his joy when I finished full-time education and got my first job at Nat West Bank where I was put on the fast track management development

programme. Due to the many different aspects of clearing banking, one of the key things I learnt there was the ability to multi-task, coupled with the need to work quickly but efficiently.

My next job was for Raynes Shoes in Central London - the Queen’s shoemakers. I applied for the sales assistant job and came out with a role as sales trainer when the manager recognised my analytical powers of persuasion.

Very quickly I was looking at what was selling - colours, styles, price ranges - and studying people’s buying behaviours and observing their body language. This helped me to work out the optimum floor layout and best window displays to generate sales. This, coupled with looking at the sales personnel and their characteristics, enabled me to assist the various outlets in driving sales and improving commissions and earnings.

Was I a good salesperson? Probably not. Was I able to look at human behaviour and compute that information to provide the best sales environment? Yes, and that is what the manager recognised in me.

A calling from the call centre industry

I left this role to take a year out to travel around Europe, India and Pakistan. In fact I came back after a few months and started my career in the contact centre industry after hearing the Job Shop on Capital Radio advertising for telephone sales executives.

Eighteen months into it and having progressed in to account management, I realised this was where I wanted to be and developed a real passion for the industry, which I still have today. I became a group account director in 1985.

Back then you were responsible for finding your own prospects and looking after your clients, being involved in project set-up, training and recruitment, the daily operational management of campaigns and programme/agent performance, and the day to day account management, including billing and end of campaign reporting.

I remember then how our first automated online calling system put an end to manually entering completed calls and seemed to revolutionise our working day. I have always felt technology can make people lazy and am mindful when setting up any campaign that the use of technology should be an enabler rather than the answer.

My retail experience was easily transferred into my new call centre career as I could use the same sales techniques without the face-to-face contact, build rapport using the ‘verbal handshake’, give a reason to engage in the conversation and meet the customer’s objectives.

In 1989 I set up my own business - BPS Associates - with three partners. SR.Teleperformance bought a controlling share and we began trading as BPS Teleperformance. When SR.Teleperformance purchased MM Group in 2004, we merged to form the current business, MM Teleperformance.

MM Teleperformance has a nationwide network of sites in Bristol, Birmingham, Ashby, Swindon, Rickmansworth and Bangor, Northern Ireland, for which I am responsible for the recruitment, training, development of people, and quality and compliance.

Why HR is unusual in call centres

Human resources as a function in call centres is very different to that of HR departments in corporate companies. In order to keep and develop over 2000 people nationwide, the HR function provides a host of support activity.

On a day-to-day basis my job is very varied. On the one hand I have functions that require a very ‘hands-on’ approach and are focused on task delivery. On the other hand, the job requires forward-thinking and planning so I can be more proactive in developing the support functions and determining their impact on the business as a whole.

At the heart of what I do with my team is the development and retention of our human resource collateral. In practical terms this involves constantly looking at our candidate attraction and evaluation techniques and ensuring the methods, the impacts and the improvement of both our operational and development training reaches all levels within our business.

The key principal we have adopted as a team is, ‘if we can’t measure it, we cannot manage it’. The philosophy at the core of everything we do is continual improvement. This, in effect, means that we are constantly reviewing all aspects of our business - specifically service delivery - with the objective of contributing towards improvement strategies that complement our overall business objectives and goals.

Almost every day we are running workshops and training campaigns using our modern graduation bays, including national vocational qualifications (NVQs) and MM Teleperformance’s own in-house foundation training.

I am also fortunate to have responsibility for our offshore offering where I have been able to put to good use my knowledge of Indian culture in training and development plans and day-to-day programme operations.

I have a very full and varied career that I very much enjoy. I think I am very lucky to have over 2000 people to look after and I’m sure it’s just as rewarding as being a nurse or an air hostess.