VISA to Hire 700 Workers at New Atlanta Office

As Visa opens its new Atlanta offices, Rector said that the firm will be better able to meet the goals it set almost three years ago in order to improve the diversity of its ranks within the organization. It was announced by the company in 2020 that it would be aiming to increase the number of under-represented employees by 50% by the year 2020.

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In a move that coincides with rivals cutting back on staffing levels, Visa Inc. has opened a new office in Atlanta as it continues with plans to triple the number of employees in the city.

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Over the past few years, the company has almost doubled its presence in Atlanta, increasing the number of employees in the city to about 350 in a matter of years. In the coming years, Visa plans on growing its local workforce even further by adding an additional 1,000 employees with the opening of its new office.

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As Elizabeth Rector, Visa's head of global client services, explained in an interview, "we really have almost every function within Visa represented here, but there is a big concentration of technology here," she said in an interview. "That's going to be about 50% of the team here, and then client services will be about 30% of the team here, and then the rest will vary depending upon the needs of the organization."

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As a result of these hires, Visa is bucking the financial technology trend. As consumers' spending growth slows in recent months, and investors are worried that a recession is in the offing, competitors have been trimming their workforces in recent months. Over the past few months, all three companies have announced job cuts, including Plaid Inc., Stripe Inc., and PayPal Holdings Inc.

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It is estimated that more than 70 companies are located in the state of Georgia that are involved in payments and financial technology, according to the American Transaction Processors Coalition. In fact, the coalition has found that about 70% of all payments processed in the United States each year go through the state.

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As Visa opens its new Atlanta offices, Rector said that the firm will be better able to meet the goals it set almost three years ago in order to improve the diversity of its ranks within the organization. According to the company, by 2020 it intends to increase the number of underrepresented employees by 50% in order to achieve the company's goal.

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In Rector's opinion, Atlanta is one of the most diverse cities in the nation when it comes to technology workforce diversity. It is estimated that more than half of the city's population is Black or Latino, compared with about 20% of the population of San Francisco, where Visa is headquartered. “It gives us a great opportunity to access a diverse pool of talent. There is no doubt that Atlanta is a key to our overall diversity and inclusion goals."