We Believe
Sound management and planning could help the call center in Daleville avoid the struggles of Agape Communications in downtown Anderson.
You’ll have to pardon Anderson area residents if they’re not celebrating Wednesday’s announcement that a call center will be hiring 300 workers in Daleville.
Not that 300 jobs aren’t significant. Even if the jobs are entry level and the pay scale is low — $10 to $11.25 an hour — the Madison County region needs jobs and isn’t exactly in a position to turn up its collective nose.
But the hesitance of Manpower of Muncie, which is contracted to find those 300 workers, to provide information about the customers to be served by the new call center employees, arouses a healthy skepticism about the long-term stability of the jobs.
And recent history tells us that hundreds of jobs promised don’t necessarily mean hundreds of jobs delivered. The lesson comes specifically from a business called Agape Communications, which announced in the spring that it would move a call center to the Union Building in downtown Anderson and eventually employ 400 people.
The city helped out with a $3,000 incentive by making fiber optic available to the company. The city is also providing technical assistance, according to Linda Dawson, economic development director, to bring the Union Building up to code so Agape can expand to another floor.
Now it all seems to be wishful thinking. It’s been a bad summer for the company that sold debt-consolidation packages over the phone. Last week, some Agape employees walked out, claiming they hadn’t been paid in three weeks.
Management originally denied this, saying everyone had been paid. A day later the company’s CEO, Jeff Rogers, admitted some had not been paid for recent weeks worked. He also said the company was trying a new selling tact over the phone, called Score My Bills, a credit-building offer.
If the new program is successful, Agape could take off and eventually employ 400 people, according to managers. Marcus Redfield, a night-shift manager at Agape, said the people who walked out don’t share the same values as the Agape family and added that those employees are not dedicated.
Not dedicated? They worked for three weeks without pay. That takes some level of dedication. It sounds as if Agape expected them to work without pay. Rogers said there was no money, and if the new program is successful, employees will be paid. Wait a minute. Are the employees supposed to work for free until the program is successful?
These employees signed on to work at $8.50 an hour with bonuses depending on sales. So even if sales were low or nonexistent, the employees were due their $8.50 an hour, even if Agape had to borrow to pay them.
Apparently, Agape’s sole investor pulled out because the company was making no money.
Regardless of Agape’s current financial situation, the company was launched as a boon to Anderson’s economy. That it crashed and burned so quickly is a testament to poor market conditions and some less than stellar planning on the part of Agape’s owners.
Maybe the new program will be successful, but it’s a big maybe at this point. Agape had about 27 employees when the walkout took place. Now the owners expect a new program eventually to boost their employment to 400?
It’s tough to start a new business. Most of them fail for a wide variety of reasons, and those that succeed can take a few years to get up and running. But some factors — the sole investor pulling out and employees walking out — don’t add up to success.
Agape’s intentions were good, but somewhere along the line the intentions met reality, and the result was a struggling business that couldn’t pay its employees. That’s not what Anderson needs.
Agape’s stumble truly has no bearing on the chances that the 300 new jobs touted in Daleville will take root and bear fruit for years to come. But what happened at Agape, coupled with the reticence of Manpower of Muncie to provide details about the companies to be served by the call-center agents in Daleville, throws a shadow of doubt over the venture.
