Avantages
Firstsource pays competitively for call center work. While you may start out low, they have offered raises every year. They have also been working to improve conditions at their Louisville office. Most of the twenty-year old office chairs are now gone, and they are working on replacing computers. I have found them easy to work with as far as scheduling time off for vacations and medical reasons, although this can really depend on your manager. They also are somewhat flexible with shifts. They have begun having different contests and events to help motivate the staff, and generally the attitude about the company on the floor is positive. They have some employees who have been there for years, so are very knowledgeable about the company and the systems used. I have found management easy to talk to about any problems I am having.
Inconvénients
Despite improvements there are still too many people using old and outdated equipment. In addition, some of the new systems they have in place (their new dialer system, for example), is inferior to what I have seen in other call centers. The building itself is too small for the growing number of employees. The number of bathrooms, in particular, is a real issue and there are long lines. The building is just old and needs a lot of repairs. New carpet, leaks in the ceiling, etc. They seem to have trouble finding people to fill their management positions. Despite a staff of veterans, they had to look outside the company for their most recent management spot. No one on the floor wanted the job due to the low compensation, especially considering the amount of unpaid overtime they are expected to work. It really says something about your company if no one wants a management job there. It's not just management though. While there is a core of veterans there has been a constant revolving door for their regular CSRs as well. This is mostly due to poor training and poor support once they are on the phones. The healthcare they offer is not great. Especially since they moved to a new provider last year to cut costs. In addition, the company has been haphazardly implementing a new goals system. There has been no training in how to meet the new metrics, but we have received several emails threatening termination if we don't meet them. Yet no terminations have occurred. If you're going to threaten people you either have to stick to your guns or they are not going to respect your threats. However, since no one is meeting the new goals they would be left with an empty building. The icing on the cake for 2013 was an email we got from the company president stating how profitable we were and how the business was growing, but not getting any Christmas bonus. We've had a bonus for the past ten years, even when there were pay freezes. No explanation from management on what the deal was, but it really affected the attitude on the floor negatively. It hasn't really recovered.