For TELUS International Europe in Romania, 2018 was a year focused on the integration of Voxpro, a provider of beautiful customer experience, technical support and sales operations solutions with locations in the United States, Ireland, the Philippines and Romania. Now operating as ‘Voxpro – powered by TELUS International,’ the Ireland-headquartered company has a dynamic track record supporting the world’s innovators and disruptive technology companies, helping them to evolve and scale into some of today’s most renowned global brands. With our dedicated, shared and co-located customer support capabilities, together we provide additional diversity and flexibility in meeting the needs of marketplace disruptors.
This year, TELUS International Europe in Romania will hire 600 new team members by June 2019. On January 7, TELUS International started the hiring process for two major accounts. These include a subsidiary of the largest Canadian mobile network operator for which we already have a dedicated team of 200 French and English customer service specialists in our Bucharest headquarter. Another large company that we provide top quality services for from our Bucharest AFI Park office is a worldwide hospitality company. We have 400 team members on this program, delivering customer experience to clients in French, English, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian.
Romania’s labor market will need one million new employees by 2021 to support the projected economic growth, according to the Coalition for Romania’s Development (CRD). And about 81 percent of Romanian employers are already facing difficulties in filling vacancies, according to the ManpowerGroup Talent Deficit Survey. In fact, the country ranks second in the world in terms of the share of employers facing a talent shortage.
As a customer experience provider that currently employs 1,500 people in Romania, we face the same highly competitive labour market place. However, thanks to our caring company culture, cool benefits and flexible work schedule, on top of an award-winning office space and central location, we are confident in our ability to attract top talent.
Backed by a great employer brand as well as solid client partnerships and others in our pipeline, TELUS International Europe in Romania has significant hiring plans in place. Our major focus will be to attract bilingual French and English speakers in 2019. These future team members with advanced speaking and writing skills in both languages will account for more than 50 percent of our recruitment needs.
At TELUS International, we strongly believe in Romania’s business potential, calling it The New Outsourcing Valley of Europe. In 2019, more than 125,000 people will work in Outsourcing and Shared Services Centers in more than 265 companies and start-ups, according to the ABSL. Romania’s reputation as an attractive outsourcing destination is still on the rise. The country has been climbing in various rankings of prominent associations, agencies and organizations as a top outsourcing destination not only in Europe, but also globally. Why is that? We believe Romania holds its top billing as a home to more offshore and near-shore centers than any other Southeastern European country because of its cost-quality balance, flourishing technology hub, and abundance of professional, multilingual talent.
We believe the number one challenge that outsourcing and SSC companies have to tackle in Romania is the tight labor market. It’s a growing issue that should be addressed by all stakeholders within our industry and in cooperation with local government – working collaboratively, rather than individually, in order to achieve the desired results more quickly to meet today’s needs as well as tomorrow’s.
Grégoire Vigroux
Vice-President Europe, Marketing and Corporate Communications
TELUS International