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CLEAN, SOBER, AND GOOD FOR BUSINESS
Ex-substance abusers power Omni's telemarketing
By Ed Leibowitz in Los Angeles
When he's searching for salespeople, Omni Computer Products
President Gerald W. Chamales turns to some unusual recruiters: parole
and probation officers, social workers, and recovery program mentors. He
knows their referrals will have histories of addiction and sometimes
nonviolent crime, which can punch big holes in a resume. But to Chamales
that represents potential, not problems. "They're coming out of a desperate
situation, and that's what we look for: people who are desperate to change
their lives. They tend to work harder to prove themselves," he
says. Chamales, 46, speaks from
experience. He's a recovering drug and alcohol abuser himself who bottomed
out as a homeless youth on the streets of Venice, Calif., 25 years ago. From
the company's beginning he has made hiring the hard-to-employ--and managing
them with the tenets of recovery programs--a key part of Omni's corporate
strategy.
Today, a third of his 120 telemarketers fall into this category. They have
helped build Omni from a startup--launched 19 years ago in Chamales' Venice
Beach apartment with $1,300 borrowed on a credit card--to a 280-employee
national supplier and manufacturer of Rhinotek-brand printer cartridges,
paper, and related products.
Chamales estimates the
privately held company, which occupies 40,000 square feet in Carson, Calif.,
grossed $28 million last year, with sales to such blue-chip clients as Walt
Disney Co. and Federal Express Corp. Omni doesn't alert clients to its
hiring policies, but it doesn't hide them, either, and no one seems to mind.
Some sales agents even discuss their personal struggles with
customers.
It turns out that a life hustling on
the streets can be good training for telemarketing. Chamales says these
workers are unusually persuasive--a useful skill when you're making 25 to 30
cold calls day.
The results
surprise even Stephen Marcus, a California judge who heads a court-run rehab
program from which Chamales has hired. "Hard as it is to believe, these
people are good workers," Marcus says.
It is, indeed, surprising. Addicts and alcoholics cost the economy
$314 billion a year just from absenteeism, not to mention any hidden damage
their performance does to their employers. The difference at Omni is that
people don't have to cover up. "An employer who hires recovering people is
hiring people who acknowledge they have a problem, and some of those costs
could be avoided," says Scott Robertson, administrator at Glendale
Adventist Alcohol & Drug Services, in Glendale, Calif.
Managing those workers is no simple matter. It takes special supervisors to
do the job. Take Joe Hiller, senior vice-president of sales. He came to Omni
in the summer of 1984--40 days sober after more than a decade of substance
abuse--decked out in his father's ill-fitting suit. "I didn't even know how
to tie a tie," says Hiller. His first check, commission only, was $27.
Within a year, he had moved into management.
RECOVERY ZONE
Managers at Omni Computer Products use some unconventional techniques to tap
the talents of ex-addicts and alcoholics. Here's how they do it:
View recovering employees as long-term investments: Some will suffer
setbacks. Others need to deal with legal, health, or family problems caused by
past drug abuse. Be flexible.
When hiring, set sobriety standards and screen intensively Prospects should
demonstrate 30 days' sobriety and participation in a recovery program. Probe
commitment to change with multiple interviews and written tests.
Provide in-house mentors: Mentors offer reassurance and discipline to
newly employed and sober workers. Ex-substance abusers often need counseling
on basic social and workplace skills.
Be open with outsiders: Turn your dedication to recovering workers
into a selling point. Most people have a friend or relative undone by drugs or
alcohol. That offsets the stigma attached to addiction.
HONOR SYSTEM.
Before Chamales will hire anyone with a troubled past, he demands
30 days of sobriety in a treatment program. He forgoes drug tests, relying
instead on his own instincts and the honor system. Applicants are given a
50-question multiple-choice test to detect qualities associated with Omni's
top sellers and to help weed out "50-yard-dashers," smooth talkers who
won't last. The company actually has an incentive to hire the ex-felons--a
credit of up to $2,400 on their first-year salary under the federal Work
Opportunity Tax Credit Program.
Once hired,
telemarketers learn the company's well-defined rules. Although they don't
visit clients, sales agents--all of whom get 5% commission and earn $250 to
$400 per week for the first year--have to dress professionally. "We come
here broken or limping, and the company shows us the path," says Alan
Jacob, 49, once a heroin addict, now vice-president of sales management.
"There are a lot of guidelines and structure here because we need that."
Managers balance that
strictness with sensitivity to personal problems that can mar performance.
To help employees restore credit or finance a car, for instance, Omni has
disbursed $250,000 in loans. Another technique is to assign a mentor to each
new employee. Ex-addicts often need help with such basic etiquette as
shaking hands. "Twenty years ago, I had trouble looking into people's
eyes," admits Chamales, who was raised in foster homes and started drinking
at 14. And mentors help ease the emotional roller coaster of commission
sales itself, which can take a toll on anyone.
How do employees from the regular workforce feel about their ex-addict
colleagues? "They can be more sensitive,"
says Judy Vallembois, the Sales Administration Manager, misinterpreting
even routine brusqueness as harsh criticism. But "they're a lot more
creative and more fun to be around."
All this support results in lower turnover, especially during the
first year, when the telemarketers are earning the least for the company.
Among Omni's rehabbed workers, the first-year retention rate is 15%, while
only 8.5% of those from Omni's regular workforce are left after 12 months.
Such attrition would be dismal in most businesses, but experts say it's
quite solid for telemarketing..
Workforce longevity makes other savings possible. Many
telemarketers rely on sophisticated customer-contact software, which costs
from $3 million up to $25 million, for a 300-seat call center. These systems
provide more background data than Omni's long-term account executives need;
they have much of it in their heads. Omni didn't bother upgrading its
antiquated DOS system to Windows until last year.
Omni's rehabilitating mission works for
high-level recruitment, too. Earlier this year, Chamales began introducing a
retail Rhinotek line. To lead the push, he hired David Bleeden and Jerry
Dix. Bleeden is a recovering addict and co-founder of Naked Juice, a startup
acquired in 1987 by Chiquita Brands International Inc. Dix lost his share of
a $19 million lug-nut business because of substance abuse. Chamales says
that under other circumstances, he wouldn't be able to hire executives with
that pedigree.
To be sure, not
every day is sunshine and success. Chamales weathered two death threats 10
years ago. A bomb scare five years ago shut operations for half a day,
causing about $50,000 in lost sales. And $25,000 in supplies evaporated some
years ago. He has identified only one of the culprits--a rehab worker whom
he had fired. EARLY SIGNS. The more common problem is relapse. Omni mentors
know the early signs: absences, tardiness, bizarre behavior, a lack of
focus, two-hour lunches. Six months ago, Hiller, Chamales, and mentor Carole
Garland stepped in when Kelly McFadden, 32, started drinking again after 4
1/2 dry years. After talks and two sick leaves, Hiller says, "we got to the
end of our rope. She was coming to work drunk, spilling food, telling us she
had cancer." They gave her an ultimatum: rehab or termination. Omni helped
her find a treatment program, and colleagues covered her accounts, so she
wouldn't come back broke.
Some
might read this as a cautionary tale. Not Chamales. "Kelly is one of our
very solid, top-producing executives," he says. "To find one of her
caliber is not easy." Back at work after a few months, she tries to convey
her appreciation: "This is my home, my family."
Chamales has ambitious plans for his workers.
"Two hundred twenty million in gross sales by 2002," Chamales says.
"That's the big hairy goal." And if that expansion causes stress, not to
worry: Omni's new call center has a discreet, well-lit counseling room.