Atento to Add More than 2,000 Employees to its Brazilian Workforce

Spanish customer services provider Atento is set to fill more than 2,000 vacant positions at its call centers in Brazil, hiring around 350 employees in Rio de Janeiro alone.

Many positions do not require previous experience, the call center operator said in a press release, offering new hires with generous incentives, including food stamps and childcare allowance.

With a workforce of 79,000 people, Atento is the second biggest private sector employer in Brazil. It runs delivery centers in just about every major Brazilian city. There are more than a dozen Atento facilities in Sao Paulo alone.

But the BPO provider is struggling to hire new talent in the South American country, largely due to a lack of skilled workers. In addition, many young Brazilians are no longer interested in call center jobs because of less salary and fewer incentives, according to a local news portal Estado De Minas.

Talent shortage has long been a “chronic problem” in Brazil, and Atento knows this “harsh reality” better than anyone else, the portal adds.

As of January this year, the company had 2,827 vacant positions, of which 2,300 were for customer service and 527 for consultants, sales promoters and supervisors.

A decade ago, Atento earned much of its revenue from its parent Telefonica, but today it makes more than 60% of its revenue from other clients, and its shares are traded on the New York stock exchange.