May 29, 2012 -- When Xerox begins operations at its new west Greeley call center in June, it will become the fourth major call center in Greeley, a fact that drew company officials to the city.

"We did a fairly thorough search across the United States to look for a location," said Stan Hoag, general manager of Xerox Greeley. "Greeley came down to a finalist and the decision really to move into Greeley was simply because of the availability of the workforce, their knowledge and skill set, and then having established call centers here that, maybe, were very productive at one time but have sat vacant."

Xerox plans to open a new call center in Greeley that will bring about 700 jobs to the area, company officials announced Tuesday. The Norwalk, Conn.-based company will lease an 88,000-square-foot facility at 244 Dundee Ave. — a former StarTek site — to house a customer service center.

The center will employ about 350 people on a permanent basis and another 350 temporary project-based employees, who will work through the first part of 2013.

Including Xerox, Greeley and Evans are home to four major call centers — StarTek began in Greeley in 1987; TeleTech announced in January that it planned to bring 1,000 jobs to the area with a call center operation; and Afni opened a call center in Evans in 2010.

Xerox officials plan to begin operations by Saturday, though they’ve already begun hiring, drawing on the wide range of potential employees with call center experience.

"We’ve got a very talented pool to pull from," Hoag said. "Right now, I’m hiring many supervisors and trainers."

Xerox employs 1,900 in Colorado, with a major call center in Colorado Springs and operations in Denver and other locations in the state, though the Greeley site is the first of its kind in northern Colorado.

While call centers traditionally don’t offer the kind of high-paying jobs that make economic development professionals salivate, Greeley Mayor Tom Norton said the 700 jobs still are good news for a community with 9.1 percent unemployment.

"You’ve got to have the full spectrum," Norton said, noting that getting people who are out of work back into the workforce always helps. "You’ve got to take jobs that are available and utilize those. It’s a matter of having a bit of balance ... jobs are jobs, right now."

The Xerox call center will begin with hours of operation running from about 7 a.m. to about 11 p.m., seven days a week. Company officials plan to expand operations to 24 hours a day, which makes for plenty of scheduling flexibility for prospective employees such as students, Hoag said.

Greeley’s economic development manager Bruce Biggi said that’s often one of the main selling points of call center jobs.

"For many college students, it’s actually a wonderful job," he said. "It provides skills they certainly will use in a profession later in their lives."

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