Teleperformance USA, a call center company based in Utah, Texas, announced its partnership with TXU Energy that will result in the hiring of over 250 new staff at its office in Abilene, Texas. The new jobs are expected to be completed by early summer and the new hires will be paid $9 per hour.

Marcie Ballard, Vice President for recruiting services at Teleperformance, said that the new partnership has increased the number of their employees since October 2010. After the number of employees dipped to about 150 in October, the call center now has about 550 employees, including more than 20 already hired, because of the TXU Energy partnership.”

Brian Bingham, Vice President of business development for Teleperformance USA, added that the 250 new jobs are just the initial positions needed as of the moment. He said that more jobs would be created throughout the partnership period especially if TXU Energy would renew their contract with Teleperformance. “The initial term of the contract is three years. The contract could be renewed annually. So the 250 jobs are just the top of the iceberg. The intent is to keep those here as long as both parties want that.”

The state of Texas has provided financial assistance and incentives to Teleperformance USA to support its expansion project. The Development Corporation of Abilene has paid Teleperformance about $370,280 over four years, under a five-year agreement up to $757,000 in incentives. Richard Burdine, chief executive officer of the DCOA, said the state is giving its best efforts to support the expansion program of various state companies. “We had an opportunity to help an existing business gain a major new client, and we jumped on it.”