Hinduja Global Solutions to hire 565 staff to work at home across NI

Economy Minister Diane Dodds met HGS and Invest NI representatives as the jobs were announced

The global business processes firm Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) is creating 565 jobs in Northern Ireland, all of which will be home-based posts.

HGS is based in India and employs more than 41,000 workers in seven countries.

The company is part of the Hinduja Group - a multinational conglomerate that works across sectors like oil, banking and IT.

About 100 jobs are already in place, with people recruited from every council area in Northern Ireland.

Economy Minister Diane Dodds met HGS representatives at Invest NI headquarters in Belfast, in what could be one of her last events as minister - she is due to be replaced by Paul Frew on Monday.

"A project of this scale will deliver a real boost for our economy, generating additional salaries of around £11m once fully implemented," she said.

Invest NI offered the company almost £1.7million in support to help secure the project.

Adam Foster, chief executive of Hinduja Global Solutions UK, said: "We were attracted to Northern Ireland by the positive experience of others, the availability of talented people and the good connectivity infrastructure which is so necessary to our home-working model.

"We now find ourselves in a position where we can commit and commit properly for the long-term to Northern Ireland where we want to be seen as an employer of choice in the country."

Speaking to Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme, Mr Foster said the company believe allowing staff to work from home "opens up the employment pool" and provides people living in more remote areas with "more opportunity to secure this type of role".

The company has said that while workers will be based at home, it plans to develop small, regional hubs which workers can use in the next few months.