West Corp. plans to add 100 people at local call center

West Corp. is planning to hire 100 people at its Huntsville call center to fill customer care and sales positions, the company said Tuesday.

The company also said it plans to increase its starting wages by 28 percent.

The Omaha, Neb.-based company opened its Huntsville office in 2000 and has 800 employees here, a spokesman said Tuesday. West handles incoming calls from customers of its clients in the wireless phone service industry and other sectors.

"In order to accommodate our clients' growing business needs while continuing to provide them the superior level of service with which they are accustomed, we need to dramatically increase the size of our staff," said Christopher Hinds, divisional vice president of employment.

The company said it hopes to fill the jobs immediately and that the new positions are being created due to the increased business demands of its client base.

"We've had really good success there, and we wanted to be able to grow," said David Pleiss, vice president, investor and public relations.

West has increased its starting wage for all of its production agents. Customer care representatives will earn $10.25 per hour. Incoming customer sales representatives will earn $9 per hour in addition to possible sales incentives, handling calls for a financial services provider.

The majority of available positions are for full-time employment, including day and evening shifts.

West Corp. is a leading provider of outsourced communication solutions to many of the world's largest companies, organizations and government agencies. Founded in 1986, West has a team of 29,000 employees based in North America, Europe and Asia.