Sitel’s “MaxHub” in Barranquilla Reimagines Role of Delivery Center

Global BPO provider Sitel has begun building a co-working center in the Colombian city of Barranquilla to train and oversee home-based employees, besides unveiling an ambitious plan to hire 11,000 people in the Andean country over the next few months.

The facility, nicknamed Maxhub, will be the contact center of the future because it is designed to meet the needs of work-from-home model necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The co-working center will also serve as a location for service delivery, but its main focus will be training newly-hired employees and managing those working from home.

“The typical contact center – with rows and rows of cubicles – is a place of the past,” declared the BPO provider in its description of Maxhubs.

The campus will feature 1,500 square feet of co-working space. More than anything else, it will be equipped with a gym, cafeteria, and a library, where both remote-workers and on-site employees will socialize and learn from each other.

The Maxhub will be used to “support our growing network of at-home associates with tools and resources,” says Eduardo Endo, VP of Operations at Sitel Colombia.

Some employees at the facility will work even while learning. If everything goes according to the plan, the facility will be up and running in the Spring of 2021.

Sitel moved most of its 5,000 Colombian employees to home environments following the coronavirus outbreak. All of them are still operating from home. The BPO provider is not talking about bringing them back to the office.

Sitel has been operating in Colombia for the past 23 years, with businesses in transportation, technology, financial services, and telecommunications, being its major clients. Earlier this year, local media houses reported that the call center operator had secured 10 new clients in the Andean country in a space of two months.

Sitel is not the only BPO provider looking to hire thousands of employees in Colombia. Earlier in August, Teleperformance disclosed plans to recruit 10,000 remote customer care agents in the Andean country.