CONTACT CENTRE PROFILE

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HAMILTON

Ontario, Canada

CONTACT

CENTRE

PROFILE

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SECTIONS

3 Table Of Content

The advantages of locating a

Contact Centre in Hamilton:

Page

Hamilton Today

1 Incentives & Support

3 Demographics

6

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Contact Centre Profile Hamilton, Ontario

Qualities

and

Benefits

Fully

Digital

Network

for contact

centre

expansion

and location

905 & 416

area codes

Affordable

Accomodation

Multicultural

Work Force

Trained & Ready

Access to a labour force

of over

750,000

people

Excellent

building lease rates

and land prices

Transportation

Centralized downtown

MacNab St Transit Terminal

Partners

Committed employment, education

and training partners

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n

T

op

C

anadian CiTy in attracting industrial and commercial

development in 2014 for the 3rd straight year.

(Source: Atlanta’s Site Selection Magazine & Conway Data Inc.)

n

B

esT plaCe To invesT in Ontario in 2014

(Source: Calgary based Real Estate Investment Network (REIN)

n

F

asTesT growing eConomy in Ontario at 2.5% in 2013

(Source: Conference Board of Canada)

n

d

iversiFied eConomy

:

One of the most diversified economies in

Canada in 2013 at 0.94 where 1 is highly diverse (Source: Conference Board of Canada)

n

s

oCial media

:

Hamilton is the #1 ranked City in Canada and #2 ranked

City in North America for the use of social media marketing in Economic Development and Tourism

(Source: Intelegia Montreal, QC)

n

o

FFiCially

a

CCrediTed

:

The only municipal economic development

office in Canada that is officially accredited by the International Economic Development Council- providing a high calibre of professional skills in the economic development field.

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Hamilton, Ontario

Contact Centre Profile

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3 Incentives & Support

INCENTIVES

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Apprenticeship Employer Signing Bonus (AESB)

$2,000 employer signing bonus to encourage contact centre employers to register new contact centre apprentices. This will assist employers to hire and register new employees who have left school and require upgrading to meet the registration standards for contact centre apprenticeship training.

www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/employers/emp_bonus.html

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Apprenticeship Completion Employer Bonus (ACEB)

Employers can earn a $1,000 taxable grant for each apprentice they employ and train who completes their apprenticeship, receives a Certificate of Apprenticeship and where applicable a Certificate of Qualification.

www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/employmentontario/employers/appr_completion.html

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Apprenticeship Completion Bonus in Non-Red

Seal Trades (ACBNST)

The apprenticeship completion bonus in non-Red Seal trades is a taxable cash grant of $2,000. The grant is available to registered apprentices after they successfully complete their apprenticeship training and obtain their Certificate of Apprenticeship and where applicable their Certificate of Qualification in any Ontario non-Red Seal trade.

www.tcu.gov.on.ca/.../employers/apprenticeship_bonus.html

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Co-operative Education Tax Credit (CETC)

The Co-operative Education Tax Credit is a refundable tax credit. It is available to employers who hire students enrolled in a co-operative education program at an Ontario university or college. The tax credit is based on salaries and wages paid to a student in a cooperative education work placement. Corporations can claim 25 per cent of eligible expenditures (30 per cent for small businesses). The maximum credit for each work placement is $3,000. Most work placements are for a minimum employment period of 10 weeks up to a maximum of four months.

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4

Hamilton, Ontario Contact Centre Profile

Incentives & Support

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Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)

Income support program for the disabled and employment support to help disabled to achieve their employment goals.

www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/odsp

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Youth Employment Fund (YEF)

Employers will receive incentives to help cover the cost of wages and training for new hires when they provide a job placement of four to six months. The job placements provided will be assessed for the quality of the placement opportunity, previous track record, potential for employee retention after the placement ends, and level of employer financial contribution. Employers can receive up to $6,800 to offset training and wage costs linked with a job placement. Incentives are also meant to support on-the-job training and to offset the risk of hiring youth employees with less experience. Incentives are flexible and there is no set formula for whether funding is used for training and/or for wages.

www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/employmentontario/youthfund

SUPPORT SERVICES

T

he

C

iTy oF

h

amilTon has a numBer oF CommuniTy agenCies to assist your company in accessing available hiring and training incentives. Hamilton has many co-ordinate hiring services that will provide employers with a range of services free of charge. These include the sourcing of candidates based on specific requirements stipulated by the potential employer. These services occur in co-operation with agencies such as McMaster University, Mohawk College, Service Canada and the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

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French Canadian Association of Ontario

ACFO-Hamilton (French Canadian Association of Ontario) in partnership with Service Canada offers an employment assistance program for Francophones within the Hamilton and Halton Regions. As an employer of this Region, ACFO would be happy to assist you in filling your bilingual staff needs and this at no cost to you.

