Staff Writer
Officials with Sitel announced on April 13 that they are expanding their Loring customer care facility located at 207 Development Drive. The 46,000-square foot facility is expected to grow its staff to nearly 300 associates with this recruitment drive. “Sitel’s Loring facility continues to thrive even amidst the current economic downturn,” said Robbie Jalbert, site director at Sitel. “Since we first opened our site 11 years ago this month, we’ve built a dedicated, experienced team that provides exceptional customer care to our clients and their customers on a daily basis. The Loring facility was voted Sitel’s number one North American call center in 2008, and this recognition is a testament to Limestone’s highly-skilled workforce. We are excited to add to our talented group of associates through this recruitment drive,” he added.
Earlier this year, Sitel like many other businesses, had to tighten its belt, which resulted in decreased hours for some employees.
“With the economic times the way they are right now, a lot of our clients have to make cost-saving decisions; and some of the products that we sell can be up or down depending on the environment that we’re in,” Jalbert said. “We did have a little bit of down time, but due to the performance at Loring, it kept us still pretty strong and with that performance, they were allowed not only to regain the lost hours but we’ve recouped enough hours to grow and add labor.”
Sitel is working with the Limestone Community Career Center and attending local job fairs in an effort to recruit employees to meet the growing demand. The newly hired Loring associates will provide outbound insurance sales for a client that has chosen to outsource this function to Sitel.
Prospective agents that are interested in joining the team in Loring are invited to apply online via www.sitel.com or by calling (207) 328-4515.
“Applicants have to be able to read at least at a 10th grade level,” said Kim Martin, human resources manager at Sitel in Limestone. “They take an assessment test and we conduct the interview, but we offer a full benefits package; we have major medical, dental, vision, 401K, full time employees receive two weeks vacation and part time employees get one week vacation,” Martin added.
“The average tenure of the facility is over three and a half years for the employees, and average tenure of the staff is almost five years,” said Jalbert. “We have a gentleman retiring this year who has been with us since the day we opened in April of 1998.”
“All of our promotions are internal, so if people are looking to grow within the company, [Sitel] looks internally before they would ever look outside to fill any position,” Jalbert added, who started as an agent himself at Sitel 10 years ago. “We have a great competitive base wage as well as a very competitive bonus structure to where they can make anywhere from a quarter or more an hour up to $3.16 extra per hour more. If they want to start part- time we’ll start them part-time; if they want to start full-time we’ll start them full-time,” he continued, “as long as they’re eligible to work and they’re looking to get in and work hard, then we’re definitely going to work around their schedules.”
According to Martin, Sitel currently employs about 200 individuals.
