Uninor call centre creates new opportunities for women

Uninor’s Bihar and Jharkhand circle, in eastern India, has established an outbound call centre to promote and upsell products and services. Through cooperation with a local NGO, Gram Prodyogik Vikas Sansthan (GPVS), Uninor transformed this new call centre into a new way of life for the women of the Patna slums.

More than charity

GPVS currently runs an AIDS awareness programme, giving them the necessary experience and contacts needed to set up an outbound call centre. Through close partnership, Uninor and GPVS developed a business model for the call centre that would provide opportunities for women through communication, while simultaneously solving a business challenge in the Bihar and Jharkhand circle.

“We wanted to do something more than charity, something that would be authentic and permanent. The only sustainable way to do that is by combining Corporate Responsibility (CR) outreach with actual business needs. Our outbound call centre provides a valuable service to us as well as employment opportunities for those below the poverty line,” says Navarun Sen, Head of Marketing, Uninor.

Aligning CR with Business

Uninor’s new call centre business model is strongly aligned with the Telenor Group CR strategy, which is based on the concept of creating shared value for both the Group and for society. Through these innovative concepts, the Telenor Group can enable opportunities for communities and make a sustainable and positive impact in people’s lives.

“This initiative is an excellent way of demonstrating how Uninor can create value for both society and the business. The women’s exemplary performance shows that enabling opportunities for underprivileged women can also make perfect sense from a business perspective,” said Mai Oldgard, Head of Group Corporate Responsibility, Telenor Group.

Life skills and business skills

A group of 20 women were chosen through references from the local slums of Patna. For the first few days, they were taught about basic health, hygiene and grooming. After that they underwent rigorous training on soft skills and then graduated to communications, computer applications and product knowledge. The women were put on a three-day mock call session where they engaged in outbound calling to Uninor customers.

The training has not stopped there. On a regular basis, forums are initiated to discuss the social and personal issues faced by the women. The initiative also features social awareness programs and provides personal counselling to the women.

Helping women gain economic independence

Today, 33 young women are employed at the outbound call centre. In many instances, these women have emerged as the sole earning members of their families.

“I never knew life would have so much in store for me and that I would be associated with a brand name like Uninor,” said Amrita, a call centre employee and the only wage earning member of her family.

“We started this project with the objective of making a group of deprived young women economically independent. Today I am extremely delighted to see that each of these women is more confident, well trained and ready to take on the most challenging tasks with ease. Even more satisfying is it to see them engage with customers by intelligent upselling, product updates and being persuasive on their core assignment of outbound calling,” said Navarun Sen.