Keeping Convergys

By Jonathan Riley

Digby Courier

NovaNewsNow.com

Municipal leaders in Digby and Annapolis are as concerned about keeping Convergys as Convergys is about retaining employees.

Wardens and mayors from the two counties visited the Cornwallis centre in February to make sure everything was okay. “We just want to keep them happy as we can,” said Digby warden Jim Thurber. “They employ 600 people out there and we don’t want them to leave just because of some small thing we could have fixed.”

Jason Brown, director of operations in Cornwallis, says the call centre isn’t going anywhere. “We’re not moving to China,” he says. “The community can be exceptionally confident. As long as we take good care of our customers’ customers, we have a job. And we’re doing that.”

Brown says Convergys already has call centres around the world, part of what he calls a “successful outsource strategy.” “What happens if all our agents are in the Philippines and a tsunami hits, or a Katrina hits? Or maybe the customers don’t like the accent.”

Convergys is based in Ohio and has call 75 call centres in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In Canada they have 14 centres and employ 14,000 people.

Brown and the municipal leaders discuss two challenges they leaders might be able to help with.

One is a Digby-bound on ramp to the 101 and the other is child-care. “Some people can’t solve for that,” says Brown. “and then they attrit.”

He says a childcare facility in Cornwallis would be ideal. Thurber says they are working on both these issues. “We’re going to do everything we can there. When crunch time comes, we just want to make sure this centre doesn’t get cut.”