Call centre community and fun

When they find the time to get off the phones, call centre teams can be found engaging in all sorts of other activities serving their communities, raising money for charities or just having some fun. Read on to see what they have been getting up to. 

Has your centre recently had a fun day? Or hosted a fund raising event? If so, we’d love to hear about it. Please email Claudia with the details.

More than 200 staff at the Domestic & General contact centre in Brighton received free health and lifestyle advice at a Health Awareness Day this month.

Advice workers from CRI, Albion in the Community, Employee Advice Programme, Claude Nicol and NHS Stop Smoking set up on-site stalls. As well as offering advice, they also asked employees to fill in questionnaires to better inform the NHS of local people’s lifestyle and drinking habits.

Pictured above are (l-r) Frank, Matthew and Keiran with the free pants they were given after undergoing a free sexual health screeing.

Domestic & General has won the Healthiest Workplace Award at the Sussex Business Awards two years running, adn its range of wellbeing initiatives has resulted in a 50 per cent staff sickness reduction and a 35 per cent improvement in employee retention.

Staff at London based Vertex Public Sector will be fundraising and rolling up their sleeves to volunteer their time to support Age UK as part of the company’s nominated charity initiative.

More than 2,000 staff from the business services firm will be raising funds and volunteering their time in one of Age UK’s 450+ charity shops to help improve later life.

Reflecting the bright Age UK identity, the Vertex team kicked off the partnership by decorating its offices and dressing head to toe in a rainbow of colours to raise money and celebrate the start of the partnership.

IT, voice and data solutions provider Siptel has donated its surplas technology supplies to Guildford Sea Cadets, some of whom are working towards a BTEC Level 2 in Public Services.

The company is also donating computer supplies to local schools to help pupils gain a better understanding of IT.

"Being part of the IT Sector, siptel always needs to be pioneering and supplying the latest top of the range technologies to our customers, so equipment often tends to be outdated before it expires," says director of Siptel Steve Rasmussen. "It would be wasteful of us to get rid of equipment that can still be extremely valuable to others, and at the same time by reducing matter that is sent for recycling we can do our bit to help the environment as well.”

The boys at RSVP did a fantastic job of supporting Movember 2011 in aid of prostrate cancer. There are some real beauties there!

Brighton based contact centre, Spokenfor Ltd dressed up for Halloween 2011 and raised £750 for their chosen charity - children’s hospice Chestnut Tree House.

The hospice offers support to up to 400 families a year and cares for children and young adults with progressive life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses. The contact centre staff enjoyed a day of spooky fun and games, a raffle and an award for the most creative costume.

Workers at the Tesco customer service centre in Wales are helping to revitalise a local community garden, which is used to educate children about nature and give isolated elderly people a pleasant place to connect with others residents in Llanishen.

Staff at the FedEx call centre helped Children in Need reach its staggering total of £26million by manning phones on the night.

Volunteer staff at Indesit Company's call centre, including UK service director Marco Bellinzona, raised a massive £97,197 during the Children in Need telethon.

Pictured below are: (top row l-r) Marco Bellinzona, Carlie Portman, Paul Lewis, Farhat Rashid, Diane Pollock, Fiona Stewart, and Steve Hodgson.
(bottom row l-r) Andrew Bissett, Rebecca Howitt, Victoria Cayley, and Cristina Greaves.

Not content with taking calls for Children in Need, SWALEC's Cardiff contact centre staff undertook a spot of fundraising themselves. They ran a 'children's tuck shop' selling cakes and sweets, as well as a silent auction with prizes ranging from boxing gloves signed by Nathan Cleverly and a golf run at Celtic Manor.

The team raised £3,500, which was collected by Pudsey himself, who popped by to thank the staff for their efforts.

Specialist outsourcer Go Response is celebrating its massive growth since 2003 by investing £100,000 in expanding and upgrading its contact centre.

The new state-of-the-art office boasts cloud-based technology, a staff gym and high-tech training area and the call centre capacity has increased to 130.

The Alzheimer's Society and Alzheimer Scotland both benefitted from the £19,090 raised by the 14th annual Tesco charity ball.

The 1940s themed event included the auction of several prizes including a luxury hotel stay in Spain, and guests were treated to a lavish dinner and live music.