Aug 16, 2012 -- Eye-care insurer VSP Global plans to add more than 100 jobs by the end of 2013, many of them by January, at its Columbus call center and an eyeglass-making lab in Lockbourne, its central U.S. leader said Thursday.

"Ohio is very important to VSP," said Swen Carlson, who was promoted in November to vice president of central region lab operations after six years as Ohio lab director. "We’ve been a growing organization and continue to see growth."

To elevate VSP’s visibility locally, the company scheduled an open house for business and civic leaders at its call center at 3400 Morse Crossing, one of two in the country handling customer service for VSP Vision Care stand-alone eye insurance.

The privately held company based in Rancho Cordova, Calif., also runs the network of lens-grinding labs, including a Texas one that Carlson oversees alongside Columbus, and other subsidiaries.

The call center, which now employs 125, has 30 immediate openings and should hit 200 workers over the course of 2013, Carlson said. The lab, which ships orders mainly within a 15-state region, needs to fill about 30 openings by January, which would bring it to 170.

Pay ranges from $10 to $20 hourly plus benefits – including Vision Care, natch – and VSP likes but doesn’t require optical industry experience, he said.

"We don’t pick thick resume over attitude," Carlson said.

The niche focus on eye-care is helping drive organic growth, with activity recovering quickly from the recession, he said. Vision Care has 58 million members nationally.

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com