White Paper Preview: Company Absence

With our downloadable section now live and available on the company website, Bellcom Worldwide provides industry white papers full of tips, advice and useful information. These PDF files are very easy to download and we hope you find them useful.

 

This week the Bellcom Blog will give you a preview of our latest white paper based on managing levels of absence in a call centre. We hope you enjoy it and that you come to our download section to read it in full.

 

 

7 ways to manage absence

 

 

Absenteeism has traditionally always plagued call centres, with some reporting an absence level as high as 15% on Mondays! Bellcom Worldwide has a philosophy of building a positive working atmosphere in which employees will thrive and work at their optimum.

 

While we take pride in the fact that our attendance levels on average are over 95%, the company always looks for ways to manage absence. The following methods have helped Bellcom Worldwide be successful with regards to absence and we hope that these tips can also aid your business.

 

 

  1. 1.       A clear attendance policy- When making a strategy to minimise levels of absence, it’s essential that a clear attendance policy is put in place and that all employees fully understand what is expected of them when it comes to absence and timekeeping.  With a system like this in place, there can be a level of consistency in how absence is dealt with and monitored. Ensuring that employees are fully aware of what measures to take when calling in absence adds a bit of structure to the businesses and creates a level of understanding between employer and employee. Time stamping procedures are used at Bellcom Worldwide to monitor attendance levels of all employees while absence procedures are clearly illustrated in employee contracts.

 

  1. 2.        Flexible schedules- Having flexible working schedules offers employees some leeway that doesn’t force them into absenteeism for reasons beyond their control. This is especially useful to accommodate workers who may have family commitments or that are working on a part time and temporary basis.  With a high number of European staff working at Bellcom Worldwide, our office is open from 8am until the evening to accommodate time difference in Europe and the USA which makes it easier to be more flexible with working schedules.

 

To read more, click this hyperlink to view the white paper as a PDF file. Hope you like it!

 

 

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by Rupert
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28
Oct
2011

Bellcom Worldwide- Masterclass 2012 Update

The Bellcom Worldwide Masterclass is an annual event where the company’s top performers are rewarded for their commitment and success in the business with an all expenses paid trip to an exotic destination. It is a culmination of a year’s hard work and emphasises Bellcom Worldwide’s commitment to rewarding excellence.  The reason why the Masterclass programme is in existence is to motivate our workers to go that extra mile in the job and also as a show of gratitude not only for sales and revenue generated but for hours put in and dedication to the job. The performance of individuals is monitored on the Balanced Scorecard, which challenges staff to hit their targets consistently and awards points for timekeeping and attendance.  Working at a consistently high standard is part of the Bellcom Worldwide philosophy, and we like to reward our top performers and hardest workers with a fantastic prize every year as a thank you to them for maintaining a top level of performance.   Previous destinations have included trips to a remote American ranch in Georgia and most recently in April of this year, a trip to Las Vegas.  At the last quarterly Awards Ceremony held in August, the winners of the next Masterclass trip to Dubai were announced and with that kick started the race to the 2012 prize.  Weekly updates are posted on the Bellcom intranet in order to keep employees updated with their progress and extra motivated to compete for the top spot. Healthy competition is encouraged within Bellcom Worldwide and with quarterly prizes in addition to the grand prize of the Masterclass, quality is a habit.  A recent survey conducted saw that Asia was voted as the most popular choice for the next Masterclass destination although as seen in the table below, 18% of the voters who chose Antarctica will have to wait that bit longer for their dream trip to see the penguins.  More information will be available on destination of the Masterclass 2012 so be sure to regularly tune into the Bellcom Blog for further announcements on that.

 

 

Company Poll: Where would you like the next Masterclass to be?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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by Rupert
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26
Oct
2011

Bellcom Worldwide- Develop your career with us

Bellcom Worldwide is a vibrant place to work and we believe that our company culture adds something a little bit different from your average call centre. Situated in a 5 minute walk from Glasgow Central train station in the City Centre, our location makes Bellcom Worldwide an appealing place to work. Not only are there plenty of transport links to and from work but with many cafes, shops and bars in a close proximity to the office, it’s easy to find good places to eat your lunch and ideal for going out for a drink on a Friday with colleagues.  Bellcom Worldwide is currently recruiting to strengthen its Dell Campaign in the UK and French market and a new campaign for FTSE is also opening up this November.

 

With vacancies listed on the careers page of our website, it’s really easy for someone to find all the necessary information about a job before applying. We’d like to encourage you to share this on your Facebook and Twitter pages in order to send our message out to as wide and audience as possible in order to find the best person suited for the job, or, why don’t you apply and become a part of our team.

 

If you need a new challenge in your career and want to join a winning team in a fast paced industry that offers big rewards for hard work, Bellcom Worldwide is for you. See our company website for more details about us and also check our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates about new vacancies.  Remember, the sooner you apply  the better the chances of success in your job hunt!


