UP to 100 jobs are set to be created in the island over the next year thanks to a planned new call and contact centre.
That’s the message from the people behind an ‘exciting’ venture which aims to win business from around the world.
And the new enterprise, called Yello, is holding a two-day recruitment event at The Courthouse, Athol Street, Douglas later this month where bosses will be providing a showcase for budding employees to show off their abilities.
Martin Linham, chief executive officer, said he believes people in the island have the abilities to do a first class job and the Manx centre will provide a better service than others across the world.
And he told Business News: ‘There is so much backlash against the Indian call centres now because what we are after and what we are looking for out of our staff is not people that will work just from a script. We wantreal people answering the phones to real people.’
He added: ‘We identified a big gap in the market for somebody to provide customer service and outsource work which is not all paperwork and accounts.’ Initially they are looking to take on 35 to 40 people here.
He said: ‘We started talking to Government and they have been extremely supportive. We met with the chief minister and officials from the Department of Economic Development and here we are now, just about to take 4,000 square ft of office space.
‘We plan to be up and running in May. We have recruitment open days at The Courthouse in Athol Street, Douglas on April 24 and 25.
‘We are hoping that within the next 12 months we will have up to 100 staff in the island and we are really going to push this and it could be the tip of the iceberg.’
Mr Linham, 44, said customer service operations can be a headache for many companies, ‘so we are saying to them that they can outsource to us and cut costs.’
Mr Linham and chief operations officer John Hewitt, 44, say they were looking to take on people from all sorts of backgrounds.
Scots born businessman Mr Hewitt said initially they would be looking to take on 35 to 40 people.
He said: ‘That is the challenge, to get the right people through the door to join us. We want local people.’
Asked what sort of people they were looking to take on, Mr Linham said: ‘They must have the ability to think outside the box. Someone who is not a robot. We want people who have common sense and a sense of humour as well as the drive and commitment to succeed.’
‘We are doing this for the Isle of Man. We live here, our kids are Manx and we want to do this for the island.
‘We recognise times have been tough and there have been redundancies in various companies in the last 12 months and we want to help fill that gap.’
Mr Linham lives in Baldrine and is a father of two girls aged 16 and 13. Mr Hewitt lives in Laxey and has a 13-year-old daughter and a son aged five. Both men knew each other though their children who attend the same school.
Mr Linham left his job running an eGaming business in the island to concentrate on this new venture.
He said customers could come from companies all over the world and there are already several companies on board to outsource to Yello.
He said the service will appeal to firms of all sizes. ‘eGgaming companies, telephone companies, anybody that has a customer service.
‘Even the plumber that is a one-man band and needs somebody to answer his phone and make appointments for him.
‘It’s from a sole trader to someone that needs a virtual office right up to multinationals. So we are catering for everybody. We have many years experience of operation and management between us.’
‘We are independent and looking to focus on creating jobs here’.
Both men said they had considered other jurisdictions but in the end the island was preferred because of its ‘can do attitude.’
They said Yello had two directors in the UK, a husband and wife in Scotland, Mark and Arusha Irvine who have 25 years’ experience in eGaming. who have lots of contacts in the business world and are also said to have huge call centre experience.
The company’s chairman is island based businessman Morris Hazell.
Recruitment sessions take place at The Courthouse on Wednesday, April 24 between 4pm and 7.30pm and on Thursday, April 25 between 11am and 2.30pm.
The finishing touches are being put to a new website at www.talktoyello.com
Anyone wanting any information can email info@talktoyello.com