On 12th Anniversary, Ready Call Center Will Cut Jobs
One of the biggest private sector employers is trimming down the size of its work force. And the jobs of at least two hundred and thirty employees are on the line. Ready Call has announced that it is cutting off the TracFone Wireless service, which means that staff will become redundant as of the end of June. News Five’s Duane Moody today spoke to Nubia Ramirez, the C.E.O. of the company, who says not all is lost. Here is his report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Business process outsourcing or B.P.O.s has been a booming industry in the region. Over the few years, several call centers have popped up across the country; there are up to sixteen companies operating in Belize, employing almost three thousand persons. Arguably, the largest private sector employer in the country is the Ready Call Center, which was the first B.P.O. to set up shop back in 2005.
Nubia Ramirez
Nubia Ramirez, C.E.O., Ready Call Center
“Amazingly, we opened on June second, 2005 and tomorrow is our anniversary number twelve. It is not the last one as some people have been spreading the word. We are grateful that we have come this long. Originally when I came to Belize, I was planning to have this service for the cellular campaign for only five years and we ended up completing twelve years.”
The center, head-quartered near the Burrell Boom cutoff, once employed about one thousand customer care representatives and operating staff from across the country. It provides an opportunity for the thousands of persons who once were on the unemployment bracket.
Kendra Clare
Kendra Clare, Employee, Ready Call Center [August 18th, 2015]
“You get to grow; it is continuous training; it is not like you get to stay at one area for a long time. Within one year, you can move up the notch. I always tell people that working here is a very good experience. Working here two years, I was able to build a house…and that is only in two years.”
Carla Mai
Carla Mai, Recruiter, Ready Call Center [August 18th, 2015]
“I’ve been here for nine years now and over this nine years, I’ve learned a lot about customer service, met a lot of great people and it has helped me out a lot personally with helping my kids go to school and so forth.”
But that dream has been shattered; at least for two hundred and thirty-nine persons employed with the popular TracFone Wireless service provided by the company comes to an end on June twenty-eighth. The prepaid cellular service allowed Ready Call Center to become the pioneer of the call center industry in Belize.
Nubia Ramirez
“It’s not that all of them are going to lose their jobs. But we have to follow procedures. We need that instead of waiting till last minute that the campaign is closed and trying to figure out what to do; we are giving notice to two hundred and thirty-nine people, even though we have more over there. And these two hundred and thirty-nine is because we need to work within this month and the following month to try to get these people ready to join the other campaign that we have. But there are also restrictions. I have people that are not living here in the city; they are only able to handle a.m. shifts. And here in the city, with the other clients, we need people who can handle a.m., middle or p.m. shifts or even our night shifts because we are here twenty hours a day.”
A release issued by the company also says that effective July first, its services will be offered only from their Belize City branch located at the ICON Building, across from Hour Bar, on Princess Margaret Drive. According to C.E.O. Nubia Ramirez, the staff has been notified of the transition.
Nubia Ramirez
“We believe that we might be able to still retain about a hundred and twenty out of that. But it will be a process because our commitment with the cellular campaign is that we will be operating and offering service until the end of the month. And I cannot just take people because they fit already into another campaign and take them out of the cellular campaign. I need to honor our commitment that we will go until the end.”
But all is not lost says Ramirez, because there are many other services that are offered by the company to its clients from its fully renovated facility.
Nubia Ramirez
“For the last ten years out of the twelve Ready Call Center was always linked only to the cellular campaign because it was our only client. We grow with them; we were having so much work with them that we didn’t feel the need to get other clients. We were too busy just giving services to them. But three years ago, we started to remodel our location here at the ICON building and since 2015 we started to offer services here in the city. We had been getting clients and developing a portfolio of services instead of just keeping one client, which is not healthy for any business. We started to work on this three years ago. At this point we have eight different campaigns. We got into all different types of business. We got into the insurance services, booking reservations, telemarketing, pharmacy. We are in different industries: education, health and security. So at this point we are just going out of the cellular service, but we have the other eight clients that we have within the last three years.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
