Mark Allen from Affinity at RSA announces 230 new jobs created as a result of their contract with Tesco to manage the company’s pet insurance product. Broadcast at 08:10 on Tuesday 11th May 2010 in the Paul Stainton Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Peterborough.
STAINTON: Some good news then on the jobs front in Peterborough this morning. Two hundred and thirty jobs are being created in Peterborough by insurance firm RSA, formerly the Royal Sun Alliance. The company planned to shed twelve hundred jobs last year, but in an upturn in fortunes it’s now signed a deal with supermarket giant Tesco. Let’s find out more and speak to Mark Allen. He’s the managing director of Affinity, one of the operating arms of RSA. Morning.
ALLEN: Morning.
STAINTON: Why choose Peterborough?
ALLEN: Well to be honest we’ve had a presence in Peterborough for a number of years, and have always been really pleased with the quality of people and the level of service we’ve been able to deliver. And also over the last couple of years when we’ve recruited we’ve recruited some really great people. So we’ve looked at this and decided that the best way forward for delivering great service to Tesco will be to source those people in Peterborough.
STAINTON: What sort of jobs are they that are coming to Peterborough?
ALLEN: There’s a range of jobs. We’ve got some people who will be doing sales of pet insurance. And some people will be handling the claims, once the pet’s sick, or has visited a vet and we need to resolve that situation for them. And then there’ll be some team leader and management positions.
STAINTON: Right. Not just call-centre jobs then?
ALLEN: Well these are customer care jobs, looking after Tesco’s customers and making sure that we’re delivering on the promise that Tesco’s given when the customer’s bought that policy.
STAINTON: Right. So they are call-centre jobs then.
ALLEN: Yes. they’ll be in our contact centre in Lynch Wood.
STAINTON: Right. So what have we got that India hasn’t then?
ALLEN: Well as I said you know we’re committed to delivering great service and delivering upon our promise to Tesco, and Peterborough has been a great site for us. We do lots of things in the Peterborough site already, whether that’s home claims, and sales to our MoreThan business, and Peterborough just seems like the right place to deliver upon the promises we’ve made to Tesco in this contract.
STAINTON: So things are on the up, or not?
ALLEN: Yes. Things are really good at RSA. We’ve delivered some strong results to the market last week, and this is another sign of a positive way forward for RSA.
STAINTON: Yes. And these are permanent jobs, are they? Because obviously you know they’re difficult times, at the moment aren’t they?
ALLEN: Yes. They’re all permanent jobs.
STAINTON: Right. And when are they coming on-stream?
ALLEN: We’ve already started to recruit. The next Open Day is on ther twenty fourth of May. And people will actually start joining us in July two thousand and ten. And then we’ll be looking to recruit on an ongoing basis over the following twelve months.
STAINTON: And do you see signs in the economy that might mean that you can add to these jobs?
ALLEN: Well I can only comment about what’s going on at RSA, and you know as I said we delivered some strong results last week. This contract is another sign of some strong performance, and we hope to continue to perform well.
STAINTON: Right. OK. So some good news. So these jobs will be available from July, and two hundred and thirty of them at RSA, the Royal Sun Alliance in Peterborough.
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