Teleperformance Philippines will open its call center in Bacolod City in May and will start hiring employees on Monday, recruiting manager Narda Goñi-Miranda said yesterday.

Goñi-Miranda told the DAILY STAR that their company will require technical support for its 400 to 500-seat call center and will need 800 to 900 agents to serve its predominantly American market.

She said that Teleperformance Philippines has chosen to locate in the city because of the impressive quality of the Bacolenos' English-speaking ability.

"The quality of English is very good and there's a market here that has not been tapped yet by the call center industry. We'd like to be the first one to tap that market," she said.

Goñi-Miranda though refused to provide details on their financial investment in Bacolod, adding that they don't have local partners in the city.

The 10-year-old Teleperformance Philippines, however, has Filipinos investors who have partnered with Teleperformance Paris for the company's call center operations in the country.

Goñi-Miranda said that in their Bacolod operations, they are keen on hiring Bacoleños working in call centers Manila who want to come home and find work here.

The advantage for them is they would be closer to home, considering that Bacoleños are family-oriented, she said, adding that for their part, hiring these people will diminish the company's attrition rate in the sense that they would likely stay in a job that is close to where they live.

Goñi-Miranda also said that Teleperformance will set up a curriculum in call center training in all 38 colleges and universities in Negros Occidental and this will include an eight-week course and a six-month course that will be offered starting school year 2006-2007.

She said that the most important requirement in applying to become a call center agent is above-average spoken English. An applicant needs to have a college degree, too but a two-year tertiary education will already be acceptable.

One also must have the heart and the motivation needed to stay on the job which has erratic working hours, she said.

Goñi-Miranda said that the Teleperformance recruitment team will accept applications beginning February 13, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at their temporary office at the Bacolod Convention Plaza Hotel.*NLG

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