Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation

Call center attracts hundreds as it considers local operation

Jan 24, 2008
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer. A job fair in Martinsville on Wednesday drew about 325 applicants seeking call-center jobs, and 238 people were interviewed for possible positions, according to Bob Lynch, a director with Global Contact Services LLC (GCS).

“The whole place was full. There were no parking spots,” said job-seeker Richard Hicks, who was among the first to arrive around at the National Guard Armory for the 11 a.m. start of the event conducted by GCS, a North Carolina-based call center.

GCS held the fair from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. to assess the labor market before deciding whether to locate in Martinsville. Officials have said if GCS locates here, it could go in the Memorial Boulevard building that housed Civic Development before it closed this month.

Company officials hope results of the fair will help them determine the quality and quantity of the local work force, according to Lynch.

“Not everybody is cut out to do this job,” he said.

“I think we’re extremely pleased with everything, the way it went,” Lynch said Wednesday night after the job fair ended. The 238 people interviewed was “pretty good for one day.”

He would not elaborate, other than to say the company expects to make a decision on a new location in about three weeks and will notify the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. of that decision.

When announcing the job fair, company officials said they hoped to fill 200-plus jobs and urged those interested to pre-apply by completing an online application.

Henry County residents Shavon Millner and Courtney Stockton were among those looking for work.

Both said they work at Results Stuart, also a call center. While they enjoy their jobs, they said the commute is expensive, especially considering increasing fuel prices.

“I’m just looking to get out of Stuart,” Millner said.

Hicks previously was employed by call center Civic Development Corp., but he has been out of work since mid-December.

“I enjoy working at call centers better than anything else around here. ... I’m just looking to get back on the phones,” he said.

Kelly Hicks, a former Civic Development Corp. employee, also pre-applied after Civic Development closed Jan. 18. She, too, hopes to get a job with GCS.

Richard Hodge works as a customer service representative with GSI (formerly Accretive Commerce and also a call center), but he formerly worked at Civic Development as a manager — a career he hopes to continue.

“I’m looking to get back into management,” Hodge said, and he hopes it will be with an up-and-coming company such as GCS.

GCS provides both in-bound and out-bound outsourced contact services for some of the largest companies in the world in the financial, insurance, political and telecom fields.

To accommodate its growth, the company is considering three areas, including Martinsville, for a call center, Lynch said.

He declined to identify the other areas, but said the “bottom line” is GCS hopes to open three or four call centers by the end of the year.

Lynch said company officials hope to identify the first site immediately so it can be operating by April 1. The company hopes to open a second call center in another area in June, a third in September and a fourth during the fourth quarter, Lynch said.

He declined to say if Martinsville would be among those areas.

“What I’m saying is no one is a loser,” Lynch said, and company officials have not yet ruled Martinsville “in or out.”

That’s good news to Steve Simmons, who also was among the job seekers Wednesday. He hopes the company locates to Martinsville.

A former Civic Development employee, Simmons reminded several applicants that many Nationwide Homes employees also lost jobs when that company downsized recently.

“It will be nice if they bring this company here” to Martinsville to help make up for jobs that have been eliminated, Simmons said.

Most jobs would have a base pay of $8 an hour with opportunities to advance to a base pay of $10 an hour, officials have said.

Lynch noted that GCS has not closed a call center in its seven years in operation.

“We’re playing for keeps,” he said.

Anyone interested in working for the company but who was unable to attend the job fair still can apply on line at www.gcsagents.com or fill out an application at the Virginia Employment Commission office in Martinsville, Lynch said.