SEE BELLCOM WORLDWIDE CAREERS FOR MORE DETAILS

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18
Oct
2011

Bellcom Worldwide and the World of Social Media

 

The Rise of Social Media

 

The rise of social media in the last five years has had a huge impact in the world with businesses increasingly trying to adopt strategies to use it to their advantage. The stats are there to highlight the impact that social media has had on society such as a new member joining LinkedIn every second or the fact that if Facebook was a country it would be the 3rd most populated in the world behind China and India. Organisations throughout the world have always battled on a daily basis to communicate effectively to their selected target audiences and build a brand image and increase awareness, so when something comes along that costs only an internet provider fee and reaches over 300 million people, of course managers are going to sit up and take notice. However, simply making your company accessible on social media does not mean that results are going to sky rocket overnight.

 

“We don’t have a choice of whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.”- Erik Qualman.

 

 

Bellcom Worldwide & Social Media

 

Bellcom Worldwide has embraced social media and is using several social networks as part of its online marketing strategy with the long term aim of enhancing brand awareness and consequently generating new business. Regular interaction with followers of the company does not only provide an outlet for the company to keep stakeholders up to date but creates a platform for Bellcom Worldwide to be seen and recognised by potential business partners who may otherwise would not have had Bellcom Worldwide on their radar. In addition to building a corporate image of the company, frequent social media and regular blog entries aids Bellcom Worldwide in being recognised by the Google search engines. Entries about key industry topics such as telemarketing, B2B lead generation, customer service and outsourcing in general, mean if an individual were to type an online search query relating to Bellcom Worldwide such as “Call Centre Glasgow”, our use of search engine optimisation tactics and frequent internet activity means that the company website has a greater chance to appear as one of the first websites on the Google results page.  Social media works as an integrated marketing communications system and many posts on Bellcom Worldwide’s Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn sites all link back to the Bellcom Worldwide website and again, this is useful company exposure to potential clients.

 

 

Does Social Media for your business guarantee success?

 

Social media is not a miracle worker and creating pages for your business on sites such as Facebook and Twitter does not guarantee success. It takes hard work and time to build up a solid network of important and relevant followers who take a genuine interest in your line of work and can even sometimes be viewed as potential clients.  Sales are not generated directly via social media but “being there” is effectively a free way to advertise your company for who they are and also to add a bit of personality to an organisation’s brand image – after all, it is a real person who is posting updates. Regular updates are vital for any social media strategy, not only do they help your company get recognised on that network but are also taken into account by Google: The more regularly you post, the more likely your company will be found by the Google search engines. Considering that Facebook is the world’s most popular website after Google, it is well recommended that businesses create a company page on that network and use it to promote the organisation. Revenue and sales may not rise overnight but in the long term an increased company presence will certainly help to create a desired brand image, raise brand awareness and help sales teams to interact with an audience who not only are able to quickly obtain company information from these pages but who could well have been made aware of a company because of social media.

 

”The worst type of success is overnight success, due to the fact that it does not come with any of life’s valuable lessons. As a result, once you lose it, it is almost impossible to ever obtain it again.”

 

As previously mentioned, it’s vital to remember that while social media doesn’t guarantee overnight success, it contributes to the long term marketing of an organisation. It certainly is the future for marketing, so if you’re not using it already, what are you waiting for?

 

Watch the Social Media revolution in this unbelievable video clip!

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14
Oct
2011

And the award goes to…

The 2011 Glasgow Business Awards were held last night in the Thistle Hotel and saw Bellcom Worldwide take the prize for the Healthiest Happiest Workplace of the year.  The event was a classier affair than the work racing night held at PJ Champs last Friday but we’ll get back to that a bit later.  Entering the Happiest Healthiest Workplace category in the Glasgow Business Awards started a few months back and involved a lot of hard work and effort from Susan and Ewen filling in the entry forms and writing up a proposal about why Bellcom Worldwide would be well suited to win this award. It was a great honour to be nominated but winning it outright has given everyone in the company an extra lift, especially Alan who managed to get his photo published in today’s Evening Times. If you would like to go and get your hands on the trophy, it is currently residing in reception beside Charlene although I’d recommend you go there stating that your first intention is to see her rather than see the shiny prize that’s on the desk in front of her.  A strong group of Bellcomers were proudly representing the organisation and in doing so were enjoying a fine three course meal washed down with fine champagne- a far cry from the pizza and pints of Carling on offer last Friday night at the Bellcom Worldwide charity race night.

