LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Gallup has long been known for phone polling, but the Nebraska-based company is migrating away from that technology and toward online data collection.
The company will be reducing its call center staff in Lincoln and Omaha through attrition, transfers or promotions, but not layoffs, spokesman Johnathan Tozer told the Lincoln Journal Star (https://bit.ly/163ZWHf ). Omaha-based Gallup employs about 1,200 people total in Lincoln and Omaha, down from 1,350 employees two years ago.
Tozer said the change is “part of Gallup’s long-term migration plan toward online data collection, in addition to our sophisticated analytics and consulting.”
The changes will be good for the company’s employees, Tozer said, because while the company is cutting back call center jobs, it is aggressively hiring for higher-paying jobs in technology and consulting.
Experts say phone polling has become less reliable as more people drop land lines. A 2012 Pew Research Center study showed that the percentage of households in which polling companies were able to reach an adult by phone fell from 90 percent in 1997 to 62 percent in 2012.
Gallup’s mission won’t be affected by the change, Tozer said.
“How that work gets done is changing based on technology,” he said.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, https://www.journalstar.com
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