Inktel Direct CEO Ricky Arriola uses the TopGrading process to vet potential employees. Applicants must go through behaviorial-based interviews with executives, managers or peers. [Photo: Jeffrey Salter]

In a training room at Inktel Direct’s headquarters in Miami Lakes, 30 new hires sit through an orientation session. If history is a guide, 96% of them will still be on the job in a year.

In an industry where high turnover is the norm, Inktel’s retention is a good number — just 4% turnover — a testament to the benefits of its rigorous hiring practices and its workplace. Call centers spend upward of $5,000 to train each employee, only to see 33% of them leave, says David Butler, a University of Southern Mississippi professor who does research on call centers and is executive director of the National Association of Call Centers. “If you lose 33% of your workforce each year, that is lost money out the door. If they go to your competitor, you have just subsidized your competition with training,” Butler says.

Good hiring not only saves Inktel money, but also contributes to a satisfied workforce, so satisfied in fact that Inktel ranks as the No. 1 company in Florida to work for in Florida Trend’s large company category. What’s extraordinary about Inktel is that so many of its 650 employees — and the bulk of its 450-employee workforce in Florida — do call center work. Call centers, with their low-wage, high-stress work, tend not to make best companies lists unless they’re part of a larger organization like a Southwest Airlines.

Inktel does direct marketing outsourced by the likes of Verizon, the U.S. Marine Corps and USA Today, doing jobs — depending on the client — ranging from outbound sales calls to handling inbound customer complaints. It also does database management, designs marketing materials and prints and ships them from its fulfillment center in Chicago. Inktel was founded in 1997 by Ricky, Dan and Ed Arriola, three sons of entrepreneur Joe Arriola, who himself founded Avanti Press, a printing company that he sold for a reported $42 million in 2001 before going into public service as volunteer interim business officer for Miami-Dade’s school system and later as Miami’s city manager, where he had his share of controversies. Says Ricky Arriola: “From day one, we knew to build a great company you had to be employee-centric. It’s a lesson learned from my father.”

Inktel is a young company. “I’m 40 and I’m one of the old guys,” Arriola says. It has an in-house development program, called IDEA (Inktel Direct Excellence Academy) in which Inktel executives teach time management, goal-setting and other skills. The brothers’ belief in social obligation — and their belief that community service helps workers develop leadership skills — engenders lots of participation in charities, community groups and events. It matches up to 4% of 401(k) contributions dollar-for-dollar. Inktel covers 65% of the cost of healthcare insurance for employees, less for family members.

Arriola says creating a Best Companies environment is not a matter of paying the highest wages and having the most generous benefits. The highest wage often attracts “mercenaries,” he says. The key for Inktel, says HR manager Miguel Arguelles, is its emphasis on opportunity and merit. Nearly the entire staff receives some form of incentive-based pay. A walk through the offices shows some of the culture at work. A flat-screen TV in one call center displays the names of the “A” players who will be lunching with the CEO.

Inktel Direct corporate recruiter Carlos Morgan interviews intern Jennifer Verdon. Morgan interviews all job candidates. [Photo: Jeffrey Salter]

Inktel utilizes an exhaustive vetting process called TopGrading, developed by author and industrial psychologist Bradford Smart, to hire and retain only the highest performers available at a particular salary level — the “A” players, or top 10% of the designated workforce. At Inktel, TopGrading means extremely long interviews, including behavioral-based interviews, interviews with multiple executives, managers or peers and patience in hiring. Inktel corporate recruiter Carlos Morgan says the company went through more than 200 candidates for his slot before settling on him.

That time investment isn’t practical for staffing customer service representative and telemarketer slots, so Inktel reconfigures the process. Even so, candidates who come to pick up an application are turned away unless they’re in business attire. Candidates have to pass a basic math and verbal skills screening. Candidates take a personality inventory that screens for desired traits such as an outgoing personality. Morgan interviews every candidate as does the team leader on the client account for which the candidate would work. There’s a drug test and background check.

Well-crafted job descriptions and smart telephone screening cut down on the number of candidates brought in for the extensive interviewing that TopGrading entails, says Vince Virga, CEO of SkillStorm (No. 8 Small), which also uses the method.

SkillStorm CEO Vince Virga (right) helps an employee “break through” her obstacles. At the company’s annual meeting, employees were encouraged to write their obstacles on a piece of wood and literally break through them.

