Deep End of the Labor Pool

"At first, when we were doing our [location] research, we weren't sure we could find the right kinds of skill sets," says OAOT's John Hall, vice president and region principal. "But we found that New Brunswick provided an excellent source of highly skilled IT professionals. Not only that, but the school systems and universities have been very cooperative and responsive in finding the needed skill sets, adjusting curricula and adding new skill courses. We've had a great relationship."
        Another key factor in choosing the New Brunswick location was the province's communications infrastructure. "We found in our initial investigation that New Brunswick was the first province in Canada that had a totally digital backbone network in place," says Hall, who is based in Shelbyville, Tenn. "Another factor is they have invested a lot in training in the IT sector, so we found a ready source of IT specialists."
        And those specialists want to be in New Brunswick, Hall maintains. "People from the Atlantic provinces have a homing instinct. They want to be there, and we have attracted a tremendous number of people back to Moncton who were working in the U.S., Toronto, Ottawa, even as far away as Vancouver, who have come home to New Brunswick, because there are now jobs there to support them." Hall says OAOT is the largest IT player in the province and one of the fastest-growing in Canada. "We were the first to come in there with a 'higher-on-the-food-chain' kind of technical job. Once people found there were those jobs there, it really attracted them back."
        Other service bureau and call center operators in New Brunswick include EDS, Stream, ICT Group, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Staples, the Spiegel Group and Unilever. Cendant Corp., a provider of travel and residential real estate services, operates two call centers in New Brunswick. About 900 employees work in a center in Saint John, and 450 workers report to a facility in Fredericton. The company started operations in New Brunswick in 1995 with 60 employees under its previous name, HFS.
        "The unemployment rate at the time was high, so it made sense to come here," says Margot Beckwith-Byrne, vice president. "We were very happy with the caliber of people we were able to recruit. As HFS grew and changed into Cendant and acquired different businesses, we needed to expand. We didn't have operations in the U.S. that could grow to the extent needed, so the decision was made to put that growth in Saint John." Work force availability is the key decision driver, she adds. "The infrastructure is already here. So this location versus Toronto or Vancouver has to do with the market and the average wage at which you can recruit."