Over the last few years it has become increasingly difficult to find and recruit personnel for the outsourcing industry, especially for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and call centres.

This is why American-based Computer Generated Solutions (CGS), one of the main software, IT services and outsourcing providers on the local market, has chosen Brasov as the location for its second call centre in Romania.

“The most important element in the services industry is people. So far, we have not had to deal with a shortage. We are able to find qualified staff, in particular because we have a range of jobs on offer, both outsourcing and technical jobs,” Phil Friedman, president and CEO of CGS, told ZF.

Nonetheless, recruitment has become increasingly difficult since November 2006, when CGS entered the Romanian market via the purchase of EasyCall, the largest call centre on the market at the time. “This was why we went to Brasov to open a second call centre,” added Friedman, who specified the company received 400 applications for one job advertisement published in the city. “Brasov has several universities, and probably has the largest number of German-speaking inhabitants, which is important since we have lots of clients that require services in German.”

The CGS service centre in Brasov is located in the Tractorul Business Park, and has 70 employees, although this year the company aims to hire 1,000 people .

According to HR specialists and analysts, investments in Brasov are risky in terms of encouraging potential personnel to stay, because young people tend to move to Bucharest in search of a job right after they graduate.

“People go to Bucharest because they don’t have opportunities at home. However, if you offer a graduate a job and a career, they will stay (i.e. in Brasov). I am a firm believer in the idea that you have to move the jobs to where there are people, and not the other way round,” explained Friedman.