Virga says a TopGrading goal is to have 90% of employees be “A” players and that the recession led him to let go of a few who weren’t. “A” players “expect us to hold everybody accountable,” he says. All employees at the Fort Lauderdale-based provider of IT, project management, engineering and other services are measured quarterly on a scale of 1 to 10 on their productivity and on living the company’s core values. Virga says the company adopted the method a year ago on the recommendation of a consultant and after reading an advice book for growing companies, “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.” “It’s a generally simple technique,” Virga says.

By using behavioral-based interviewing and multiple interviews for candidates, Inktel and SkillStorm follow the tenets of good hiring. Best practices in hiring are well known, but many companies lack the discipline to use them, says Jackie L. Greaner, senior talent management consultant for the Watson Wyatt Worldwide consulting firm. “Especially today you’ve got to have every single employee contributing and being as productive as you can make them,” Greaner says.

Inktel attracts the best from other call center companies, Morgan says. Part of the hiring philosophy is that “A” players attract other “A” players. “The great people will find you,” Arriola says. “They self-select into it. C-level people self-select out.”

Arriola says Inktel continues to hire as annual revenue approaches $30 million. The recession has led potential clients to abandon their status quo and look at outsourcing to save money and improve performance, benefiting Inktel. “We’re actually attacking it very aggressively,” Arriola says.

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Hiring Practices

	— Bryant Miller Olive law firm in Tallahassee (No. 17 Midsized) recruits all of its law clerks and attorneys through personal relationships built by current employees. The shareholders have a set of core values, and the first one is: “Don’t hire jerks.” Randy Hanna Bryant Miller Olive
— Gainesville-based Crime Prevention Security Systems/Custom Home Entertainment (No. 23 Midsized) asks potential hires a series of questions designed to figure out their work ethic and what motivates them. “The skills are very trainable,” says Jorgia McAfee, vice president of operations. “As long as we hire the person who takes pride and personal satisfaction in doing a job well.” Jorgia McAfee Crime Prevention Security Systems/Custom Home Entertainment
	— Allen Waters, human resources director at Infinite Energy (No. 16 Large), says the simplest and most overlooked way to hire the best employee is to go to the trouble of checking references: “You would be surprised what you learn from listed references, and you would be amazed at the number of managers who don’t bother,” says Waters. Allen Waters Infinite Energy
— “It used to be that I could recruit a lot of people from the Midwest to come to Florida because the cost of living is very reasonable, but our cost of living is slowly creeping up,” says Ralph Garcia, a partner with accounting firm Pender Newkirk (No. 15 Midsized). “It isn’t as easy to lure someone to Tampa as it used to be. So we try to recruit people who have some connection to the Tampa Bay area.” The firm isn’t actively hiring, aside from college interns. Ralph Garcia Pender Newkirk

Hiring Tips

Companies need to hire well for even the lowliest jobs and not only because front-line workers can do a lot of damage with customers, says Jackie L. Greaner, senior talent management consultant for Watson Wyatt Worldwide. Bottom-level employees, for good or ill, form the pool from which future managers are chosen. In hiring, Greaner recommends companies:

Help Wanted

A fair amount of our Best Companies are hiring, including U.S. Gas & Electric (No. 50 Midsized), Brightway Insurance (No. 7 Small), Crime Prevention Security Systems (No. 23 Midsized), Infinite Energy (No. 16 Large), IT Authorities (No. 1 Small), FCCI Insurance Group (No. 7 Large), AgencyNet (No. 18 Small), Raymond James (No. 8 Large), BayCare Health System (No. 22 Large), and Insurance Office of America (No. 37 Midsized).

Some need workers because they’ve found opportunity in a poor economy as weaker players fall out or client companies look for a source for savings and improved service. But many have highly specialized needs like Memorial Healthcare (nurses, No. 11 Large). Law firms McDermott Will & Emery in Miami (No. 15 Small) and West Palm Beach-based Gunster (No. 6 Large) are hiring lawyers who can bring a book of business with them.

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Florida's Best Companies to Work For 2009 Section Lists and Features - Quick Navigation
Best Large Companies • (250 or more employees)	Hiring • Hire Calling	Benefits • Benefits of Being Small
Best Midsized Companies • (50 to 249 employees)	Training • Teach Your Employees Well	Generation Gap • Learning Curve
Best Small Companies • (15 to 49 employees)	Wellness • Waist Not Want Not	Workplace • Touches of Home
Top Performing Companies • (Ranked by category)	Pay • Pay Priorities	Best Practices • Holding on to Good Employees