Vodafone’s call centers have become almost a right of passage for most university students, as the international service provider supplies several countries through local centers. The call centers have provided many jobs over the years but has always had issues with high turnover rates.
The call centers in Egypt cater to many countries including the England, Ireland and the USA. This demand continues to increase, to which the company has expanded their number of centers over the years, but times are changing.
Last week, Vodafone International chief executive designate Nick Read, who will be taking over CEO responsibilities from previous CEO Vittorio Colao next month, spoke to Financial Times about his plan to reduce the company’s over 31 billion Euro debt.
In his interview, Read commented that part of the plan was to lay off around 1,700 call center staff members in Egypt, India and Romania. This would be around 8% of their total work force in that side of the business.
This is part of the company’s plan to reduce costs of up to 8 billion euros, a plan that could include selling thousands of their telephone towers.
With around 6,000 employees, Vodafone Egypt employees may be fearing the worst.
Vodafone Egypt’s Reply
To quickly quiet any panic, an official source reached out with Al-Mal News.
The source suggested that technical progress, aka robots and possibly AI, will make some jobs obsolete in the future. This push, according to the source, will be limited to call center staff.
The source continues to say that Vodafone Egypt does not have any intention to layoff employees at this time, but will most likely not replace those who resign. This could mean that the company will be waiting for people to naturally move on before replacing them with their new electronic counterparts.
It is important to note that call centers have an incredibly high turnover rate, which could indicate that the change may be quick.
