Hiring slower than expected for SaviLinx, Wayfair
Photo / Lori Valigra
SaviLinx CEO Heather Blease, left, talks to call center worker and Air Force Gulf War veteran Amy Burns with her service dog, Mac, in the company's call center at Brunswick Landing last fall.
Last winter’s announcements that Boston-based home furnishing store Wayfair would be bringing 500 jobs to Brunswick Landing and the call center company SaviLinx would be hiring an additional 200 employees have fallen far short of those projections.
The Forecaster also reported that although SaviLinx’s employment has grown from the 100 workers employed at the time of its announcement last March to 300 today, about half are employed at the call center’s location in Hattiesburg, Miss. SaviLinx CEO Heather Blease told the newspaper that her company’s hiring fluctuates according to the needs of its clients.
“At times we might need to adjust numbers up or down depending on performance levels, call volumes and other criteria,” Blease told the paper. “Our projections were a bit high on one contract after measuring initial call volume, and we adjusted. We met all of our hiring goals (in 2016).”
The newspaper reported that Wayfair, which announced last February that it would open a 500-employee sales center in leased space at the 40,000-square-foot former Navy Exchange building at Brunswick Landing, has hired 150 employees since last June.
Wayfair’s site director told the Forecaster that the company is continuing to hire according to its needs.
Charles Colgan, professor emeritus at USM’s Muskie School of Public Service and former chairman of the state Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission, told the Forecaster it’s not uncommon for companies to draw attention to themselves when they intend to add jobs.
“Anybody who (pays) attention understands” that such an announcement “doesn’t mean 200 jobs tomorrow,” Colgan said.
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