Census:

Amer Crawford announced as UKCCF Manager of the Year

Census Life is proud to reveal that one of our colleagues, Amer Crawford, won the prestigious United Kingdom Contact Centre Forum (UKCCF) Manager of the Year Award for 2019.

Amer is our Team Manager at HMP YOI Drake Hall prison in Staffordshire, where she recruits, trains and supervises a team of up to 25 women in our contact centre. With Amer’s guidance and support the team are learning how to be independent, manage their own time and improve their communication skills, confidence and product knowledge. It provides a positive environment where the women are doing meaningful work that equips them with skills they can use effectively on release.

As part of the judging process, Amer gave her presentation in front of the judges before her award was announced at a Gala Dinner with over 400 guests in Milton Keynes on October 25th.

The UKCCF Awards recognises individual, team and company best practice among the UK’s 6000+ contact centres. They reward innovation, team-working, employee engagement, and the delivery of superb Customer Experience.

Award winner Amer said:

“I am really honoured to be even put forward for this award, and to win is just amazing. I offer support and guidance to my team daily, not just with regards to the job they do but also some other matters they may be struggling with.”

Census Life Managing Director, Richard Rowley, added:

“Amer is a dedicated professional with a genuine desire to help colleagues to thrive and become the very best they can be. To see her work recognised at a national level is truly heartening and we are extremely grateful to the UKCCF for acknowledging this.”

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Breaking the mould

It is widely reported that staff turnover in the call centre industry is around 26% annually, considerably above the national average of 15%.

Richard rowley

Richard Rowley is the Managing Director at Census Life and is responsible for all criminal justice work the social enterprise undertakes. 

Richard has over 20 years’ experience of working with voluntary, public and private sector organisations in the criminal justice arena and still retains the same desire to support people to become the very best they can be. 

Richard is also very proud to be a Trustee for POPS (Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group) in Manchester. 

On the off-chance he is away from work, you’ll find Richard watching football, cooking and spending time with his family – not necessarily in that order!

Kelly Carrel

Kelly Carrel is the Chief Executive of Census Life and is responsible for leading the strategic direction and overall effectiveness of the organisation.

 Kelly has over 20 years’ experience of working within the Customer Management sector and, over the past 7 years, has used this experience to provide meaningful work experience and relevant training to those farthest from the job market.

Most specifically Kelly is focussed on individuals serving custodial sentences, and working with them during this period to ensure they have opportunities for employment on release. Passionate about pursuing social mobility, through the route of employment, this is the key driver of the work for Kelly and her team.

Outside of the office, Kelly enjoys travelling, martial arts & air acrobatics along with spending time with friends and family.

The Census story

Census Group was founded in 2013 by Ian and Kelly Carrel, following their respective careers working in large scale in-house and outsourced contact centre operations both in the UK and overseas.

In 2010 Criminal Record Bureau (now DBS) background checking was becoming ever more prevalent, regardless of whether the role required it. The founders recognised there was an urgent need to address the issues highlighted by this process, as more contact centre agents were losing roles across the industry with a ‘blanket’ approach being applied to every adverse CRB check. This experience in contact centre environments highlighted a significant frustration – having to let well-trained, enthusiastic staff go when their checks returned showing previous criminal convictions. With attrition rates in the industry reaching levels of >25% we knew we could develop an incredibly competent workforce that would also have a wider impact on society

Through our corporate social responsibility strategy we have consistently reinvested profits, to go the extra mile and support colleagues as they leave prison and reintegrate back into our communities. To make this much more fundamental to our work we have developed Census Life, our not-for-profit social enterprise.