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John Pollack
Telegraph-Journal

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When Hostopia decided to fill 88 new positions for its Miramichi operations, Howard Bell knew regular employee search tactics wouldn't be enough.

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Daniel Martins

Howard Bell

Howard Bell Daniel Martins/canadaeast news service

‘We need to bring quite a number of people into our organization fairly quickly,’ says Howard Bell, vice president operations of Hostopia.

So the web services company hosted a job fair on Tuesday and Wednesday to help fill the customer service, billing, sales and other positions it has available.

"We need to bring quite a number of people into our organization fairly quickly to meet the business that we have," said Bell, company vice-president of administrative operation.

He thought the fair went well - the company interviewed more than 200 candidates over two days.

Holding the event on the Canada Day holiday attracted more already-emplyeed applicants, Bell said.

When Hostopia hired its first 26 workers in Miramichi in June 2007, the province gave the company $1.35 million to help train 207 people within three years. With the new people that are expected to be hired by Friday, Hostopia will employ just under 200.

The jobs will pay $12 to $16 per hour and will require two to four weeks training.

While many of the jobs are contact centre work, there is a larger technical aspect to it than the average call centre job - the company provides website hosting, email, and web application services to businesses in North America and Europe.

The company doesn't sell directly to the public but it provides customer service on behalf of some of its clients, which includes telecommunications companies that sell Hostopia's services to the public.

The company began in Mississauga, Ont. 10 years ago and still employs 150 people there, as well as 30 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which is listed as U.S. headquarters on the company's website.

Hostopia's presence in Miramich has been viewed positively by Jeff MacTavish, the city's economic development director.

"As they grow in Miramichi there's other opportunities that might come to life because of the fact that Hostopia is here. Because of the clients, they're building an awareness of Miramichi," he said. "I don't have their client list but one has to assume that with the type of clients they're dealing with, if the business climate is good in here for them, why wouldn't it be for some other organization?"

Hostopia's rise in Miramichi has happened around the same time as mill closures cost the area 750 jobs and the once thriving FatKat Animation Studios Inc. fell into bankruptcy from more than 100 employees. However Hostopia didn't notice a significant number of those laid off workers apply.

While MacTavish was positive about Hostopia's growth, he assumes the company won't likely have as big of an economic impact on the region as the mills did. The city had calculated the forestry sector is worth 1.2 times its actual output, because the mills bought from other local businesses.

Business New Brunswick doesn't consider the economic impact of technology operations to be much more than the wages paid, department spokesman Ryan Donaghy said.