by Eoin Clarke on
The UK satellite broadcasting company BSkyB has announced that it plans to create over 800 jobs in Dublin by 2014.
Sky has said that its new Dublin customer support contact centre, to be located at offices in Burlington Plaza, will open in August of this year and will provide a focused service to its Irish customers from one central base. Previously, customer support services were operated by Sky from Scotland.
The recruitment process will begin right away and is part of the organisation’s strategy of increasing its workforce by an extra 1,300 employees both here in Ireland and the UK.
Positions on offer within this new recruitment drive include a variety of roles at different levels from human resources and training to customer service advisers and managers. It is believed that these new jobs will grow Sky Ireland’s employee figure to over 900 people within two years.
Currently, the company has a service contract with Abtran in Co. Cork where just over 150 people provide customer sales and support services.
Although Sky does not publish figures for Irish subscribers, the research group AC Nielsen estimates this figure at 675,000 making it the biggest pay-TV supplier in Ireland despite competition from UPC and others. In terms of market reach, it is estimated that Sky broadcasts to 10.5 million homes in Ireland and Britain.
Recent figures that have been published by Sky include its half-year results which showed a 6 per cent rise in revenue to £3.4 billion with its operating profit increasing to £601 million, that’s a growth of 16 per cent.
Sky’s chief executive, Mr. Jeremy Darroch, stated that he expects trading in the coming year to “remain tough” but that the opening of the new contact centre in Dublin will enhance the company’s overall offering with improved customer service while they also looked “forward to making further contributions to the local community.”
The Government’s Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton made clear his delight at the announcement of Sky’s job creation by declaring it a “welcome vote of confidence in our workforce and in the Irish economy.”
