InfoCision calls for hiring 400 for centers

InfoCision interviews at 2 Valley sites today

By DON SHILLING

shilling@vindy.com

The number of call- center workers in the Mahoning Valley is soon to exceed 4,000 as InfoCision Management Corp. expands its Austintown and Boardman staffs.

The Akron-based company is adding 400 workers in the area and is conducting interviews today from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the two centers.

InfoCision already employs nearly 1,000 workers in Austintown and Boardman, making it one of the larger operators of call centers in the Mahoning Valley.

Other companies with call centers in the area include West Corp., whose Niles center has added jobs in recent years to handle customer-service calls for the Apple iPhone; AT&T, which added 150 jobs in Boardman last year; Verizon, which took over the former Alltel center in Boardman last year and expanded it; and VXI Global Solutions, which opened a call center in downtown Youngstown last year and is hiring 200 more workers by May.

New hirings by VXI and InfoCision will push the local work force in that industry to more than 4,200.

Gretchen Fri, public-relations manager for InfoCision, said the call-center industry is expanding because companies are placing a greater value on customer satisfaction.

She said InfoCision’s growth is coming in all its segments: commercial, nonprofit, volunteer recruitment and political. It handles both inbound and outbound calls.

Most of the new jobs will be added at the Austintown center, which is a bigger facility and recently added a third shift, she said.

The company prepared for this growth when it expanded its Austintown site and built a new Boardman center in 2008, she said. Both of the centers still have room for more growth, she said.

The jobs being added pay between $8.80 an hour and $12.25 an hour, depending on experience.