Teleperformance SE is a multinational company founded in 1978 with headquarters in France. The provides services for debt collection, telemarketing, customer relationship management, content moderation, and communication.

Its services are operated in over 300 languages and dialects on behalf of companies in various industries.

History

Expansion
Daniel Julien created Teleperformance in Paris in June 1978. In 1986, Teleperformance established its first international subsidiaries in Belgium and Italy. Two years later, Teleperformance launched subsidiaries in other European markets: Spain, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In 1989, Daniel Julien and Jacques Berrebi joined forces at the head of Rochefortaise Communication, the parent company of Teleperformance International listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. Ten years later, Rochefortaise Communication and Teleperformance International merged to form SR. Teleperformance. This company became Teleperformance in 2006.

In 1992, Teleperformance USA was established, beginning its contact center operations in the United States. In 1996, Asia-Pacific contact centers were developed, with operations set up in the Philippines and Singapore. The Group was significantly expanded in Europe through numerous acquisitions and company start-ups in Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and Finland. From 1998 through 2002, the Teleperformance network expanded throughout the Americas, into Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

In 2006 Teleperformance USA purchased AOL's 400-employee call center in Ogden, Utah. This purchase was the 23rd call center which the company purchased until this time.

In 2007, Teleperformance acquired 100% interest in Twenty4help, the European technical support leader; AllianceOne, a leading US accounts receivable management company. In 2008, the group's operations and strategy were centralized for management under the responsibility of Daniel Julien and Jacques Berrebi. Teleperformance acquired The Answer Group.

In 2008 a class action lawsuit was filed against Salt Lake City-based Teleperformance USA seeking unpaid wages for employees, alleging a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. On 19 May 2010, a settlement was reached for approximately $2 million to be paid to 15,862 workers in 10 US states.

In 2010, Teleperformance acquired Scottish outsourcing call center 'beCogent' for £35 million. It ceased operations in December 2021 mainly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote work. By 2013 Teleperformance had six contact centers in Tunisia. In 2013, Teleperformance acquired full control of TLS Contact. In 2014, Teleperformance acquired Aegis USA Inc., a major outsourcing and technology company in the United States, the Philippines and Costa Rica. The transaction was approved by regulatory authorities. From 2014 to 2016, Teleperformance created and/or opened fifteen new centers worldwide. In January 2019, Teleperformance announced its second premises in Cairo. In March 2015 the company announced the opening of a new offshore facility in Paramaribo, Surinam. The multichannel contact center offers support to Benelux clients in Dutch.

In May 2016 Teleperformance announced the opening of a contact center in Australia. The center has 300 workstations and is located in Burwood, Victoria, about 16 kilometers outside of Melbourne. The company announced in July 2016 its plans to expand to Bristol, Tennessee in the United States, creating 500 jobs within the coming five years.

In August 2016 Teleperformance purchased California-based LanguageLine Solutions LLC for $1.52 billion from a US-based private equity firm, Abry Partners.

Governance 
Jacques Berrebi announced his plans to retire in January 2008. He ended all his operational duties as of 5 January 2009.

In 2012, Jacques Berrebi, co-founder with Daniel Julien of Teleperformance Group, retired at the age of 70.

Paulo César Salles Vasques was announced as the new chief executive officer of the group and Daniel Julien remained as the chairman of the board.

In October 2017, after the resignation of Paulo César Salles Vasques, Daniel Julien, who remains executive chairman of the board, was also appointed by the board of directors as group chief executive officer.

In June 2023,  Bhupender Singh was appointed as Teleperformance Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

Controversies 
A group of labor unions filed a complaint documenting unsafe working conditions, monitoring, surveillance, union busting and retaliation against employees in ten countries in April 2020. Workers in Philippines, including those supporting Amazon's  Ring camera contract, were forced to sleep at their workspaces and unable to meet social distancing requirements during COVID-19. The Financial Times was able to verify this with video and photos, including in a Cebu City office. After the working conditions were made public, the company promised to make improvements, but NBC News reported after six months the company was providing intermittent shuttle service, not properly sanitizing working spaces, and sending workers home without pay if they were quarantined.

While Amazon required support contractors to be onsite, Netflix's contract with Teleperformance allowed employees to work from home.

In Colombia, the union Utraclaro, part of the UNI Global Union, has organized Teleperformance employees, including moderators. In 2021, after the union submitted its demands for the company to protect freedom of association, Teleperformance filed a lawsuit against the union in a labor court. In November 2022, the Ministry of Labour launched an investigation into the company. After the investigation, shares in the company dropped by 34%. In April 2023, the company signed an agreement to allow workers in Colombia to unionize.

Workers in Colombia, including those working on contracts for Amazon, Apple and Uber, are remotely monitored by the company, including by AI-enabled cameras and voice recording using its own TP Cloud Campus platform. The company stated 240,000 employees in 52 countries were using the platform by mid-2021. Workers in Albania, including those working on Apple content, were protected from webcam monitoring at home through their Data Protection Commission.

Corporate culture
Teleperformance has been repeatedly criticized for privacy violations, surveillance, as well as extremely stressful working conditions for its workers.

Content moderation
Teleperformance employs content moderators for platforms including TikTok, with moderators in Tunisia and Colombia reviewing explicit content in order to remove it from the platform. Its "Trust and Safety" branch and moderation program were launched in 2019. After an investigation by Forbes reported that the company retained material with child sexual abuse, Teleperformance and TikTok were criticized by the United States Senate Committee on Commerce and by shareholders. In November 2022, the company announced that it would exit "the highly egregious part of the trust and safety business." However, it reversed its decision in March 2023.

References

External links
Global website
India website
LanguageLine Solutions

Companies based in Paris
Business services companies established in 1978
1978 establishments in France
Business process outsourcing companies
Companies listed on Euronext Paris
CAC 40