BT to hire 1,000 staff outside of London as part of ‘levelling up agenda’
BT is set to hire around 1,000 new staff to fill the broadband giant’s flagship Birmingham office, its first major site outside of London.
There are currently some 225 positions available, which will grow over the coming months and years, BT said in a statement.
The FTSE 100 has been slowly introducing its workforce back to office is life as part of a “phased return” which will continue over the next few weeks.
Shares were fairly unmoved in its afternoon trading, up 0.10 per cent to 155p per share.
The new building, Three Snowhill, will house a total of 3,500 employees, including staff from its digital network business Openreach.
“This is our first major regional hub site to open outside London and is a marker of how BT is transforming to meet the needs of our colleagues and our customers,” broadband boss Philip Jansen said.
“It’s also a statement that we’re serious about the levelling up agenda. While our head office remains in London, we are committed to creating more opportunities and basing key operations in other areas of the UK too.”
The broadband heavyweight in July issued a bullish forecast for its prospects for the rest of the year, despite posting a decline in revenue and pre-tax profit in the first quarter.
BT reported a three per cent slip in revenue to just over £5bn due to the continued impact of the pandemic.
However, this was offset in part by higher rental bases in its Openreach broadband division and improved revenue from BT Sport and handsets following the easing of lockdown restrictions.