Teleperformance to Hire 500 Work-At-Home Agents in Barranquilla

French BPO giant Teleperformance looks set to inject new energy into Colombia’s growing work-from-home culture, with plans to hire 500 work-at-home agents (WAHAs) in Barranquilla, according to a release.

For Teleperformance, this is a new experiment for Colombia, where it employs more than 15,000 people distributed across its 11 BPO facilities in Bogota and Medellin.

As of now, none of its staff in Bogota or Medellin is working from home, according to Juan Carlos Hincapie, CEO of Teleperformance, Colombia.

Telecommuting has become an increasingly popular work culture in Colombia, with reports saying that there are already more than 100,000 people working from home.

Over the years, the country’s ICT Ministry has organized several workshops to promote the work-at-home culture, saying that telecommuting reduces traffic jams and helps enterprises save on travel and infrastructure.

Teleperformance set up a base in Colombia following its acquisition of Teledatos, a local contact center service company, a decade ago. Today, it has more than 50 Colombian clients, and provides several back-office services, in addition to customer-facing services such as customer care, sales, tech support, and collections.

Last year, it won Frost & Sullivan’s Colombian company of the year award, as its revenue increased 20% above the market´s average. It is now one of the biggest voice-based BPO providers in Latin America.