Chattanooga call center adds 700 jobs

Convergys Corp. is adding 700 jobs to its Chattanooga call center this year to handle customer service for satellite television provider DirecTV.

Convergys officials said the new workers will be added during the next eight months, more than tripling the company’s work force at the facility.

The additional jobs will lift staffing at Convergys Chattanooga operations back to peak levels last seen in the 1990s, before layoffs.

Convergys senior human resources manager Esther Wright said she is sure of being able to find enough quality workers.

“We have always been able to recruit qualified people in Chattanooga,” she said.

Pay for the jobs starts at $9 an hour, company officials said. DirecTV officials said the customer service expansion is being driven by growth that included 1.2 million new subscribers last year.

Cincinnati-based Convergys handles customer service calls for other large companies. The company employs more than 1,600 people in Tennessee in call centers in Chattanooga and Clarksville.

Cellular telephone company T-Mobile opened a call center in Chattanooga this year, and combined with the Convergys expansion means that more than 1,400 customer service jobs are being added.

“These major job additions speak to the skill set that our work force has developed in Chattanooga as we build our service economy,” Trevor Hamilton of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce said.