Plusnet ready to add 200 jobs at call centre as demand increases

Andy Baker, the company’s chief executive, said the extra staff would be hired at the company’s call centre in Leeds in response to demand.

Plusnet, which was founded in 1997 and bought by BT in 2007, already employs around 850 people at its headquarters in Sheffield. It is one of the fastest growing internet service providers in the UK.

Mr Baker told The Yorkshire Post: “We’ve gone from opening the building in Leeds, in November 2013, to having just shy of 250 people in the building now. We’ve also made the commitment to expand the building space.

“We’ve got room to grow for another 200 people. We will grow into that space within the next 18 months. Plusnet has trebled in size over the last five years. We will continue to stay on that growth curve. That growth curve means we will create more jobs.”

Mr Baker, who was appointed CEO in December 2013, is a former head of BT’s wifi business. He said there was more to customer service than just being able to answer the phone.

He added: “That’s being able to deal with customers’ queries via Youtube, with videos, via webchat, and the customer can interact with an adviser online. We think the thing we do better is fuse together price and service.

“Service is really important to us. There’s something about the Yorkshire personality that gives fabulous service. There’s a charm that really comes through, and we put a huge responsibility on our people. We’re not a call centre that employs people simply to read through some screens on a computer.

“We don’t script our advisers... the responsibilities are on the individual’s shoulders, so their character and personality, and their empathy are critical. You find that in abundance in Yorkshire.”

“We’re moving up to one million customers,’’ he added. “We’ll continue to enhance the products any customer can buy from us.”

“Moving into Leeds as well as Sheffield has been hugely helpful for us,’’ he said. “There were some skills, in particular, specialist skills like software engineering, where we (were) starting to have a little more of a challenge being in a single town. Moving into Leeds has really helped us to extend our footprint.

“We’re not struggling to attract staff. We had a look around and decided Yorkshire really was our home. It has the cities that hit the right buttons for us.

“There are great universities. Building relationships with the universities and being able to attract graduates to a whole variety of roles is really important to us as well.

“The more customers we recruit, the more employees we’ll need to recruit to manage them. We have created something powerful within Plusnet that I really want to amplify and continue to build on,

“It’s not just about creating roles, it’s about creating careers for individuals who come in to Plusnet and then move up through the organisation.”

Mr Baker said that the pace of the roll-out of broadband in the UK has been phenomenal, but he understood that people would find it painful if their neighbour had access to broadband and they didn’t.

He added: “Broadband is so critically important to everyone.”