Employment and labor relations in the Knowledge economy . The experience of Italian call centers

1. Employment and labor relations in the Knowledge economy. The experience of Italian call centers Employment and labor relations in the Knowledge economy. The experience of Italian call centers Flex-work Research Conference 2013 “Labor market intermediaries and employment policies in Europe: the way to work?” Amsterdam, 24-25 October 2013

2. The transformation of work changes in the macro-economic and socio-political climate are driving important changes in the nature of employment and work from industry to services de-manualisation, emphasis on knowledge/capabilities greater flexibility, and instability

3. Employed people occupationSource: European Union Labor force survey - annual results 2012

4. Employment by sector 70.1 % of the employed persons in the EU worked in the service sector In 2012, more than two-thirds of all employed persons in the EU worked in services: - 39.6 % were involved in market-oriented services such as trade, transportation, accommodation and food services, information and financial activities and real estate. - 30.5 % were employed in public administration, education, human health, arts, entertainment and recreation and other services. - 24.9 % of employed persons worked in industry and construction, while agriculture accounted for 5.0 % (see Table 2). Sizeable differences still persist between Member States. Agriculture continues to be a significant source of employment in Romania (29.0 % of the working population in 2012), whereas it accounts for only a very small share (below 2 %) in Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Malta. The relevance of industry (manufacturing and construction) was highest in the Czech Republic (38.1 %) and Slovakia (37.5 %), and lowest in Luxembourg (12.7 %). The share of market services was highest in Cyprus (48.0 %), and non-market services were most prominent in Luxembourg (42.6 %). Of the women employed in the EU, 44.6 % worked in non-market services and 12.5 % in industry (including construction). For men, the picture is almost the reverse, as 35.2 % worked in industry and 18.6 % in non-market services.

5. Employment by skill level and qualification 40.1 % of employed persons in the EU were skilled non-manual workers Skilled non-manual workers (i.e. legislators, senior officials, managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals) made up the largest occupational group in the EU in 2012, accounting for 40.1 % of all employed persons. Luxembourg had the highest share (57.8 %). Skilled manual workers (e.g. plant and machine operators, craft workers) accounted for 23.7 % of total EU employment. In 2012, Romania (49.5 %) recorded the highest proportion of skilled manual workers followed by Poland (36.9 %). The proportion of men and women working as skilled manual workers in the EU is quite different: 36.3 % of all employed men and 8.7 % of all employed women. 9.1 % of employed persons in the EU had an elementary occupation, with Cyprus recording the highest share (17.1 %).

6. Workers employed by economic sector in Italy

7. The Italian paradox Unlike other countries, the increase in employment in the service sector has not affected the knowledge sectorand the service industry (i.e. marketing, business consulting, advertising, etc.), but those areas that do not require particular specializations or skills. This refers, for example, to the call centre industry, catering, fast-food and cleaning work Possible explanations: • traditional and poorly innovative nature of the manufacturing industry, which does not require particularly advanced services, • prevalence of small (94% under 10 employees) and fragmented enterprises • organizational characteristics of the reality of services that only with difficulty absorb educated workers. Consequences: - Diffusion of service workers as opposed to professional and creative ones - an increasingly common condition of over-education and mismatch between acquired learning and work carried out

8. The call center example Starting from these assumptions, we explored the “world” of call centers as a typical example of a new form of organization in the service sector economy. Callcenterization process (Huws 2009) at present Italian call centers employ around 80.000 workers and count 200 enterprises (among which only five of them control 60% of the whole market) for a business that reaches around 1 billion a year (65% represented by the telecommunication network)

9. The research design Survey on call center operators findings are based on 1.715 questionnaires completed by workers of 19 call centers located in Lombardy, Lazio, Calabria and Sicily, selected in accordance with the size (in terms of number of workers employed), the private/public nature, the organizational typology (in-house or outsourcing), the kind of services delivered (generalist Vs dedicated), the workers’ tasks (inbound and outbound). The questionnaire consisted in 54 closed questions articulated in five broad sections covering aspects such as socio-demographic information; workers’ identity and motivation, education and previous work experiences; the nature of work and the main characteristic features; employment and labor relations; working conditions.

11. Research aims and hypothesis increasing our knowledge on working conditions and employment relations in call center organizations In Italy call center jobs are not necessarily bad jobs associated to precarious forms of employment, high turn over, low wages and weak social protections. In certain contexts and in specific periods they may be considered as “socially acceptable”, not only as a first job or temporary occupation call center as an “opportunity” for those territories and local institutions able to attract and retain such organizations, using those practices defined as forms of “socio-territorial innovation” (Pierre and Tremblay 2012) and as a source of competitive advantages.

12. Call center operators profile

13. Education level

14. Table 4: Youths’ motivations to work per region – % values • (respondents could give more than one answer to the question) Motivations to work

15. Trap or opportunity? Over a third of respondents (31.3%) have been working in the same call center from 1 to 3 years, 66.9% are not currently looking for a new job significant role played by personal characteristics such as young people’s age, gender and level of education, social context and the family of origin in terms of social, cultural and economic status that significantly influence young people’s expectations of work

16. Table n.7: how did you find the job?

17. Skilled or low skilled workers? Competences required for the job (respondents could give more than one answer to the question) In your working activity, how frequently do you use the following competences?

18. Employment contracts

19. Woorkers’ Tasksperfomed in the call center

20. Tasks performed and typologies of call center

21. Salaries earned according to the call center operator task

22. Human resources, employment and industrial relations

23. Managerial style in dealing with workers % values Search for workers’ commitment Greater attention to: • a pleasentworking environment • reduced managerial control • good relationships among colleagues • Incentives

24. Thinking about your call centre, how much do you agree with the following statements?

25. Consequences deriving from missing the company targets (respondents could give more than one answer to the question)

26. Workers’ level of satisfaction - dissatisfaction about the following aspects

27. Industrial relations Are you a union member? Yes, why? No, why

28. Concluding remarks Italian call center are a non-homogeneous reality, since organizational work and production modalities vary in function of some fundamental variables, such as the context in which the center operates, the business dimensions, the specialization of the activities or the size of the offer of the services, the work modality that is predominantly used, the public or private nature.

29. To sum up - Differences related to the context: Polarization between North and South of the country and different workers’ profiles (age and education) Motivations: Traps/ Rational choice • Differences related to workers’ performance/tasks In-bound VS Out-boundsocial acceptable VS bad job

30. Differences related to call center typologies and size: Big(and specialized) is better than Small (and generalist) Inbound task is more widespread in big size specialized or dedicated call centers (66.2%) and in the generalist ones (58.2%) • Differences related to public/private nature: Public call centers still represent an advantage public call centers and, above all, those with over 200 workers employ almost exclusively (91.7%) inbound operators (more specialized and less precarious)

31. QUESTIONS

32. Contact details Vincenzo Fortunato Department of Political and Social Sciences Università della Calabria (IT) vincenzo.fortunato@unical.it