Sitel is a company name that many people have not heard of, but they are the employer of a significant number of workers. For those of you who are not that familiar with the company here is a look at how they have chosen to describe themselves, “With over 26 years of industry experience, Sitel has twice been ranked as the top overall call center outsourcing provider in Datamonitor’s annual Black Book of Outsourcing survey. Sitel’s 57,000 employees provide clients with predictable and measurable Return on their Customer Investment by building customer loyalty, increasing sales and improving efficiency. Sitel’s solutions span 120+ domestic, nearshore, and offshore centers in 25 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia Pacific. The company is privately held and majority owned by Canadian diversified company, Onex Corporation.”

Sadly the company is getting ready to cut back on a number of workers that they have deemed not needed for the time being. The company is cutting back on about 58 of its workers, which is about one tenth of the overall people at the facility of 500, in a move that is designed to make running the call center in Starkville less costly. The loss of this many jobs in a single swoop is enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

Interestingly enough the company’s latest release was not about layoffs, but about hiring new workers. For those of you who are interested here is an excerpt about the company’s recent growth, “Sitel, a leading global business process outsourcing (BPO) provider, is actively recruiting numerous positions in preparation of its new Call Center opening in Ocala, Fla. Open positions include Customer Service Representatives, Call Center Supervisors, Operations Reporting Analyst and other managerial support positions. John Miller, site director for the new site stated, “We are hiring our first wave of Customer Service Representatives as we grow to our ultimate goal of 500 agents. Our first classes will begin training on August 6th. We are pleased to be able to hire a significant number of new employees and in turn do our part to strengthen the economy in the greater Ocala, Fla. area.” The new site will support a global telecommunications company and will be located at 1417 N. Magnolia Drive, Ocala, Florida 34475.”

The company is giving preferential hiring to the soon to be laid off workers.