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Incentives & Support

The Francophone Resource Centre has a diverse group of clients looking for Employment and a large number of multilingual people.

www.acfo-hamilton.on.ca

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Employment Options – College Boreal

Employers who are looking to hire staff can advertise job openings by contacting our Information and Resource Services. Employment Options staff can provide employers with screening and recruiting services to meet their business needs. Through the Job Matching, Placement and Incentives component of Employment Options, employers may be eligible for training incentives to offset some of the costs of providing on-the-job training / work experience to Employment Options participants.

www.collegeboreal.ca

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Ontario Works Employment Placement Services

As a municipality, there are many services we can offer from a labour market/ human resource perspective. Our Ontario Works Employment Placement staff will meet with you to get to know your company’s specific job requirements such as skills, abilities and training needs. Then Employment Placement staff go to work to find the right people to match your needs. Their primary goal is to match people who are capable and motivated to the right jobs.

www.hamilton.ca/owjobs

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Job Matching and Placement Service Providers:

Employment Centre Website

_Low

Goodwill Career Centre www.goodwillonline.ca Employment Hamilton www.EmploymentHamilton.com Mohawk College & Mohawk College Stoney Creek www.mohawkcollege.ca/ces

vpi Inc. www.vpi-inc.com

Wesley Urban Ministries Employment Services www.wesleyurbanministries.ca YMCA Employment Services www.mydreamjob.ca

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3 Demographics

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Location

Just 45 minutes from Toronto, Hamilton is located in southern Ontario at the western corner of Lake Ontario, within a 500-mile radius of over 120 million people. Hamilton is strategically located between Toronto, Ontario and Buffalo, New York, on the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW).

520,000

Lake Huron Lake Erie Lake Ontario Michigan New York

London

Kitchener

Guelph

Windsor

Niagara Falls

Hamilton

Communitieso f H am ilto_n Flamborough Ancaster Dundas HamiltonStoney Creek Glanbrook

Onta

_rio

Cana

_da

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Culture and Languages

Hamilton offers a cross section of languages that meet and exceed contact centre multi lingual needs, and has a growing population of Asian, African, Mexican and South American immigrants along with a strong French speaking population. This region has a francophone po pulation of over 35,000, 11.8% of the total francophone population across Central Southwest Ontario. (Source: StatsCan 2011)

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6 Communities

Hamilton population is spread throughout the City’s six commu nities: Stoney Creek, Hamilton, Glanbrook, Ancaster, Dundas and Flamborough.

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Hamilton Population

Now 520,000 and expected to grow to 660,000 by 2031

(Source: 2011 Census)

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7

Hamilton, Ontario

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Labour and Employment Characteristics

The Hamilton CMA labour force (including Burlington and Grimsby) is 415,400 as of August 2014 (unadjusted). Currently, Hamilton contact centres and companies with tertiary contact centre jobs represents an employment of close to 3,000 call centre service representatives and related support staff in full and part-time positions. Only one of the larger call centres (Revenue Canada) is unionized.

T

op

C

usTomer

s

erviCe

/C

onTaCT

C

enTre

e

mployers

Company Location Primary Business Employees

SP Data LLC Downtown 3rd Party 400

APAC/Protocol Global Solutions Downtown Inbound/Outbound 338

Pizza Pizza Eastend Inbound 300

Aditya Rirla Minacs Downtown 3rd Party 260 Canada Customs & Revenue Agency Downtown Government 225

Dependable IT Downtown Inbound 223

EasyHome Financial Downtown Inbound 125

CAA Eastend Emergency/Travel 80

Central Ambulance Communication Centre Mountain Emergency/Healthcare 65 AMEX Canada Inc Virtual Corporate Travel 50 Canadian Cancer Society Eastend Outbound/Fundraising 50

Frontline Focus Downtown Inbound 50

Mystique Marketing Downtown Outbound/Fundraising 50 City of Hamilton - Customer Care Downtown Inbound 40

