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The Charleston Gazette - November 6, 2007
 “Outsourced jobs don’t always go to India. More than one has ended up in Carey McComiskey’s living room. The Oak Hill mother of two is one of the first West Virginia workers of Arise Virtual Solutions Inc., a Miramar, Fla.-based company that arranges jobs for stay-at-home workers with big employers. ‘It works with my schedule, my kids’ schedule,’ she says. ‘My kids could stay home the whole summer.’ From her home office, McComiskey works 40 to 50 hours a week, at times of her choosing, handling customer-service calls for Home Depot USA Inc. and sales calls for a big electronics retailer (which she said didn’t want to be identified). She usually starts about 8:30 in the morning, after shepherding her children to school and preschool, and keeps fielding calls till 3. Sometimes, she’ll get in few more hours after the kids’ bedtime. It all adds up to 40 to 50 hours a week — and more pay than in her previous job, operating a day-care business, McComiskey said. ‘I’m extremely happy,’ she says. Arise is looking for more Carey McComiskeys. It’s beginning a recruiting push in West Virginia, aiming to find about 500 people to sign on to work-at-home positions in customer service, sales and tech support, said Mary Bartlett, vice president for personnel. ‘Having a diverse population is what our [employer] clients want,’ Bartlett said. ‘They have callers from all over the country, and it makes callers that much more comfortable to hear familiar voices.’ Arise has about 5,200 agents like McComiskey, spread out in 49 states. It was founded 10 years ago as a partnership with the state of Florida and BellSouth Corp. to create jobs for people with disabilities who were unable to work in traditional workplaces. Eventually, it became a private company, owned by the New York-based private-equity investment firm Accretive Technology Partners LLC, and has since broadened its client base beyond people with disabilities to include anyone who wants to work from home. Arise trains workers in taking customer-service calls for its stable of employers, which include Home Depot, Walgreen Co. and Virgin America Inc. Once through the training, they can sign up to work practically any hours they want. The employers pay Arise, and Arise pays the workers. The pay tends to be about $10 to $14 per hour, with more complicated technical-support jobs paying more, Bartlett said. Arise’s workers aren’t Arise employees in the conventional sense. They operate as independent contractors, setting up as their own small business and contracting for work with Arise. ‘This model really works for anyone in the country,’ Bartlett said. ‘A lot of people from a lot of walks of life are interested in working from home.’ Many Arise workers are college students and military spouses, and some are military personnel who want to transition slowly back into the work force, she said. Probably the biggest contingent, not surprisingly, is made up of mothers like McComiskey. Work can be parceled out in blocks as brief as 30 minutes. Over the past four years, Arise has gone through a rapid expansion, and now more than half of its workers are based outside Florida, Bartlett said. Its call volume has doubled this year from last, she said. ‘As we’ve evolved, it’s really been an explosion in this marketplace,’ she said. ‘The technology is accessible to so many individuals, and not just in having it but in the individuals’ being comfortable with it.’ There’s been strong demand from employers as well as workers. ‘Employers have latched onto Arise’s service as an alternative to shipping customer-service work overseas,’ Bartlett said. ‘The customer is pretty frustrated with the offshore experience,’ she said. ‘They [foreign call operators] have a hard time communicating and relating to what the customers’ issues are. ... Consumers are revolting.’ Broadband Internet service, either through a cable connection or digital subscriber line (DSL), is a key requirement for Arise, as practically all its business is transacted online. Workers will also need an up-to-date computer, one that generally speaking is no older than five years, Bartlett said. And they have to have a dedicated phone line. Arise takes applications online, then puts applicants through a 60-minute online assessment, screening for basic computer skills, typing and their understanding of business. Then they have to submit to a criminal-background check, because they’ll be viewing Social Security numbers and credit-card information. Next, applicants enroll in Arise’s online ‘certification course,’ where they’re trained in conducting business over the phone, sales fundamentals and setting up home offices. If they pass a written test, they’re certified as Arise agents. That gets them into ‘client classes,’ in which they prepare to work for certain companies, learning about their corporate culture and product offerings and navigating their computer systems. The classes build up to customer-call simulations and then handling live calls under observation. The certification course costs $99, but it’s often given for free during promotion periods. The client classes cost anywhere from $50 to $100, though some run as high as $200. Not many applicants — just 12 percent — make it all the way through, Bartlett said. This year, Arise expects to draw about 60,000 applications, she said. ‘Not everyone is fit for being able to work from home,’ she said. ‘Some people need a lot of structure, and this really requires self-starters, people who can set their own direction.’ On the Web: Arise conducts practically all of its business online. To apply for training, visit its Web site at |
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