Dialing up business growth

Nevada government and business leaders extended a warm Nevada welcome to officials from Teleperformance, which recently opened a 45,000-square-foot contact center in Reno.

“That’s 500 new jobs here,” said Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, of the number of positions expected at the new center, which moved into one-third of the long-empty Walmart building at Northtowne Lane and North McCarran.

“When you talk to someone who hasn’t been working and now they have the opportunity to work for a great company, it’s life changing,” he said.

Teleperformance, which began in 1978, provides outsourced multichannel customer experience management.

The company’s president of U.S. operations, Miranda Collard, explained why they chose Reno for the company’s 34th contact center in the U.S.

“The diverse workforce, and the community support making all this happen has been incredible,” she said.

She also noted the quality of the workforce applying for jobs.

“It is exciting to see a global company like Teleperformance which has over 27,000 employees in the U.S., choose Reno for their expansion,” Mike Kazmierski, president of Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, said.

The center already put to work 150 customer-service representatives plus managing staff, and is actively seeking another hundred. Teleperformance plans to bring on another 250 people after the new year, according to Alan Swanson, manager for the Reno center.

The Reno center will provide a range of support for an unnamed major financial services company.

Teleperformance has 270 contact centers in 62 countries, speaking 75 languages with a total employee base worldwide of more than 182,000.

Gov. Sandoval, who recently returned from a trade mission to China, noted the importance of the international presence Teleperformance brings.

“Nevada needs a worldwide presence,” he said.

He also commended the company for its business culture that creates opportunities for advancement.

However, with the Great Recession not long past, the number of new jobs being added to the Reno marketplace was a major topic of the presentations.

The governor pointed out that four years ago, Nevada unemployment rate was 14 percent, the highest in the country. In September, it was down to 5.9 percent.

“That’s one of the greatest, if not the greatest, improvement in the United States,” he said.

“Four years ago we announced less than 800 jobs per year, a five-year average,” said EDAWN’s Kazmierski. Teleperformance alone has added 500, he said.

“Hundreds who didn’t have jobs will have a better Christmas.”

The community cooperation that has helped bring a fresh influx of companies large and small with the hundreds of new jobs they bring, was also noted repeatedly and evidenced by the representatives of business, government, education, and nonprofit organizations that were present.

“This really is a community that works together,” Kazmierski said.