O2, the mobile telecommunications provider, commissioned a nationwide search and selection process for a new contact centre to house up to 500 staff.  Our experience in siting contact centres in the UK began in 2000 with work for T Mobile and since that time we have delivered our location assessment services into all major UK mobile phone companies as well as major High Street retailers, rapidly expanding online e-tailers and several financial services firms.

A ranking of employment areas across the entire UK was undertaken to provide a primary filter of locations according to O2’s target recruitment profile of relatively young staff.  This highlighted areas that were of particular interest to the client and provided a relatively long list of over 25 towns and cities.

A property search on available premises was run in parallel to our economic assesment to avoid analysis of locations appearing strong at the data stage but where no suitable property would be available.  A shortened list of four locations was taken forward into detailed work on the current workforce, recruitment potential and cost – Liverpool, Manchester, County Durham and Sheffield.

A full mapping of all competing operators, their recruitment scale and public transport routes to available sites was provided to investigate any conflicts that might arise in siting the new operation.

A particularly unique feature of this contract was O2’s interest in selecting a location that would provide a high level of Polish speaking staff with good English language skills and experience in a service sector environment.  No ready made data is available on this workforce element and data on migrant workforces suffers from tracking errors and omissions.

Detailed in location work was required by our team, visiting and discussing the current scale of Polish and UK-born Polish speaking workforces in each area.  We prepared a snapshot of the Central European populations in each area following detailed consultations with local organisations and Polish community groups.

The strengths and weaknesses of each location in terms of place and people were presented to the client ahead of site visits to identify technical/infrastructure issues at each of the available properties.

OUTPUTS

Stage 1 Report – initial assessment & longlist (12 locations)

Stage 2 Report – in depth shortlisted assessment (4 locations)

Stage 3 Report – Board Level presentation

Successful selection of the preferred location for a new 500-seat contact centre.