Article was emailed to me and it comes from local media source The Standard (no links to the actual article can be found at that site).
FRONTIER CLOSING KINGMAN CALL CENTER
DAVE HAWKINS
THE STANDARD
Frontier Communications is closing its Kingman Call Center on August 24. It's the latest in a series of Kingman area job losses with shutdowns that include the Mohave Generating Station, the Ford Proving Ground and, more recently, Foxworth-Galbraith.
Frontier, however, explained its decision has nothing to do with the local economy. Instead, the company is expanding some operations while closing a number of others.
``The decision to close this call center and a number of other call centers throughout the company is that we're looking to go from 14 call centers to three or four of what I'm calling super-centers, meaning they'll have 400 or more employees," said company spokeswoman Stephanie Beasley. The company announced last year it would be restructuring to ensure delivery of quality customer service with a focus of 24/7 customer service operations and one-call resolution.
``Those call centers identified for continued operations were selected because of their rich labor market and the ability to attract and retain a base of 400 or more employees," state a company memorandum to the City of Kingman. ``While we employ knowledgeable, service-oriented employees in the Kingman area, we have been unable to retain a base of more than 400 employees."
Frontier said it is implementing a Work-At-Home program in place of the Kingman Call Center. 62 people are already working from home and 20 more will be selected for the same role.
Frontier, however, is not disclosing how many other Call Center employees are not being provided the Work-At-Home option.
``We're not disclosing that," Beasley said. ``The reason being is that there are opportunities within Frontier for all of these employees, so, right now, the employees that work in the Kingman Call Center are being impacted in their current positions, but not in their opportunities with Frontier.
Beasley said it remains to be seen so far as how many of those impacted employees can be placed locally and how many others might be offered out-of-state transfer opportunities.
Beasley noted that Frontier employs 250 employees in Mohave County and will maintain a substantial presence through its Work-At-Home and its other business and commercial service operations.
How might have this been different if the city of Kingman was further developed like a normal city with normal amenities such as shopping, entertainment, and reasonable access routes??
What the article doesn't mention is that Frontier Communications owns the building they are located in and it is a rather large building. Frontier in recent years has gone through the motion of acquiring new commercial space and buildings in other locations around the country (in Minnesota and Florida). There would have been obvious advantages to simply make the Kingman location a 'super-center'.
So why didn't they?? Yes the article mentions difficulties keeping a 400 plus person workforce that is needed. However I believe another possibility is that Kingman couldn't attract the management personnel that would have been needed.
This is a guess only, but it is based on similar the talk going around town as to the difficulties of attracting needed doctors for the hospital. The talk is that the doctor's wives don't want to live here. How great will Kingman be for the many senior citizens with not enough doctors to service them??
I'll let you answer.
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