A global call center operation is adding 280 jobs in Raleigh as the company continues aggressive local hiring on the heels of creating more than 1,000 jobs last year in this state.
Affiliated Computer Services says it's in a rush to hire to meet demand from a client and is accepting applications and inquiries by phone, online and in person at its Raleigh office.
Dallas-based ACS, which last month was acquired by Xerox, does not identify its clients. That's in part because the customers - in banking, finance, insurance, health care and other industries - don't want to advertise to their customers that their service representatives are contractors.
ACS employs 1,100 people in Raleigh and 3,250 throughout the state. ACS also has call centers in Cary, Durham, Henderson and Charlotte. In one round last year the company hired 460 people for a temporary assignment.
"We've hit a gold mine in that area," ACS spokesman Chris Gilligan said. "We give our clients a variety of options and costs, and they make a decision that best fits their needs."
North Carolina, with affordable real estate near major metropolitan areas, is becoming a magnet for call centers that snap up low-skill workers. AT&T, for example, runs a call center with 400 employees in Goldsboro that opened in 2008 as part of the phone giant's promise to create jobs in this country instead of sending the work abroad.
But call-center jobs depend largely on customer demand, and aren't the most stable employment bases. At least four call centers shut down last year in Durham, Fayetteville, Rocky Mount and Goldsboro as companies consolidated or scaled back operations during the recession.
Government contracting provides ACS and competitors some of the most lucrative opportunities, but it sometimes results in embarrassing setbacks. In 2007, after delays in program startupthe N.C. Department of Health and Human Services canceled a $171 million contract with ACS to administer Medicaid claims.
In 2006, ACS inadvertently posted personal data of students with college loans, prompting the U.S. Department of Education to offer free credit monitoring to as many as 21,000 students whose data appeared online.
But in an era of cost-cutting, the need for ACS services has not abated. ACS has 34,000 service representatives answering phones at 150 call centers worldwide. The company employs 78,000 worldwide.
As part of the current hiring spree, ACS also is filling about 500 openings in Kentucky and Oregon. Gilligan said that some clients require multiple call centers that can handle customer calls across multiple time zones.
The local ACS call reps will be paid above the minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour, and they will receive three weeks of training.
