In another South African first, Business Procurement Outsourcing (BPO) industry leader CCI South Africa officially opened its new Umlazi contact centre at Umlazi Mega City today. This new building reflects the company’s desire to make it easier for its employees to get to work, and for people from previously disadvantaged communities to take advantage of the employment opportunities offered by the BPO industry locally.
The opening of the CCI South Africa branch in Umlazi marks the first contact centre opened in a township for the company. Umlazi is the biggest township in KwaZulu-Natal, with nearly half a million residents. Because of the high costs of commuting to Durban’s commercial centre, Umhlanga, residents of the township are under-represented in the BPO industry. At present, 20% of CCI South Africa’s staff hail from Umlazi.
“As a company, we pride ourselves on putting our people at the centre of our business, and this is reflected in our tagline: Human Connections, Business Results. We realised that many of our valued employees have a long and costly commute to work in our current offices in Umhlanga, so we started really thinking about how we could ease their burden and facilitate access to employment. The obvious solution was to open a contact centre in Umlazi. When the lease for our downtown Durban office ended, it made perfect sense to make a commitment to our employees with a contact centre much closer to their homes, in Umlazi,” says Peter Andrew, CCI South Africa CEO.
The contact centre is just the beginning of the plans for the CCI South Africa presence in Umlazi. In early 2024, the company intends to open a new centre for its impact sourcing partner, CareerBox Africa, which offers highly driven young people from previously disadvantaged communities the opportunity to enter sustainable employment in CCI’s contact centres after completing a two-week work readiness programme facilitated by CareerBox.
“We have seen incredible demand for training at the CareerBox offices in Umhlanga, and we are delighted that we will be able to offer many more of the motivated and talented young people and women from Umlazi access to the BPO industry through our work readiness programmes,” says Lizelle Strydom, Managing Director at CareerBox Africa.
The BPO industry offers individuals with varied educational backgrounds and qualifications an opportunity to enter the workforce. Anyone can succeed and thrive in an industry where the right attitude, good communication skills and an aptitude for working with people are highly valued. The industry, supported by the South African government, has ambitious goals in place to grow job creation by up to 500,000 cumulative new jobs by 2030. CCI South Africa currently employs 8,000 people and intends to grow to 20,000 positions.
“Our strength lies in our ability to make a real difference in people’s lives, enabling them to develop their own generational legacies. Central to this is our tagline – Human Connections. Business Results. With over 8,000 people working across 8 sites in 3 cities, we are only able to achieve what we do because every individual plays their part in the bigger team effort. I am extremely optimistic about the positive impact that our Umlazi contact centre will have for our employees and for the ongoing growth of CCI South Africa and the BPO sector as a whole,” says Andrew.
DID YOU KNOW?
About CCI South Africa
CCI is Africa’s leading business processing outsourcer (BPO) operation in Africa. CCI caters to a large portfolio of international clients from delivery locations across the continent. CCI is passionate about the exceptional customer service it provides for its partners. Every interaction the company has delivers customer experience excellence to its partners and their customers. In so doing the company creates jobs at scale and change lives. CCI’s vision is to be the largest and most respected outsourcer in Africa by offering world class solutions that derive value for its clients and their customers.
For more information, visit https://cciglobal.com/
About CareerBox
Founded in 2013, CareerBox identifies and recruits talented, underprivileged youth and women, equipping them with high-demand skills before placing them with our corporate partners. CareerBox empowers youth by providing career development training and work readiness programmes focused on both soft and technical skills. A non-profit company, CareerBox is an industry-agnostic training business with established expertise in customer contact and recruitment induction.
For more information visit https://www.careerbox.co.za/
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