Local companies are stepping up employee benefits to attract workers

JOPLIN, Mo. — If you’re a job seeker, now is a good time to be looking for work.
That’s because many area companies have had to up their game when it comes to attracting new employees. One local company is a good example.
 
Near of the start of this year, the Alorica Call Center in Joplin, which provides in coming customer service information, wanted to expand it’s workforce by 600 employees. Jeb Cook, senior manager of the facility, says the company is less than a hundred shy of meeting that new employee goal.
 
So in the middle of a pandemic when everyone seemingly is looking for employees, how has Alorica been able to hire so many? The business had to sweeten the pot in this employee centered job market.
 
“We’ve found there’s a whole new market of employees who are really interested in working from home, not only do they get flexibility on their breaks and lunches to be able to be there at home and make their own lunch, things like that on their breaks, and our wages have increased as well to $15 an hour,” said Jeb Cook, Senior Manager, Alorica Call Center of Joplin.
 
And once they get the new hires trained and in the system, they’ve had to think out of the box to keep them.
 
“We would go out and buy, you know, a thousand, two thousand hot dogs and hamburgers and we would go outside and grill it up and serve everybody a free lunch, but obviously with people working at home, we’ve had to be dynamic in the way that we keep engagement with our employees, so we’ve been looking at incentivizing them through bonuses and sending them things in the mail, just fun stuff like that to make sure that they feel appreciated,” said Cook. And Cook says this approach may be the new normal, even after the pandemic passes.

 
“Life and health insurance, plus 401K, an employee assistance program and tuition reimbursement, make it very lucrative to come to work for Alorica,” said Cook.
 
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