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Here come 200+ jobs

by MIKE PATRICK/Staff writer
| March 6, 2014 8:00 PM

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<p>Keith Allen Jones, national talent acquisition manager for Alliance Data, checks out the view from the retail services company’s new Coeur d’Alene location on Tuesday. The company is planning to add 200 new jobs to the area by the end of this year.</p>

COEUR d'ALENE - If you've got emotional resiliency and want a job, Alliance Data might have one for you.

In fact, it plans to have at least 200 of them.

The company that manages more than 130 private label and co-brand credit card programs is leasing a 44,500-square-foot facility from Coldwater Creek in Coeur d'Alene, which it plans to open for business in June.

But the process to hire 200 customer service representatives by the end of the year begins today.

Who are they looking for?

"You would think (successful applicants) would all come out of a call center," said Keith Jones, the company's Denver-based chief recruiter. "Not necessarily. It has been caregivers - people who worked in nursing homes, hospice, that kind of thing. Not necessarily your 22-year-old. It could be somebody in their 40s and 50s. It's really service-oriented, caring people. There's not a set person."

But there is emotional resiliency.

"People that have emotional resiliency do well in our jobs," said Lance Beck, regional vice president of customer care operations. "These are folks that literally can have a very difficult conversation on the phone with a customer talking about a financial matter, and be able to let that conversation pass and then immediately get into a brand new conversation without skipping a beat, without having any of the emotional baggage that may have been from a previous conversation.

"People who are in health care tend to have emotional resiliency - the ability to go into one room where somebody may have just had a baby and everything's very happy, and then go into the next room and have the emotional presence to handle a situation where somebody might be seriously ill.

"I'm not saying we're saving lives, but to be able to have a conversation, a great service experience from one interaction to the next all day long, takes a bit of emotional resiliency to leave that behind and go fresh into the next conversation."

Emotional resiliency with Alliance Data is rewarded by starting pay "north of $11 an hour," Beck said, and all jobs are full time with full benefits.

"We will pay according to what the market dictates to get the right talent," Beck added.

Jones, the recruiter who joined Alliance Data earlier this year but has worked for numerous other companies in various capacities, said Alliance Data's benefits compare favorably to most U.S. companies. Jones also said starting pay shouldn't scare anybody away.

"If you're looking for a company with a career, not just go answer the phone and that's what you're going to do for 20 years, there's a place for you here," he said. "The people who sit on our executive committee started on the phones and now they run the show. They have not forgotten where they came from."

Beck said he's confident 200 associates' jobs will be filled by the end of the year, with management a mixture of locals and established Alliance Data executives who can help "bring the culture of the company with them." Operations Manager Derrek Thomas, who's moving his family from the Denver area to Coeur d'Alene this spring, is one of them. But the way the company has been performing, Beck said, many more jobs might soon be added.

"Getting into next year, if growth continues at the pace we've seen, we'll be looking at being fully occupied in the facility which would mean 400 to 450 associates," he said.

News of Alliance Data coming to North Idaho comes immediately on the heels of Kootenai Health announcing a $57 million hospital expansion that will employ an estimated 400 construction workers for more than a year, then lead to an additional 100 to 150 permanent jobs at the hospital over the next few years. Kootenai Health already is North Idaho's largest private employer with about 2,400 jobs.

Steve Griffitts, president of Jobs Plus, Inc. - the region's economic development agency - has liked everything he has seen in working with Alliance Data, going back well over a year.

"They're a true industry leader in the financial and retail sectors, and the high level of compensation and the strong level of benefits that they provide are exceptional," Griffitts said. "Yet they are secondary to the career opportunities and culture of professionalism that they offer their associates. Alliance Data has shown a commitment to promote internally and to give back to the communities where they serve."

In the past three years alone, Alliance Data has donated more than $3 million in the communities where it's established, said Rachel Stultz, manager of integrated marketing and communications. Organizations including United Way, local food banks and Toys for Tots have been big beneficiaries, she said, adding that the company has a standing policy of matching or even exceeding what associates donate to 501(c)(3) organizations.

Griffitts said Alliance Data's philanthropic activities and its payroll will combine to be a big boon locally. Even at the entry-level wages Alliance Data will pay its front-line associates, payroll and benefits for 200 employees would be in the $7 million range annually. Applying the multiplier that suggests every job generates about 2.5 times more in the local economy, those 200 jobs will have an impact of at least $17.7 million a year.

"And that's at the low end," Griffitts said. "When they reach 400 associates, you can double those numbers."

Alliance Data employs more than 5,100 people in a dozen locations, serving more than 33 million active cardholder accounts. It has earned nine "Center of Excellence" certifications by BenchmarkPortal for its care centers - an unmatched distinction in its industry.

Coeur d'Alene will be by far its smallest "home." Others are in metropolitan areas like Denver, Albuquerque and Columbus, Ohio.

No problem, said Beck. Coeur d'Alene and Kootenai County have just what the company wants.

"Last year it started to click," he said of the long recruitment process. "We took a trip here and when we met with the community leaders, we realized very quickly that not only was the (Coldwater Creek) physical space going to work very well for us, but the community and the labor force were certainly viable.

"Everything and everyone we've talked to has reinforced just an incredible, service-oriented community. What we've seen is exactly what we need to be successful."

For more information about the company, visit: www.alliancedata.com.

• Want to apply?

Go to alliancedata.com and watch The Press for details on job fairs and other local application opportunities.