Swift Response

With four NI bases and around 3,000 staff, Concentrix, Northern Ireland had a huge task relocating its empire during the pandemic, but feedback from its client base and staff reaffirms that the shift has been a success. Here Philip Cassidy executive vice president and Darryl Hill, senior vice president, talk to Emma Deighan.

Concentrix Corporation (Nasdaq: CNXC), a leading global provider of customer experience (CX) solutions and technologies, shifted 85% of its 3,000 – strong team to home working setups during the pandemic.

It was a move it anticipated as its offices around the world changed from office to workfrom-home setups.

“We have 250,000 plus people worldwide and as the governments were closing down countries, we saw it coming. Italy hit us hard at the beginning of the pandemic, and obviously that was after China shut down,” Philip begins.

And the result of Concentrix’s swift ability to relocate its staff has been praised by its customers in terms of the velocity in which the business made this happen, Darryl reveals. And it could become something of a feature in its future.

“We are in a scenario where clients have seen some benefits and, looking at the longerterm layout, we’ll go by what those clients deem fit for their needs in their longer-term strategy with the business,” he says.

Concentrix has a huge office base and four sites across Northern Ireland. Philip says the firm is committed to honouring leases with landlords and that will play a part in how the company’s future infrastructure looks but he’s not ruling out a flexible working environment for employees.

“A lot of clients are happy to consider a blended mix in the longer term and that is an ongoing discussion, but ultimately we have to look at our properties, look at our lease expiration dates and they will drive some of our decisions. We understand that we have commitments to real estate in the long term and we’re looking to balance that with what our staff are looking for.

“I’d say we’re looking for a combination of the wishes of our clients and staff to create that balance, perhaps looking at an opportunity to reduce leases,” he continues.

Looking at productivity during lockdown, Concentrix has experienced a modest improvement of around 1.5% Darryl says. “We’re on par, if not better, but we understand that a lot of our workers want to come back into the office.”

The business, which focuses on serving its clients across IT, retail, multilingual services, telecoms and more, has seen its reach, recruitment wise, expand further than its bases here, thanks to its newfound flexibility.

“Our ability to hire people to work from home gives us loads of options and it reaches out to people across the region,” adds Philip, who was recently awarded an MBE for his services to entrepreneurship, business and the economy.

That new opportunity is evident, as Concentrix has seen great traction to its current job listings, with remote working benefits attracting staff.

And its people are “happy” Darryl says, regardless of the lack of floor-to-floor buzz synonymous with an in-person environment. “We continue to receive positive feedback from our staff in their assessment of how Concentrix accommodated their move to a work-at-home environment.

“We are fanatical about our clients and our staff and we took an approach to ensure every site had a mental health engagement representative and we’re continually thinking of new ideas and ways to engage and not just professionally. Having that visibility is key for us, and our work around communications is excellent.”

He says positive staff wellbeing has been evident through absence levels at the firm, which haven’t witnessed an increase despite the challenging backdrop.

Honing staff welfare has always played something of a role at Concentrix and is not purely induced by current events. Four years ago the company held its first Wellness Week aimed at driving staff health and wellbeing.

It provided a range of onsite activities and events with the theme of Live Well, Eat Well, Be Happy at its Maysfield complex where Pilates, Yoga and PT classes featured.

One thing Concentrix would like to see coming out of the pandemic and its new, more flexible way of working is a diversification in

Philip Cassidy, Executive Vice President at Concentrix. Darryl Hill, Senior Vice President of Concentrix.

the age demographic in the business.

Traditionally the average age of Concentrix workers falls within the 25-35 age group. “That’s remained static and we are interested in that from a diversity element. We want the balance to be right and it is across many areas with a balance in males and females and that continues through our management layers,” explains Darryl.

Looking to the rest of the year, Philip and Darryl are “excited about going into a new world”.

Darryl says business is rife, new clients are coming on board and plans have been fasttracked across multiple sectors in which it operates.

“The value that we have around looking after clients and people has become more prominent in 2020 and 2021. We did things with great integrity and that was really important to us and it’s been noticed by our clients and our staff.

“Our future within Northern Ireland continues to grow, we’re seeing real exponential growth, helping us build a better future.”

He says the business is garnering more interest from other areas of the globe, and describes its increasing global reach as “really interesting”.

“We continue to innovate as an organisation through our technology to ensure we positively continue good momentum in serving our clients and our people much more effectively in this digital era.

“Those things we were interested in, like working from home, have accelerated and we’re reaching new people. The vaccination is signalling a better understanding of our plans moving forward and we will continue to adapt to the ongoing changes,” he says.

So while the facades of Concentrix’s bases here may be all picture and no sound, Philip concludes: “As you drive past some of our buildings they may not be as busy, but we are busy, if not busier.”

“We are fanatical about our clients and our staff and we took an approach to ensure every site had a mental health engagement representative and we’re continually thinking of new ideas and ways to engage and not just professionally. Having that visibility is key for us, and our work around communications is excellent.”