Springfield's MCI call center to add 155 jobs

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

One Springfield call center is adding about 155 jobs to its ranks, a result, MCI Worldcom officials say, of the telecommunications company's popular 5-cent Sundays promotion.

"Our sales volume has risen so much as a result of 5-cent Sundays. With that, our customer base has grown, and we need more bodies to service those persons," said Jeff Gossman, director of the Springfield center.

MCI has been in Springfield for nine years, and in October of 1997 opened its new, 85,000-square-foot center on Primrose. Until Oct. 23, Telequest, a separate company, is leasing space from MCI. Once Telequest completes its move to Lexington, Ky., MCI will use the space for its expansion. The MCI employees should move into the space Oct. 26, Gossman said.

The realignment will leave 155 sales jobs to be filled, 130 of which are full- time. Of those, approximately 100 are for service representatives, and the remaining are sales support jobs or management jobs, Gossman said. The call center will employ about 1,200 people total once the expansion is complete.

The sales jobs pay $7 per hour plus commission, and the service jobs at the center pay $8 to $10 per hour plus commission, Gossman said. Overall, the company had a payroll of $19 million per year before the expansion.

The call center operates three shifts for its employees: day, night and weekend, Gossman said. He added that, according to MCI's internal ranking system, the center is the top one in the country.

"We have a ranking system that bases the center's ranking on sales, quality, customer complaints and comments, things of that nature, and assigns the center a score. Right now we're the top center in the country," Gossman said.

The center is open 7 a.m..-midnight, seven days a week.

MCI Worldcom has other properties in Springfield, including a business sales office and Brooks Worldcom, a provider of local telecommunications services. The merger between MCI and Worldcom was approved Sept. 14, and the company is now working on an integration plan, said Jim Monroe, company spokesman.

At this time, it is not known how or whether the Brooks office, a Worldcom property, will be integrated with the MCI sales offices.

MCI has about 20 call centers like the Springfield center nationwide, Gossman said.

"We're one of the most advanced call centers in the country. We have state-of-the-art equipment here," he said.

MCI has paid a lot of attention to attrition rates at call centers, Gossman said, and overall has had "very low attrition compared to the industry average."

"Keeping good employees has been a big concern of ours. We've had quite a bit of success in doing so, by investing in training those employees while they're here, and in just making sure our benefits and compensation are top-notch," Gossman said.

PHOTO CAPTION:

Jeff Gossman manages the Springfield MCI Worldcom call center which is set to add 155 new jobs.

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