DALEVILLE — More than 300 new call center jobs in Daleville were announced Wednesday for workers who will answer consumer questions about electronic items, an employment services firm said Wednesday.
The jobs, which pay between $10 and $10.25 an hour, involve troubleshooting and providing technical answers for products such as DVD players, MP3 players, plasma TVs and laptop computers, according to Eric Jones, regional manager of Manpower Inc.
Manpower released a statement Wednesday morning heralding the surge in new jobs but did not reveal specifics about the name of the call center or the company that owns it. Applicants were encouraged to contact Manpower offices in Muncie or Anderson.
A call center was opened by IBM in Daleville in May 2007, providing 200 jobs with the promise of 300 more. Manpower was unable to confirm whether the new jobs were associated with the call center that opened last year.
Erica Divine of Manpower confirmed that the new jobs would be located in an existing call center. The IBM call center at 14511 W. Commerce Road is the only call center in Daleville.
Lisa Freeman of Manpower said the majority of the 300 jobs would be full-time positions, but could not specify the exact number available.
A variety of shifts will be available as the call center operates between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. every day.
Although detailed information regarding the nature of calls handled at the center was not immediately available, Jones said the call center’s customer service representatives will only take consumer calls from North America.
Although Jones did not confirm that the new jobs were part of the existing IBM call center, he did say that the 300 new positions helped Manpower meet a goal of bringing 500 jobs to the IBM call center.
“I can tell you that it is in Daleville and it is with an existing client of Manpower,” Jones said.
Manpower’s announcement comes just one week after reports that the Agape call center in downtown Anderson failed to pay its full-time and several temporary workers. When Agape opened in March, it had promised to create 400 new jobs.
“Certainly, you can say that this is a long-term commitment. It is not a project, so there is no end date ... . These are all long-term positions,” Jones said, reassuring applicants that a similar situation will not happen in Daleville.
Nothing lost in translation
Various technical support jobs have been outsourced to India and other foreign countries, and these 300 new jobs represent a change in corporate strategy.
Jones said the decision not to outsource was based on customer satisfaction. “It is a customer service issue and I think as most people experience, when you call to a call center that may be out of country, you have a hard time understanding the person or the accent.”
Although companies tend to save money in hourly wages by outsourcing jobs, Jones said the call center will make up for the $10 per hour cost of American workers with productivity and efficiency.
Delaware County Commissioner John Brooke said the decision to keep call center jobs in America is a growing trend. “It’s an interesting reversal of trends in the call centers. They used to send the jobs overseas, and now they’re bringing them back.”
Brooke attributed the change to customer complaints about the language barriers. “Some of the backlash with people having to deal with them.”
Bilingual employees hired for the new call center positions are eligible for a $1 an hour premium.
Employment for the unemployed
A 300-job boost could be just what’s needed to change the steady pattern of increasing unemployment in Madison and Delaware counties.
In the past five months, Madison County has seen unemployment jump from 5.8 percent in April to 7.6 percent in August.
In Delaware County, unemployment jumped from 5.6 percent in April to 7.2 this August.
“With local unemployment rates running well above the state average of 6.4 percent, we’re glad to be bucking the recent trend,” Jones said.
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To apply for a call center job:
Call Anderson Manpower at (765) 212-6540 or visit 7311 Quality Circle, at Ivy Tech, Anderson. Call Manpower in Muncie at (765) 284-6395 or visit 425 N. High St., Suite 1, Muncie.
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September 24, 2008
CALL CENTER: Daleville welcomes 300 new jobs
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