 

Our race night was brilliantly organised by Charlene and saw a huge turnout at PJ Champs over in the west end. With several members of staff buying a horse for the each race and bets being made on the night, there was a lot of excitement in the air during the eight or so races that took place.  Overall, a brilliant sum of £650 was raised for Yorkhill Childrens Foundation and fun was had by everyone in attendance, especially those fortunate enough to win a prize or a high stake on the horses. Our first work night out together since August had us all reminiscing (some cringing) come Monday morning and already a quiz night is in the making for the end of October, a night which will hopefully provide me with plenty of material and photos for another blog entry, so watch this space!

 

  

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07
Oct
2011

This decade at Bellcom… A Donald Gillies Story

In a change from the normal Friday blog discussing events of the past seven days, this entry will celebrate Bellcom Worldwide’s longest serving employee Donald Gillies who, this week celebrated his 10th anniversary as “Bellcomer.” The call centre industry in which Bellcom Worldwide operates has a notoriously high turnover rate and while we pride ourselves on a low company turnover, Donald’s 10 years of service is an exceptional achievement which is why we decided to celebrate “Donald’s Day” on the 21st of September, marking ten years to the day that Donald first set foot in the building

 

After everyone had toasted Donald’s achievement with cake and champagne, I managed to catch up with the man and get a few words about his thoughts on spending the past decade working for Bellcom Worldwide. Ten years ago when Donald arrived Bellcom Worldwide –then known as Coltas- many of the 2011 workforce including myself would have still been in school, or even primary school if your name is Jack Berry.  JoJo was a young innocent (that part’s debatable) Frenchman who had no idea how to accurately impersonate a Scottish accent, Rupert looked like Justin Bieber, David Whyte was a regular at the Admiral, Vanda still didn’t know the difference between Holland and the Netherlands, and Joe Calvo hadn’t changed in the slightest. Donald noted that the office walls weren’t even pink back then and remained bland until Varry came to the company in 2004 and “revolutionised it.”

 

Arriving from a company called Teletech, Donald’s first job at Bellcom Worldwide was working on a campaign selling Dell Warranties. He was alerted to a vacancy within the company by Bellcom Worldwide’s former head of sales who he knew from a previous job and he hasn’t looked back since.  While he was very keen to point out the changes in personnel and the expansion of the office space during his time here, one thing he noted that hadn’t changed whatsoever were the great personalities and good banter that flew about the office, something that he stated to be the best thing about working here.  He is a veteran of many campaigns and even recalls Facilities Manager Dave Adams being a campaign team leader back in the day, although his most memorable campaign was one for Access Accounting. However, this had nothing to do with the work he did for them but was due to a sly photographer taking his picture for the company profile and photoshopping his hair from grey to black. Incidentally this infamous photo is the one that was used for the Donald’s Day poster that is currently plastered around the office!

 

Donald enjoys a practical joke, especially if Yazid is involved and when asked what his funniest moment was at Bellcom Worldwide, he told me a story about a notorious cigarette scrounger who was pranked when he sponged what appeared to be a regular cigarette. Little did he know that one of Donald’s colleagues had given him the cigarette which was rigged with a small fire cracker inside it. Donald, after people read this you’ll never be asked for a cigarette again!

 

Donald joined David Mackay’s Quality Control group last year and ten years on from his first shift he plans to keep plugging away until he turns 65 and will call it a day to begin a well-earned retirement.  On behalf of everyone at Bellcom Worldwide, I’d like to offer a big congratulations to Donald for reaching this ten year milestone, and wish him every success in his future. All best Donald!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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23
Sep
2011

Inside Bellcom Worldwide- The office wide brief, 16/09/11

This morning’s office wide brief was the first of what will be weekly occurrences where everyone in the organisation will assemble to discuss how business is going as well as sharing any news, updates, and team progression based on weekly, monthly, and quarterly targets.  The main announcement today was the news that the Bellcom HR Manager Susan Knox will be leaving us in the near future and moving to pastures fresh to work at “The Booking Room,” incidentally a client of Bellcom.  As a Bellcom employee for the past seven years, Susan has been an outstanding servant to the company and her presence will be sorely missed.  I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of everyone at Bellcom to thank her for all her hard work and wish her all the best in her future.  Replacing her has HR Manager will be Bellcom’s very own Fiona Stewart who has undertaken much training for the role over the last year, this making her more than ready to step into Susan’s shoes.  It is always great to see someone within the company being promoted, so very well done to you Miss Stewart and all the best, I’m sure you’ll do a grand job.

 

This week’s Masterclass update showed that the Xerox Supplies team is leading the way in terms of revenue, attendance, performance and quality. Targets for all the campaign teams were discussed this morning with particular mentions going the Dell UK team and Xerox Equipment UK team who have had an excellent week and are well on top of their monthly targets.  Jamil, David Whyte and Michelle Rivers have also enjoyed a great week working on The Booking Room campaign and another mention goes to Cheryl Slater for her work on the Stewart Travel campaign.  Incidentally at the time of writing this piece, I was distracted by a loud ringing bell and the sight of David Whyte dancing and shimmying his way around the office, signalling that The Booking Room team had in fact hit their quarterly target with Michelle taking the honours of landing the 121st lead.  They’ve done exceptionally well hitting their target so early so a big congratulations to them for their hard work and outstanding performance on this campaign. Enjoy yourselves this weekend guys, you deserve it!

