BROOKLYN, NY – The Caribbean’s largest homegrown contact center, itelbpo, says it has designed the region’s first COVID-ready facility.
Itelbpo said in a statement that the state-of-the-art building would open here in June 2021, while itelbpo’s facility in St. Lucia will be upgraded this month with a second building and outdoor lunch & wellness center, both designed and built around COVID-19 safety protocols and requirements.
“With development presently underway, the impressive 80,000 square-foot structure is the largest of any single itelbpo facility to date,” the statement said.
The building has already received Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status and will have the capacity to accommodate all of its existing Kingston-based team plus its growing staff count.
Founding chairman and chief executive officer of itelbpo, Yoni Epstein, said that “it will enable safe scalability as we maintain the trust of both existing and new employees and clients.”
“After COVID hit, we went back to the drawing board and redesigned the approach to our new facilities, both in Kingston and St. Lucia, to meet COVID safety requirements. The company has been agile and nimble amidst the COVID-19 crisis, and this is just another opportunity for us to stay ahead of the game,” added said.
Itelbpo said Jamaica’s global services sector attracts an estimated investment spend of US$700 million per year and employs over 40,000 people.
It said the parish of St. James has traditionally been the center for contact center services on the island but added that “Kingston’s strong pool of educated talent offers expansion opportunities for the continued growth of the sector.”
“Itelbpo has taken a deliberate and proactive approach to sustained business resiliency and remains resolute in its commitment to employee comfort and safety through this new project,” Epstein said. “The facility is being structurally designed to the specifications of established COVID-19 guidelines.”
He said these include a built-in HVAC system, general seating arrangements to allow excess space for social distancing between employees, and two feet wide directional walkways so team members and guests would not contact each other traversing the building.
Epstein also said that cubicle partitions would be at a minimum of 36 inches, which is higher than usual, to name a few.
“Given that we have built it to spec (specifications) with the COVID-19 virus in mind, we can actually operate onsite at a safe capacity while protecting the health and wellness of our team,” he said.
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