Answering the call

Weaker economy brings more, and more varied, applicants to conduct phone surveys

Working at a call center isn't the most glamorous job. The work can be tedious. Someone has to work nights and weekends. And you don't get rich earning $10 an hour.

But it's a job -- and that brought a stream of people to a North Raleigh employment agency the past few weeks.

In an economy where new jobs are increasingly hard to find, the applicants were a cross section of the region's work force. A college student looking for a little extra cash stood behind a single mom hoping to land a full-time job. A retiree filled out paperwork next to a woman who is already employed and wants to earn a second paycheck.

They were all part of a job fair at Greene Resources designed to find 600 workers for the RTI International call center.

"I already have a job at my son's day care, but I would rather work part-time there and full-time at the call center," said Pearline Evans, a 29-year-old from Raleigh. "The day care is open 24 hours, so it offers a lot of flexibility. I don't think it will be too much."

Gary Greene, president of Greene Resources, said the economy typically affects the volume and quality of applicants.

But it's not like a water spigot where the flow of workers abruptly starts and stops. Greene said a better -- if less scientific -- measure of how people feel is to listen to the stories they tell.

On a recent Monday night, the stories suggested people are still willing to wait for the right job even if they lack confidence in the overall economy.

"I live in Durham, and what they were offering me was part-time work on nights and weekends in Raleigh," said Janet Aitken, a 53-year-old who is returning to work now that her son is headed to college. "I would do it for full-time work, but it's just too expensive to drive that far for part-time hours. I can do better -- I hope."

Evans had no such qualms when she got an offer for a full-time position doing phone surveys for RTI.

"I'm so happy to take that offer," Evans said. "I've done a variety of jobs because I used to work at a temp agency. Sometimes they just show you where to sit and tell you to get started. This one is different, very professional. It's encouraging."

Survey, not sales

As call centers go, the work at RTI is pretty good.

One of the world's largest research institutes, RTI needs people to work on a U.S. Department of Education survey about college financial aid. The survey is just a tiny sliver of the work done by RTI, which offers research and technical solutions to governments and businesses in 40 countries.

The North Raleigh call center on Capital Boulevard, 25 miles from the company's main campus on Research Triangle Park, operates inside an office suite.

Rows of workers sit at small work stations that look like study carrels from a library. Each carrel is insulated on the inside with a solid gray foam to absorb noise. The production and calls of each worker can be monitored from a separate set of offices.

Evans said she has worked at places where supervisors periodically reviewed call sheets and then fired people on the spot if they fail to meet a quota.

Richard Heman-Ackah, manager of call center services for RTI, has heard those stories, too. Having worked or managed phone centers for more than 25 years, it's his job to create a workplace that is both productive and relatively enjoyable.

RTI spends 20 hours training each worker for the survey job -- far more than most centers -- because it doesn't help the project if they become problem employees or quit in frustration.

Still, turnover at call centers is high. Heman-Ackah said 35 to 50 percent annual turnover is fairly common among survey work. Turnover at other types of centers, from outgoing sales to incoming consumer complaints, often runs higher.