My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: How to find work in Jamaica at Call Centers - IBEX Global paying 400 Call Center Agents JA$400 per hour

Monday, September 26, 2016

How to find work in Jamaica at Call Centers - IBEX Global paying 400 Call Center Agents JA$400 per hour

Folks, looks like September 2016 is the month for Call Centers trying desperately to woo more school leavers to join their ranks. So for you workers in Advantage Call Center, Xerox Jamaica, Startek and yes IBEX, I’ve got news more interesting than Mother's Curry goat patty.

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This Sunday September 25th 2016, I looked in the Sunday Gleaner and beheld a marvel; IBEX Global is hiring 400 Call Center Agents and other staff and is willing to pay JA$400 per hour. So say this ad in the Sunday Gleaner dated Sunday September 26th 2016.

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Applications can be made here: http://www.ibexglobal.com/careers

This is even more than Advantage Communication is paying me, which is about JA$380 per hour as noted in my blog article entitled “How to find work in Jamaica at Call Centers - A Brief Listing of Call Center Job Openings in New Kingston”.  Heck, it’s way above even what Digicel’s Call Center offers!

So who is IBEX Global anyway?

IBEX Global hiring 400 Agents - 400 to be paid $400 to work in Google Styled Campus

IBEX Global came into the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) business thanks to CEO Robert Dechant who was instrumental in the launch of IBEX Jamaica and IBEX Nicaragua as noted in the article “The New CEO Whose Market Knowledge Led IBEX Global to Jamaica and Nicaragua”, published April 14, 2016 By Jared Wade, Nearshore Americas.

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After launching on Tuesday December 1st 2015, the currently have about 600 Call Center Agents, Quality, Supervisors and Administrative Staff combined. They should have passed some 1,000 workers in June 2016 and may potentially reach 3,500 to 5,000 people by 2017.

This latest ad may be a part of that ramp and they currently provide the following services:

1.      Teleservices
2.      Chat an Email Services
3.      Account Management
4.      Back Office solutions

Currently, IBEX Global headquarters is located in  Portmore Pines Plaza, occupying 10,000 sq ft spanning three (3) floors as reported in the article “Movie theatre out as IBEX Global chooses Portmore for new base”, published Friday, August 05, 2016 by Avia Collinder, The Jamaica Observer.

The complex, painted in IBEX Global colours of Red and white, is leased to them by Mount Royal Estate development company and represents a JA$300 million investment by IBEX Global. For an upstart to the Call Center world, they're not doing too badly.

As of the end of 2015, the company, which has headquarters in Washington in the USA, had revenues of US$230 million as noted in the article “IBEX Global to open BPO operation in Kingston”, published Wednesday, January 06, 2016, Avia Collinder, The Jamaica Observer.

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With some 18 call centres with 15,000 employees in five (5) countries, their launch in Jamaica has been quite modest. They have their eyes on having three (3) Call Centers located in Kingston on a 1.7 acre campus housing some 650 to 800 agents. The facilities they have planned are quite advanced; shared common areas with a day-care and a Google style cafeteria with food from around the world.

Whether this is all true of not isn't of interest to Jamaicans; what’s got my eye is the mention of the 400 permanent positions paying JS$400 per hour. To me, stating the fact that the salary is a certain value isn’t typical M.O (Modus operandi) for a call center, suggesting that they may actually be having difficulty attracting and retaining CSA.

After all, things have been changing in Jamaica; entrepreneurship is on the rise and Jamaican young adults now have the options of travelling abroad or starting their own business as noted in my blog article entitled “How 9-y-o and Millennials in Jamaica are becoming CEO Entrepreneurs to avoid the Cubicle Rat Race” 

Call Centers have gotten a bad rap due to their low salaries and lack of social freedoms, tantamount to being called a form of modern day slavery. Many Jamaican who work there aren’t comfortable and so leave, telling others of the problems they’ve faced.

This is making it harder for Call Center to get experienced employees, as they constantly have to be training new people and the experienced that remain only do Call Center work to make ends meet and may not view it as a career option. Thus the fact that they’d state the salary and present such wonderful images of a Google-esque workplace, suggests not only is this problem real, but their client must be a foreign multinational willing to pay for their services.

This may have many Advantage Call Center Agents grumbling over overtime pay thinking to jump ship and become Team leads and Supervisor in order to advance their career in the Call Center World......and make a more liveable wage without having to do overtime.

Here's the link:
http://www.ibexglobal.com/careers



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