TOTAL

_2,225

Source: 2013 Employment Survey, City of Hamiton Planning & Economic Development

C

onTaCT

C

enTre

w

age

r

aTes (Typical salaries for the following jobs titles - starting positions) Job Title

o

Low

Low

High

Customer Service Representative 10.25 16.00 Human Resources Manager 18.31 25.90 Information Systems and Data Processing Managers 17.24 24.97 Retail Trade Manager 12.00 16.91 Computer Technologist 16.54 24.78 Telecommunications Installation and Repair Worker 11.50 15.87 Computer Systems Analyst 17.93 32.10 Source: Drake International 2012

Demographics

*typically $1-$2 premium/hour for bilingual talent

s

aTuraTion

r

aTe

:

The contact centre industry saturation rate in Hamilton is 0.73%, factoring in a total labour force of 411,000 (2011 Census). The data illustrates that Hamilton has tremendous opportunity for growth in this sector and is well below the industry guidelines of 5%. Based on a saturation rate of less than 1% in Hamilton, has ample room for growth in this sector. It is estimated that Hamilton could support a total contact centre workforce of 11,000 employees, which would represent a saturation rate of 3%.

u

nemploymenT

r

aTes 7.1% as of August, 2014

Source: Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey Release

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8 Why Hamilton

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Education

Hamilton’s education system is one of the finest in Canada with leaders such as Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology, McMaster University, Redeemer University College and College Boreal, providing a well-educated and skilled work force for local businesses.

m

ohawk

C

ollege offers over 100 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship programs and more than 1,000 continuing education courses and community training programs. Campuses and offices are located in Hamilton and surrounding communities. Mohawk College is currently launching a call centre training program that qualifies for Apprenticeship program under Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges & Universities

www.mohawkcollege.ca

m

C

m

asTer

u

niversiTy is the First University in Canada to offer a Computer Software Engineering Degree. In 1999, Nortel Networks created Nortel Networks Undergraduate Scholarships in Science and Technology at McMaster University. The scholarships are established for students in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, software engineering and engineering physics. This scholarship program and other McMaster University initiatives will help our future labour force to compete in telecommunications and network based sectors.

www.mcmaster.ca

r

edeemer

u

niversiTy

C

ollege offers a university-level liberal arts and science education which is scripturally-directed and explores the relation of faith, learning, and living from a Reformed Christian perspective and supports research and creative endeavor in this context.

www.redeemer.ca

C

ollege

B

oreal is a francophone community college offering continuing education, contract training, e-learning, short programs.

www.collegeboreal.ca

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Private Institutes

Hamilton is served by a number of private career colleges including: CDI College, Pathway Training Centre, Business Skills College, Canadian Institute for Dental Hygiene and Metropolitan College of Travel.

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Why Hamilton

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Housing

Regarding availability of housing, Hamilton’s downtown has a wide variety of accommodations available. For example, the renovated (historic) Piggot and Sunlife condominium apartments priced from $80,000 per unit and up. These well-appointed condominiums are located at Main and James Streets. Other condominiums offer alternate pricing.

Single family houses ranging from $100,000 upwards to $500,000+ offer an excellent range of choices depending upon the purchaser’s needs. For example, a 3 bedroom detached single family house located south or southwest of the downtown core would be priced at approximately $200,000.

City of Hamilton apartment rental costs start at $600/month for a one-bedroom and $750/month for a two-bedroom.

Average Apartment Rents, 2013

Bachelor $588

One-Bedroom $766

Two-Bedroom $932

Three-Bedroom $1,130

Average vacancy rate 4.3%

Source: CMHC Rental Market Report Fall 2013

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Average Townhouse Rents, 2013

Two-Bedroom $936

Three-Bedroom $1,128

Average vacancy rate 3.5%

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10 Why Hamilton

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Public Transit

There are 32 bus routes running 7days/week from 5:30am to 1:00 am. From anywhere in Hamilton it takes only one bus ride to reach the centre of our City arriving at our new centralized downtown terminal in the heart of our core.

F

or more inFormaTion outlining key bus lines, go to the following:

www.hamilton.ca/CityServices/transit

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Quality of Life

Hamilton is a city of many communities, built on community spirit. Physically defined by unique geographical features like the Niagara Escarpment and Hamilton Harbour, the municipality has a broad mix of urban centres and sprawling farmland, offering beautiful sights at every turn. From Flamborough to Stoney Creek and all points in between, the municipality is industrious and culturally diverse. With a wide range of museums, libraries, entertainment venues, recreational facilities, parks and conservations areas, the City of Hamilton offers the perfect place to start a business, raise a family and grow with the community.

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