jackytoo

There are a lot of call centres on the CDS. Most of their OP's are not on contracts. The reason why they run from there is because spanish law is more lenient to the type of call centres they run...ie. boiler room scams.

JLFS

A lot of people are get quite a shock when they find out the price of employing people in Spain,and I am not only talking about the national insurance contribution.

Most people seem to think that they can pay minimum wage across the board, not true.

Every job has a job description and a payscale, set by the corresponding convenio, which must be ahered to,and this is a lot more than minimum wage in the UK in a lot of jobs/professions.

A gestor would be needed to give that sort of advice as to contracts and rights of the workers.

Having said that I know quite a few places where the staff are all on the same payrate no matter what their duties are........obviously dodgy goings on....

Depending on the skills needed for the comapany , it could be a bad move.

jackytoo

I heard that employer costs were about 30% of salary but not sure if it's true.

Domino

and remember that a temp worker is only for 6m but if completes 2 x 6m then becomes permanant

.

JLFS

And lets not forget the finiquito on top......................

Domino

http://www.finiquito.es/index.html

steviedeluxe

Isn't the OP's stated problem that he can't keep staff in the UK? If so, then permie staff is what he's looking for...

Domino

I think you will find what he is trying to say is that he intends to transfer the call centre to Spain and none of the existing staff want to make the move so he will be starting from scratch with employees.

this will mean he needs to take on people who have the language and commercial skills, reducing his options somewhat to ensure he has a seamfree transition from one state to the other. And that is on top of ensuring the mains and broadband links are reliable........

missile

I think OP can make it work. There are many skilled workers looking for work. Property rental and wages are lower than UK.

I would suggest one problem he may find is UK expats can be unreliable employees.

JLFS

Good point, this kind of set up is run in this way, the ops, dont have any rights as the contracts were laughable, and pay based on bonuses.

Of course the type of work they got usually reflected those conditions, quick turnover of staff, as basically the only skill required was the ability to speak English.

Staff turnover was huge but it didnt matter as thereare/were hundreds to take their place.

This call centre sounds a lot more specialised and to get the quality of personell the law will have to be adhered to, with all the Is dotted and Ts crossed, Decent contracts and staff made permanent after the trial period.

If not there will be no chance of running it sucessfully.

Big firms usually have access to "subvenciones" and such to set up, but to acess those there is usually hoops to jump through and a lot of jobs will have to be on offer, and of course the usual palms greased to obtain the paperwork and studies before the process starts.

But then again I am taling about a big concern not a PYME.

And once the set up help or grants have been used in the set up, the businees is then subject to even tighter conditions than a business that has gone it alone.

I know of people who have had government help to set up, an now realise that they would have been better without it.

It would have been harder at the beginning, but easier a few years down the line, whereas now the opposite is true.

These businesses are being strangled by the same had that fed them at the beginning.

A one man band or a massive company can benefit greatly from government incentives, but the ones in the middle with 10-50 employees are the ones who are caught "by the balls" in a lot of cases.

They have adhere to conventions and such in the same way as a much larger company, but do not have the resourses of the biggies.

Rotor

Commercial property is cheaper to lease in the UK than in Spain, in the UK many areas have a free first year on business rates plus a business can often open its doors the same day they get the keys instead of waiting weeks if not months in Spain for architects plans etc to be approved .

Employee`s in Spain cost the employer much more , NI is phenomenally high Spain where as many small business`s are exempt for the first year in the UK, employees in the UK are often entitled to tax credits which can boost wages by over £1000 per month so working is a worthwhile proposition .

The bottom line is the UK promotes and supports small to medium business`s where as Spain obstructs them and now it is really starting to pay the price.

steviedeluxe

You probably haven't seen the latest measures, both by the national government, and at local level too (for example Madrid and other communities are exempting businesses from costs over the first year or two of setting on new employees). Additionally there are various grants and aid available for start-up companies, sometimes from regional government, sometimes from incubator schemese like that of Wayra from Telefonica. Which is why the OP (if he is serious) should be talking to informed people in the region he wants to locate, as he could well get financial help and grants if setting up a business.
Interesting that you think tax credits make work worthwhile in the UK. The press here seems to be full of stories stating the reverse is the case - people aren't bothered to work as they know they won't be better off after losing out on housing and unemployment benefit, free dental treatment etc. People are put off the tax credit system as it's so complicated and long-winded - people have been faced with large over-payment bills to pay back, and this has caused a lot of pain. The last bit of evidence (unfortunately) is that the official unemployment rate is growing fast. That's without counting all the economically inactive people- this was 9 million the other year. I think if we need to look at a country that is starting to improve, then the US is (at long last) starting to turn the corner. This is good news for us all, I think.

Domino

on a recent survey I carried out in my home town the cost of rental of similar size shopfronts the cost was 50% higher in the UK

still as its so bad across the board we can all understand why you will not be remaining here

Rotor

I was employed by a medium sized UK company to collect info on commercial properties and employment costs , law etc , they decided against coming here as it was not viable.

As for me I have not been a permanent resident in Spain for years , I just visit my property's here when time allows.

MarcoB76

Hi Mitch,
The big question is where in Spain...
If we talk about Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia the setup costs would be similar to that of the UK.
Then we have the beautiful South of Spain, I am talking about inland Andalucia, where there is a huge surplus of office space for sale starting from old fincas that can easily be converted to a call centre to a state of the art new built office for companies that ceased to exist in the last 2 or 3 years... Here you can find real bargains at less than half an hour drive from beautiful beaches is cities like Jerez de la Frontera to give you an example.
Salary wise, again inland Andalucia workers earn up to 30% less than their respective colleagues in big cities, that does not apply to public workers of course...

There are plenty of people with experience who have travelled in the UK or are actually travelling in the UK and would relocate for the right job, so the workforce would not be a problem.
Holiday entitlement is 30 days p.a. and contribution depends on the salary. For a tech call centre you should be looking at a minimum contribution of about EUR200 accoding to the relevant "convenio" (call centre operator/data entry).

Marco