New Department of Trade and Industry-sponsored research suggests that performance from UK call centres is significantly better than from Indian counterparts, but is that likely to be enough to stem the tide of UK companies opting for the offshore route? The research carried out by ContactBabel on behalf of the DTI found that UK workers answered 25 per cent more calls than Indian staff and resolved 17 per cent more queries first time. While Indian workers answer the phones more quickly, researchers found their calls last longer, possibly because of language or cultural difficulties. Moreover staff turnover at Indian call centres is worse than at UK operations, with Indian graduates only willing to stay in a job for an average of 11 months, compared with three years in the UK. But the report also revealed that overseas call centres are cheaper to run as Indian workers are paid less than 12pc of a typical salary of their UK counterparts.

The report said the average starting salary for a worker in India is just £1,500 a year, compared with £13,000 a year in the UK. Steve Morrell, author of the report, said the difference was a "shock," especially as Indian staff typically worked six hours a week longer than those in Britain. "Indian agents are very quick to pick up the phone, but it takes them more than a minute longer to complete each call, and more than a third of customers have to call back later to get a satisfactory resolution to their inquiry. This can be extremely frustrating,” he said. Morrell added that the decision to move offshore was typically cost-driven more than anything else. "These figures show what we all knew anyway - businesses moving their call centres to India are doing it to save their salary bill, not to improve their quality of service, regardless of what they say, “ he claimed, but added that it potentially a false economy. "It's hard to ignore salary savings like these, but if customers get a worse service and end up going to a competitor with a call centre in the UK, then these cost savings will soon disappear." Trade union Amicus leapt upon the survey results to demand that DTI minister Patricia Hewitt - who has openly praised offshore outsourcing and claimed that the exodus of jobs actually benefits the UK economy - investigates further the results of her own department’s survery. "We already know the answer to any survey that the government has commissioned and so do the British consumers,” said David Fleming, the national secretary of Amicus.

"Services will suffer, cost savings will not be transferred to the consumer, poor business decisions will be made in pursuit of short-term cost savings and company brands will be damaged by outsourcing." But the ContactBabel report comes only days after another government sponsored study from the Health and Safety Executive which found that low wages, poor working conditions and repetitive tasks were common in UK call centres. Workers in telecoms and IT call centres showed the poorest job satisfaction and highest levels of depression. "People felt very depressed and demoralised," said Christine Sprigg, the report's author. “Not all call centres are `satanic mills.’ Some do merit that description, but the best do not. The task facing organisations that use call centres is to match their aspirations for high service for their customers with high quality of working for their staff.” Nevertheless the UK’s biggest building society Nationwide has pledged to stay in Britain and back this up with plans for a new centre in Sheffield.The Society says it will open a new call centre in Sheffield in the Summer, initially employing around 60 people, but with plans to expand to 180 over the following three years. It is also completing a major refurbishment of existing centres in Swindon and Northampton, where 775 employees currently field an average 18,500 customer contacts a day.

Approximately 20% of all Nationwide sales are made through the Society's call centres Philip Williamson, Nationwide's chief executive, said: "Call centres abroad may suit some of our competitors but they are not the right option for Nationwide, and we are aware of some commentators' concerns that some countries may not have the same level of data protection for consumers that exists in the UK.” His comments were met with approval by unions. Tim Poil, general secretary of the Nationwide Group Staff Union said: "With so much media focus on financial services providers switching jobs away from the UK, this news will remove any fears that our members may have had about their own job security.