Convergys Adds Another 700 Jobs to its Costa Rican Workforce

U.S. outsourcing giant Convergys has announced plans to add 700 employees to its workforce in Costa Rica, where it runs three call centers. The announcement came just days after Intel confirmed its plans to close its manufacturing facilities in the Central American country, dismissing more than 1,500 employees.

The new recruits, to be deployed at Convergys’ facilities in Rohrmoser and Heredia, will work in sales, customer service and technical support.

This is Convergys’ second major hiring in Costa Rica in the past month. Two weeks ago the BPO firm held a job fair at Rohrmoser in order to hire about 45 network engineers. Convergys also recently hired about 250 employees for its call center in Honduras.

With three contact centers in three major cities, Convergys has employed over 1,500 people in Costa Rica since 2009. The BPO provider, analysts say, has about 10 clients in Costa Rica, the majority of whom are in retail, medical, telecommunications, networking and financial industries.

“Convergys is fully committed to Costa Rica and our operations are strong. We are proud of all our achievements in the last five years, and look forward to an even brighter and more successful future”, said Eugenia Rojas, Public Relations Manager for Latin America.

Costa Rica has beenfited from Convergys’ acquisition of Stream Global services earlier this year. Stream had left the Central American country in 2012, citing rising the cost of labor, but now Convergys is bringing back the employment lost due to Stream’s departure.

According to local Spanish-language newspapers, private companies created about 7,000 jobs in Costa Rica last year, while telecom equipment suppliers Suttle and Brightstar are likely to create hundred more jobs in the days to come. However, the rising cost of energy and wages is threatening to constrain employment growth this year.