 

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16
Sep
2011

Race Night!

It’s important in every organisation that staff are able to let their hair down regularly and bond with fellow employees outside the working environment, which is why we’ve decided to organise the 2011 Bellcom Race Night! Back by popular demand after last year’s success, this race night promises double the fun, double the prizes, and double the food (If you believe Charlene that is!)

As our last work night out took place way back in July, our very own Miss Ferris has kindly decided to organise this bash which will be held at PJ Champs in Glasgow’s West End and will be in aid of our chosen charity, the Yorkhill Children’s Foundation.  It promises to be a classier event than our last effort in a Charing X bar and our organiser-in-chief has even been able to charm her way into securing some great prizes such as:

 

  • Luxury hotel stays.
  • Meals in top restaurants.
  • Beauty treatments.
  • Drinks vouchers.

 

While no one will be forced to flutter, it’s encouraged that everyone makes the effort to come out and enjoy themselves.  Horses will be on sale for £5 from reception so pick your punt and get involved. You won’t win it if you’re not in it!

 

Richard has designed a wonderful poster which originally looked like a David Guetta CD cover but now looks smart, snappy, and fit for the occasion. It is in your inboxes and will also be popping up around the office in the coming days so it’s recommended that you check it out for further details about the time and exact location of the event. I hope you Bellcomers and friends can all make it, keep your eyes peeled for the blog entry after the event (fear not, no scandal will be revealed).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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14
Sep
2011

Pony Up

Last Sunday saw the return of the Bellcom Pony Club where the children of Bellcom employees and friends were given the chance to come to a Renfrewshire farm to spend an afternoon having riding lessons on the ponies. While the opportunity to ride to ponies proved to be the highlight of the day, the event was also educational as the children were taught about how the animals are fed, groomed, and looked after. Assisting Varry with hosting the event were Erika, Joe, Callum, and Dave although the last two were said to be as much of a handful as the children!

 

The Bellcom Pony club was launched in January of 2010 as a means of strengthening the Bellcom Community by bringing Bellcom employees and their families together for a big day out. Children who attend are given a membership pack and are encouraged to take part regularly so that they can develop their riding skills as well as meet new friends who also take part in the Pony Club. As a keen horsewoman, Varry has used the Bellcom Pony Club as a way to encourage children to engage with animals and learn about them from a young age. The latest event proved to be a huge success and was summarised beautifully by the photographer for the day, Dave Adams:

 

                “Between Wasps doing death runs at me, Callum being the biggest girl there, Carmine getting lost, Leanne getting a wee bite from Harley (the pony), and Erika nearly tripping over a pink stool,  it was an eventful day…at least the kids had a ball”

 

If you would like to take part in the next Bellcom Pony club, keep your eyes and ears open for the latest updates and find out more about it on the Bellcom website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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12
Sep
2011

Rebranding for the future: Bellcom Worldwide Ltd

                              An office wide brief at the end of August saw Managing Director Varry McMenemy announce the exciting news of Bellcom’s rebranding as part of the company’s strategy to generate more business in foreign markets. The name “Bellcom Ltd” was officially replaced by “Bellcom Worldwide Ltd” with this change officially taking place on September 1st 2011.

 

                      This decision to rebrand was taken in order to be consistent with the company’s new strategic shift where it aims to enter more global markets with the backing of Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International.  Varry specifically noted that the key reason for the rebrand was to position the company for future growth and expansion.  However, how can changing the company name really help achieve this goal?

                Brand image can be defined as ‘the perception of an organisation’s brand by its stakeholders and can be influenced and manipulated in a way to give it a symbolic meaning which is identified by a business’ target audience’. Many organisations have rebranded in the past in order to enhance their brand image- British Petroleum to BP and Norwich Union to Aviva, to name a few- based on business strategy and future aims.

 

                   The name Bellcom Worldwide portrays the company as one geared towards a global market. As the public face of any company, it is vital that the name and logo appeal to the appropriate target audience but also tie in with the image that a company is looking to build. Bellcom Worldwide is a name that symbolises globalisation and it will be vital that the company uses this to its advantage as it attempts to expand and carve an image as a global player within the outsourcing industry.  

 

                    The coming weeks will see an array of visible changes taking place as a result of this rebrand with the company logo and website being altered in the efforts to build the organisation’s global image, so make sure to look out for future blog entries and check the Bellcom website and social media pages (facebook, twitter and LinkedIn)  for updates during this transitional period!

 

 

 

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07
Sep
2011
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