North in move for call centres

By Yoke Har Lee

The Far North District Council is gearing up to attract call centre operators to the region.

Its Economic Development Task Force last week hosted its first summit aimed at promoting the district as an investment location for industries.

Task Force chairman Chris Mathews said there was heavy emphasis at the summit on the fast expanding teleservices industry such as call centres, help centres and other telephone-based industries.

These jobs could be located in rural areas like Northland, with significant advantages for employers, including low rents, access to workforce and low staff turnover.

The call centre industry had responded warmly to the idea of siting teleservice facilities in the Far North and other regions, Mr Mathews said.

"Worldwide, cities aren't able to provide enough teleservice workers to meet demand. There is a trend for organisations to invest in rural areas like Northland where jobs are scarce.

"This is also happening in New Zealand - there is a churn rate for call centre workers of more than 30 per cent in the cities. Our research indicates that there is a very low turnover in rural call centres, a factor that is very attractive to employers," Mr Mathews said.

The strategy to attract teleservice industries to the Far North ties in with that of the Trade Development Board, which has been trying to encourage teleservice companies to put investments here.

Geoff Cassels, who is consulting for Trade NZ on investment promotion, said late last year that the teleservice industry was an area the board was trying to attract.

He said a large part of cross-border investments were made by companies based on locations rather than resources.