By Jean Work

In early 1997, U.S. Cellular visited the Rogue Valley to explore the possibility of opening a call center in Southern Oregon. This call center had the potential to employ 400 people. Many people were involved in the recruitment of this company including Governor Kitzhaber and Senator Ron Wyden along with local officials and Southern Oregon Economic Development Inc.

The local Business Resource Team was contacted to assist in this recruitment. The partnership of the BRT consists of the Oregon Employment Department, The Job Council, Rogue Community College, Southern Oregon University and SOREDI. The BRT is a partnership that provides assistance to companies when they are upsizing, down sizing, new location, retention services and shutdown.

The role the BRT played with U.S. Cellular was to assist them in the recruitment and training of their new employees. Reimbursement to these agencies was offered for their services. However, the Oregon Employment Department cannot accept remuneration for their services. The time spent over a one year period of time in this effort of screening over 13,000 applications, referral, contact, appointment setting and data compilation resulted in over $54,000 worth of services. As an expression of appreciation for this effort, US Cellular elected to donate the money to the Education & Resource Center, located in the Rogue Valley Mall.

The Education & Resource Center is the facility in which much of the recruitment activity took place. Like the State Employment Department, they serve all customers coming through their doors. You do not have to qualify for special programs in order to receive services. This gift will help to enable the continuation of services at the mall location.

U.S. Cellular used the Business Resource Team, which allowed the partners to do the job they each do best and saved the employer dollars and staff time.

• The Education & Resource Center at the Rogue Valley Mall made Interview, Training, and Orientation space available with no fee during the process


• The Oregon Employment Department, using Oregon's largest single source of skilled and available applicants, handled the Recruitment process


• Oregon Employment Department & The Job Council shared in the scheduling process


• Rogue Community College & The Job Council took charge of the Testing process


• Rogue Community College & Southern Oregon University shared in the Training needs.