JPMorgan Chase & Co. has selected Baltimore as the site of its second virtual call center, modeled after the banking firm’s first such center in Detroit.
The company said Friday it has hired 40 Baltimore-based, full-time customer service specialists who will work from home by phone helping customers manage financial accounts.
The workers were hired from underserved neighborhoods through a partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development. The first group of new employees are being trained at Parks & People Foundation on Liberty Heights Avenue and will start taking calls Oct. 30.
“Through this partnership, our residents, particularly those in historically underserved and disinvested in neighborhoods, will now have yet another avenue to secure good jobs and help grow the renaissance that we’re building here in Baltimore,” Mayor Brandon M. Scott said in a news release.
Scott added that the call center is a step toward “overcoming the decades of disinvestment too many of our neighborhoods have faced.”
Chase Operations officials came up with the idea as a way to expand customer service jobs in communities without traditional call centers.
JPMorgan Chase Vice Chairman Peter Scher said in the news release that it’s away that companies like the New York-based bank can “implement more intentional hiring efforts and tap into this talent pool to improve their business, create genuine opportunity and support their communities.”
The call center expansion is part of broader efforts by Chase to expand business investments that create jobs and promote career growth opportunities, the company said. The bank plans to expand the number of workers, hiring through the employment development agency and other local groups.
Chase is expanding in the Baltimore area. It currently operates 16 branches and employs 175 people. It plans to open 35 more branches by 2026. Last year, the bank announced a $20 million, five-year commitment to benefit underserved communities in Baltimore.
Chase’s first virtual call center, launched last year in Detroit, now employs 90 people.
Source: baltimoresun.com
