New year, new challenges…but always staying true to our culture
I’d like to kick off my annual blog by wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year. I hope you had a fun Christmas with family and friends. It was certainly a much-needed break and opportunity for us all to relax and reset.
We look forward to another immensely busy year and continued growth on a number of fronts here at Sigma Connected. That upward trajectory, however, wouldn’t be possible without the numerous successes we saw in 2024. It was another year, and indeed another chapter, where we continued to grow – helped by being brilliantly different.
A people first culture
There’s one theme which was fundamental to our achievements last year which was the loyalty and dedication of our people. None of our success would be imaginable without them.
It was a year where we reached a milestone of employing over 5,000 employees across the UK and South Africa. That amazing figure didn’t come easy, but what makes me extremely proud is that despite this growth, we’ve never lost sight of our people-centric culture, nor our commitment to our values which are embedded through everything and everyone.
Growth for us came in all shapes and sizes. Our performance saw us retaining a three-year contract with one of the UK’s top energy providers, whilst we also entered into new sectors including insurance and telecommunications. We broadened our reach into the financial services arena and boosted our reputation for handling extremely complex complaints, including around motor finance and fraud.
All in all, we added six game-changing clients, helping to drive a 20% year-on-year growth in revenue, and underpinned by several other long-term clients who have trusted us to be custodians of their brand since the very start of our journey. For us, that’s huge as we have grown with them every step of the way.
These wins and successes are all down to our people. We continued to see significantly strong staff retention rates as our employees continued their career journey with us. That loyalty and commitment was highlighted by us becoming the only BPO listed in the 2024 Sunday Times Best Places to Work for the second year running. That was a real wow moment, and closely followed alongside the news that we were upgraded from ‘Aspirant’ to ‘Major Contender’ status in Everest Group’s Customer Experience Management (CXM) PEAK Matrix®.
Consideration and compassion
Our reputation for really caring and understanding our clients’ customers is often highlighted through the ongoing success of our ReachOut initiative, which after four years, continues to support vulnerable people in more ways than we could have ever have imagined. ReachOut has become a defining part of our brand, signposting thousands of people in 2024 to places where they can receive real and effective support.
Aligned to ReachOut, for the third year in a row, we distributed over £5,000 worth of supermarket vouchers to some of the most vulnerable customers our team have spoken to this year, to help them with food, clothes or gifts during the festive season. To be able to play a part, however big or small, in helping people cope with the often-unseen Christmas pressures means a lot to the whole Sigma Connected team.
Ushering in 2025
Looking forward, we move into 2025 as the challenges in the UK labour market continue, with competition to attract and retain the best people still incredibly difficult, coupled with rising interest rates, national insurance hikes, and continuous challenges in the UK including a prolonged cost-of-living crisis which is still very much alive.
For us, this also brings opportunities in South Africa where a significant number of businesses are now seeing that offshoring simply needs to be part of their agenda – backed by data which shows first class quality and performance. We continue to be at the forefront of offshoring which is a great place to be, and that’s vital to our ambition for double digit growth this year.
I’m incredibly optimistic for our South African operation. The opening of a further office in Paarl highlights our growth in Western Cape and will initially bring 250 new jobs into the community. It’s a big part of our location strategy – bringing jobs to the people, cutting down their commuting time, and maximising their income. Keep your eyes peeled for more on our Paarl expansion in the coming months.
Our continued partnership with Shadow Careers through our Impact Sourcing strategy is also key as we expect to take on hundreds more people in 2025.
Doing what matters, brilliantly
This year, as a business, we want to continue to do much of the same which is deliver excellence, along with offering the right services and expanding on those for our clients. We will continue to be the leading BPO provider for our target lane – delivering complex interactions in regulated sectors – all underpinned by a variety of agent support options including the use of technology such as AI and chatbots to enhance our agents performance, but never replace it.
Our commitment to our communities will also continue. We have recently reached a huge milestone of donating £100,000 to Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity and have dozens more initiatives planned for this year, which includes our support of two orphanages in Cape Town which I cannot wait to visit for the second time in February with my colleague and co-founder, Mike Harfield.
As always, this is just a personal snapshot of a year gone and a year ahead, but we should be incredibly excited about the opportunities that await not only Sigma Connected, but the wider BPO industry.
Once again, I’d like to thank our people for all their hard work, our clients for their continued support and trust in us, and everyone who cheers us on from the sidelines. I wish you all a happy new year and I look forward to catching up with you all the weeks and months ahead.
