Every day the reception area at CareerBox in Umhlanga, Durban, is abuzz with hundreds of young, unemployed people desperately looking for a foot into the job market.
The recruitment and training company screens and processes up to 200 applications for call centre jobs. Some of them are graduates.
Mondays are the busiest as about 500 people stream into CareerBox offices. “Most people hear about the company through others,” said CareerBox founder and MD Lizelle Strydom.
In the long queues are young people whose aspiration is to get a job and support their families, many of them living in abject poverty. The official unemployment rate increased from 31.9% in the third quarter of 2023 to 32.1% in the fourth quarter.
The department of trade, industry & competition has identified the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which includes call centres, as a priority sector, particularly for addressing youth unemployment, and it provides incentives to companies. It has set a job creation target of 500,000 by 2030. The local BPO sector is valued at $2.1bn and is projected to reach $6.49bn by 2031, at a compound average growth rate of 13%, according to research firm Growth Market Reports.
Strydom said at CareerBox, no applicant goes home without receiving help.
We measure our success by how many people get jobs. Currently, we have a 92% placement rate ... Between January and June last year, we trained 6,500 people and they got jobs.
— CareerBox MD Lizelle Strydom
There is no age limit and even those who left school at grade 11 can apply. CareerBox recruits and trains agents for its anchor client CCI South Africa, one of the biggest business process outsourcing groups in SA whose blue-chip international clients are spread across Europe, the US, UK, and Australia and operate in industries such as telecom, retail, insurance, cruise ships and airline industries.
Strydom, a former call centre agent at CCI, explained that CareerBox changed the way CCI used to recruit and on-board individuals. “Traditionally, CCI would go out to the market and say ‘we need 100 people with two years’ experience dealing with customers in the US’. CCI was not going to get those numbers if they continued because many of those people only know of the US through television.
“So we had to change our recruitment process to identify more potential, than previous, experience. We have a robust selection and assessment process. We assess behaviour, communication and typing skills, comprehension, literacy and numeracy rather than experience or qualification. So all employees that go into CCl, their first point of contact will be on CareerBox.”
The training process is about three weeks and once they pass, they join CCI where they undergo another four weeks of technical training. More training follows after candidates start working. During the training, candidates receive a weekly stipend to help them with transport and food.
“What we are very bullish about is the job opportunity. We measure our success based on how many people get employed. Currently, we have a 92% placement rate within CareerBox. Between January and June last year, we trained 6,500 people and they successfully got jobs. We found 73% of the individuals who come through are aged 23-26,” said Strydom.
Over the past five years, CareerBox has built a database for candidates that did not make it to the programme and through its partnerships has recommended those people to other sectors such as retail and hospitality.
Since it opened in 2013, CareerBox has trained 60,000 people who are now working in the BPO sector, including at CCI and also in other industries.
“So there's a massive need in South Africa for people with customer service skills, whether it’s in hospitality or BPO, or any other industry. Even if someone has been six months in a BPO and they get a job as a receptionist or junior PA, that experience they’ve got going through an international training programme for a Fortune 500 company and dealing with customers in the UK and the US is priceless,” said Andrew Rall, CCI managing executive for marketing.
Peter Andrew, CEO of CCI South Africa, said many senior leaders at the call centre started as customer service agents on the telephone and have since gone on to build long-term careers in more senior management positions, and in different departments. The BPO industry, like every other, also has a range of support roles, including HR, finance, IT and operations.
He said South Africa has earned global recognition as a favourite and trustworthy offshore outsourcing destination. A large talent pool, low costs, sufficient expertise and easy-to-understand neutral English accents are some of the key factors prompting companies to choose South Africa as their preferred outsourcing destination. About 170 BPOs are servicing the international market.
CCI has been in South Africa for 19 years and most of its clients are international companies. Its call centres run 24 hours as its clients operate in different time zones. One of its biggest clients is a UK telecom company that has been with the company since it set up office in SA. It offers comprehensive customer care services including technical and also runs the social media pages of the UK telecom company from its centre in Umhlanga.
The IT Academy provides an avenue for growth for agents and employees across CCI into the IT department, thereby growing the skills base in the BPO industry
Over the past four years, CCI has expanded its operations and opened branches in Nairobi, Kenya; Accra in Ghana; Kigali, Rwanda and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. CareerBox has also set up shop in those countries to help recruit and train candidates for CCI and they have opened a centre in Umlazi, Durban, the first one in a township. Andrew said the company is considering adding more. CCI employs 10,500 people in its centres, with the biggest being in Durban. By 2030, it wants to employ 20,000 agents across its markets.
Not only does the company have a comprehensive training offering for all employees, but last year it launched the CCI IT Academy to help build digital skills for the industry.
“The IT Academy provides an avenue for growth for agents and employees across CCI into the IT department, thereby growing the skills base in the BPO industry. Our aim with the academy is to ... address the skills shortage in the IT sector,” said Andrew.
CCI offers many benefits to its employees, including on-site clinic premises staffed by a general practitioner, gynaecologist, on-site counselling, nursing and dentistry services. It also has a salon offering haircuts and beauty treatments, and canteen services.
“The BPO industry offers an opportunity for young, unskilled and inexperienced individuals to enter the job market. South Africa has amazing young people who don’t have the opportunity in all sectors but the BPO sector is where there is an opportunity for employment and a huge opportunity for them to build a career,” said Andrew.
Strydom said Africa “is filled with talented young people who simply haven’t had the opportunities to develop their skills”.
“We have witnessed first hand how so many capable and ambitious young people have managed to secure their first job after completing our workplace readiness training programmes, thereby securing not only their own futures, but uplifting their entire families in the process.
“We are excited to expand our operations in Umlazi and nurture the next generation of talent for the BPO industry,” said Strydom.
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