New Columbus business to offer up to 150 jobs early next year

A Nebraska-based company is preparing to open a new telephone captioning center in Columbus early next year that will immediately create between 50 and 100 jobs with the possibility of 150 total new jobs, according to a news release from the company.

Hamilton Relay, a division of Hamilton Telecommunications, will be opening the business that provides captioned telephone services at 1501 13th St., an office building near Lakebottom Park.

“Over the past couple of years, we have seen growth in the demand for captioning service, and we are eager to start providing this service from our new center in Columbus,” Dixie Ziegler, vice president of Hamilton Relay, said in a prepared statement. “The support we have received from the community of Columbus, including the economic development team, has been instrumental in helping us establish a new center and was key to our selection of the community of Columbus. We look forward to working with the city, its residents and our new employees.”

Hamilton plans to immediately hire between 50-100 new employees for a variety of positions, including: administrative support, human resources representative, recruiter, IT technician, supervisors, trainers, and customer service call center operators. Once fully operational, the center is expected to employ approximately 150 employees. Full- and part-time positions are available.

The company will operate seven days per week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. initially. Once the center is fully staffed, hours of operation will be 8 a.m to 1 a.m.

Captioned Telephone (CapTel®) Service is designed specifically for individuals who have difficulty hearing on the telephone and allows users to listen while reading word-for-word captions of what’s being said to them on the display screen of a CapTel phone — similar to captions on television, according to the news release. Hamilton’s specially trained call center operators repeat everything said by the standard phone user into state-of-the-art voice recognition software. Those words are then converted into text that appears on the CapTel phone. Captions are available in English or Spanish.

It is important to attract new companies to Columbus, said Russ Carreker, chairman of the Development Authority of Columbus.

“Our economic development partners at the Columbus Chamber quickly reacted to Hamilton Relay’s objectives and provided the company with expertise and resources that put them on the right track to achieve success in the community for a long time to come,” Carreker said.

For more information on the new positions available, apply online at www.workforhamilton.com, email HR@HamiltonTel.com or contact Human Resources by phone at 402-694-5101.

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 3:46 PM with the headline "New Columbus business to offer up to 150 jobs early next year."