Qualfon’s Providence call centre will cater for 3,500 seats when built.
A sod turning ceremony is set tomorrow at the Providence location for the facility which the company says will provide 6,000 jobs.
Describing itself as the largest private employer in Guyana, the company, in information released ahead of the ceremony tomorrow, disclosed that the complex will have solar power panels and `green’ building materials, an indoor/outdoor cafeteria, an interfaith chapel, an onsite water treatment facility, back-up generators, a water pond and landscaping, parking and designated pick-up and drop-off areas.
In addition to the initial contact centre, the company plans an administration building and a second operations centre. It said the Providence installation will be one of the “largest contact centre campuses in the world”.
Speaking about its investment, Qualfon said that it chose Guyana as it is well suited to serve the contact centre industry.
“Qualfon’s largest market is serving customers in the United States, and Guyana understands Americans. They speak the same native-English language and watch the same TV”, Mike Marrow, Qualfon’s CEO said. “That’s why we have decided to heavily invest in Guyana and build one of the largest contact centre campuses in the world”.
Its Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Bob Dechant added “Qualfon’s investment in a new 3,500-seat contact centre campus represents a concrete sign that Guyana is a premier new location for the industry and that Qualfon believes in the future of Guyana”.
Operating here since 2005, Qualfon says it has “average employee tenure of 28.8 months and an average monthly attrition rate 5.45%” in its facilities here.
It added that “Guyana provides one of the most compelling offers in the BPO (business process outsourcing) industry. With its competitive prices and native-English language, as well as Qualfon’s low attrition rates, Guyana is a great alternative to India and a strong complement to the Philippines”, Dechant added.
The company also lauded the Guyana Government and Go-Invest for their help in making the expansion possible.
The call centre campus is being built south of the Princess Hotel on the East Bank of Demerara.
Qualfon celebrated its seventh anniversary of operations in Guyana last year. A company press release then had said that it first launched its commercial operations in Guyana with only 50 employees. Last year it had over 1,500 employees.
President Donald Ramotar and Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh are to address the launching.