Sep. 20, 2005
By JUDY SHERARD, Hays Daily News
STOCKTON — Five area communities hope a feasibility study will result in jobs.
Stockton, Plainville, Hill City, Smith Center and WaKeeney all have contracted with Innovative Research and Consulting in St. John to complete a study exploring the possibility of opening small inbound call centers, said Roger Hrabe, director of Rooks County Economic Development.
Hrabe said interest in the project that would assesses a community's labor force to match it with a Fortune 500 company looking to open a call center, started about a year ago.
“We work the community side of revitalization. The other side is the corporate side,” said C. W. Feril, president of Innovative Research and Consulting.
While some companies are locating call centers overseas, there's a current need to outsource call centers, Feril said.
Companies are closing call centers in urban areas, and want to form a long-term relationship with rural communities, he said.
The project also could bring some overseas jobs back to rural America, Hrabe said.
The purpose of the study is to find out the quantity and quality of work force interested in jobs in a local call center, Feril said.
Since there was a call center previously in Plainville, there is an experienced work force. Hrabe said many families depended on those jobs for a second income.
“We have a lot of people who would take a second income if given the opportunity,” he said.
Advertisements asking for applicants have been appearing in area newspapers for a couple of weeks. While each corporation has its own requirements, the ads contain broad, general qualifications and information, Feril said.
“People who are interested or potentially interested need to apply. The corporation needs to make sure the work force is there,” Feril said.
Hrabe stressed that “people are applying for jobs that aren't there yet.”
Communities with sufficient workforces will be matched with a company.
Call centers wouldn't be large facilities. “These may have 10 to 12 employees (but) every community could have one,” Hrabe said.
The five communities aren't competing with one another for a call center.
“It's a big pie and there's a piece for all of us,” Hrabe said. “In communities our size, 10 to 20 jobs is fairly significant. We had to put up a fair amount of money.
“We thought it was worth doing,” Hrabe said of the $15,000 price tag each community was assessed for the study.
Each community raised its own money in its own fashion. The Rooks County Economic Development Office paid half for Plainville and for Stockton. The City of Plainville provided the remainder of that town's money and a private foundation paid for Stockton, he said.
Usually when a corporation opens a call center, it brings a branch of the company to the community and often asks for tax breaks.
However, this project would involve local investors who have a five-year service contract with the corporation, Feril said.
Identifying local investment is part of the feasibility study. “It's not traditionally a problem to find local investors,” he said.
Because the call center would be locally owned and managed, it would have a vested interest in the community and could be more aware of local issues.
Five percent of the gross revenue from each call center is donated to community improvement projects. The only stipulation for the money is that the corporation receive public acknowledgement of its donation.
“If they put up a gazebo in the park, they want a plaque identifying that,” Feril said.
Though the project with northwest Kansas communities is in its early stages, Feril said his company has similar projects in the final process in other locations in the Midwest.
“There's a lot of enthusiasm. Response has been good. It's an opportunity to have a job in the community,” Feril said.
The study also will include resident and business surveys and a demographics study. The studies likely will be completed at different times, but the deadline for their completion is March 2006.
Reporter Judy Sherard can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 138, or by e-mail at jsherard@dailynews.net.