TSYS hiring for new 450-employee call center in McDonough

Credit-card and payment processor TSYS is preparing to open a customer service center in the Henry County city of McDonough, Ga., just southeast of Atlanta, employing up to 450 people.

The company, headquartered in Columbus, said Tuesday it has begun hiring for the positions, with expectations to have the 62,000-square-foot facility open by November.

TSYS spokesman Cyle Mims said the firm considered opening a second call center in Columbus, but wanted to locate the new one away from the city as part of a disaster preparedness plan. Should a storm or other major event impact one center, the customer service activity will roll over to the second facility.

"The McDonough Center will mirror the service offerings of our Columbus center and will also provide continuity and disaster recovery services in case of an emergency at our Columbus center," he said.

Aside from Columbus, Mims said TSYS operates customer service centers -- called "contact centers" by those in the financial industry -- in Europe, the Philippines, Jamaica, Canada and in the U.S., including Tempe, Ariz. The new center will give it nine in all. He did not have an employee count for the Columbus center.

"The opening of the new center in McDonough is attributed to growth, both organic growth for existing clients, and new client growth," Mims said. "This will not affect our call center here in Columbus, which is operating at capacity."

The new center, located at 350 Loop Road, is being set up in a leased building, Mims said. McDonough is off Interstate 75 about 20 miles (30 minutes) southeast of Forest Park, Ga., a city near I-75's intersection with I-285. It is nearly 100 miles (just over two hours) northeast of Columbus.

Most of the jobs being created in Henry County fall into the category of customer service representative. The TSYS career site said basic qualifications include a high school diploma or equivalent, with up to two years of specialized training and work experience, with basic computer and customer service skills required.

The company lists a starting salary of $11.71 per hour for the McDonough customer service jobs.

That compares to a national median of $14.70 per hour, or $30,580 yearly, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency said there are nearly 2.4 million such jobs in the U.S. currently, with nearly 300,000 more needed by the year 2022. That's a 13 percent growth rate for the occupation.

TSYS is a global processor of credit cards, electronic payments, prepaid cards and, moving forward, chip cards. Its clients include major retailers, such as Target, and banks that issue credit cards, including Capital One and Bank of America.

The job description for the call center positions says employees will "assist cardholders and retail banking customers with account requests, inquiries and problems such as account balances, fund availability, fund transfers, stop payment orders, account closings, authorizations, name and address updates, and other general account activity."

Said Mims: "If one of our bank clients wants us to do their call center services, that’s the function we’ll provide. We will offer customer service, risk and fraud management, collections, dispute charge-backs, really just a full center of servicing solutions will be offered there."

David Figgat, a group executive with TSYS Managed Services, said in a statement the company is excited to be opening its center in McDonough. The city, with a 2010 Census population of about 22,000, is officially in the Atlanta metro area.

"We are confident that we will be able to attract top-notch talent from the market that will help us deliver comprehensive servicing solutions for our clients, while optimizing the overall customer experience," he said.

This story was originally published September 16, 2014 at 3:44 PM with the headline "TSYS hiring for new 450-employee call center in McDonough."