Have you ever heard of the slogan, “I am Sykes. How far will you let me take you?” If you have the answer is not very far. Today, I have decided to provide anyone whose interested in becoming an employee at a Sykes corporation near you some very valuable information. This information is not to deter you from employment but to provide you with a greater understanding of the company as a whole. I am an insider and here is my information and knowledge.
Sykes is a corporation that outsources to many companies some in the United States and others around the world. They have major companies like: BlackBerry, AT&T;, and Bank of America underneath their contracts. But, what exactly does Sykes do for these companies? They provide customer support. They hire people like you and me to take phone calls in calls centers around the world.
As a Sykes employee you are told to never tell anyone who you work for as you work for Sykes. But, that is not the entire truth as an employee of Sykes you are officially contracted out to the customer whose current contract Sykes hold. And, your pay no matter the company or job is at the flat rate of $9.00 per hour if you are a customer service representative if you are on the south east coast. They also provide an employee incentive which is basically a small amount that is added to each employee check per pay period based on their overall job performance.
An average day at Sykes entitles the customer service representative (CSR) to clock in at least three minutes before shift so if your shift begins at three o’clock you are expected to clock in at two-fifty seven. In the run of a day you may have twenty to one hundred calls with 80% of those calls being horrible with customers hollering and cursing at you. However, you are expected to maintain a professional attitude and be polite to the customer.
While, on the phone you are constantly being monitored. Sykes has what they call, Quality Assurance Agents (QA’s). The QA’s job is to monitor and grade the calls of each CSR. They check to make sure your call is scripted correctly and to see if you have tried to help the customer. Keep in mind that depending upon the contract that you are under there is no help for the customer. And, if you fall short on your call you may get written up, put on an employee improvement plan, or your employee incentive maybe docked.
The overall pros are that it is a job/paycheck, period. The cons are the company is very misleading. You cannot advance as fast as they advertise. The employee tuition reimbursement plan that they sell you doing the interview and orientation is a lie — you must pay out of pocket and cannot receive any additional assistance i.e. no financial aid, grants, or student loans. The medical benefits are very expensive and have major setbacks.
