By Marc Venema
Officials with the company opening a new call centre in Belleville say it’s here to stay despite closing the doors on one of their Canadian locations last week.
On-Line Support (OLS), a Canadian company based out of Prince Edward Island, announced Wednesday afternoon that Belleville would soon be home to their 11th location in the country.
“We are hoping to have 400 plus jobs by December,” said Ross Beattie, president and CEO of OLS.
The announcement came just days after a decision by OLS to close their site in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. It was the company’s first closure of a centre.
Kathy Follet-Lloyd, vice president of human resources at OLS, said Belleville residents have nothing to worry about.
“Having to make the decision to close Antigonish was one of the most difficult things we have ever done,” Follett-Lloyd said. “We tried everything we possibly could to avoid that.”
Beattie said the company plans on hiring 70 customer service associates, and 15-20 management positions in the next 5-6 weeks to get things up and running by mid-July.
Beattie said the company would then hire 200 additional customer service advisors in September, and another 200-250 again in December, which would bring the total to well over 400.
Employees will take inbound calls from clients in the technology, and telecommunications fields, as well as clients in financial markets.
Beattie said the jobs would pay $11 per hour with benefits.
Follet-Lloyd said the problem in Antigonish was, the company couldn’t keep enough employees working. She said they tried keeping 180 people employed, but struggled to do so in the small town with a population of just over 4,000.
“That’s the only location we have had that challenge,” Follett-Lloyd said. “It’s a very small community.”
Antigonish Mayor Carl Chisholm said he couldn’t blame OLS for leaving town.
“From where I’m sitting, nobody better complain about OLS closing their doors because no one was applying to work there.
“I can’t blame them for pulling out if they can’t keep operational.”
Chisholm said the company advertised throughout the city and in local newspapers looking to hire, but in the end, they ending up closing the doors.
“It’s like any other business,” Chisholm said. “If you can’t find anyone to work, you’re left with no choice.”
Follet-Lloyd said Belleville has a higher population and labour market.
“We did a job fair in December and it was very successful,” Follet-Lloyd said. “We had 1,600 applicants in just two days.”
“We are very, very confident that Belleville can meet the market demand for many, many years into the future.”
Lisa Benoit, an employment consultant at Community Employment Services in Belleville, agrees that the new call centre can work in this area.
“It’s been proven that we have the people to do it because of contact centres that used to be here,” Benoit said. “Those positions have been filled before, they can be filled again.”
Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis said despite call centres coming and going in the past, he’s confident OLS can become successful.
“Look at Stream (Global Services Inc.), that’s been here for 12 years, and employed a lot of people,” Ellis said.
Benoit said a lot of people are struggling finding employment, so the new call centre is a good thing for Belleville.
The new OLS Belleville location will be located at 610 Dundas St. East. For more information on the company or to apply, visit www.joinols.com [1]