HSN looks to Ohio

HSN Inc. already employs more than 1,300 people to answer calls from shoppers buying products they find on the company's cable channels. But soon, the St. Petersburg media company will add 300 more spots throughout northwest Ohio.

A coalition of employment organizations banded together to offer HSN on-the-job training support, as well as additional employee recruiting and screening assistance programs -- services that would cost HSN thousands of dollars otherwise.

In return, HSN will expand its work-at-home program into 300 full-time and part-time sales and customer service support positions in a part of Ohio that includes Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown.

HSN has moved many of its call center workers home, not just in St. Petersburg and Ohio, but also Roanoke, Va., and Nashville, Tenn.

The company, which employs 6,900 people altogether, is looking for people who have access to a landline phone and a computer, and possess strong computer skills, customer service resolution skills, and have a “positive, upbeat personality.”

HSN, which trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol HSNI, had a record $3.6 billion in sales last year. It's available to 95 million households, and its website is one of the world's top 10 most-visited e-commerce sites.