N.E.W. adds new feel to Hays community, businesses

By STACIE R. SANDALL

Hays Daily News

N.E.W. Corporation is 260 employees strong almost six months after it began taking calls on Oct. 4

In its comfortable 42,700-square-foot building formerly belonging to Sykes Enterprises at the airport industrial park, the call center is doing well.

“I think N.E.W. is doing awesome. Right now we're really amping up,” said Chris Berger, human resource manager at the Hays communication center.

By July or August, Berger said, the company hopes to reach its 400-employee goal.

“We have been holding several new classes, participating in job fairs and making an aggressive push for employees,” Berger said.

The company has added occasions shoulder massages and meals, among other things, to alleviate stresses of the daily grind.

“We want to do everything we can to show our employees that we value them. We walk the talk,” said Berger.

Berger said they will soon be adding new electronic benefits enrollment, which will allow employees to enroll in their benefits online. The project will eliminate the hassles of paperwork and will be less time-consuming.

The Virginia-based company offers a benefits package that includes medical, paid holidays, flexible spending savings account, life and disability insurance, dental, prescription and vision insurance, a 401K, paid time off, tuition reimbursement, in-house fitness facility, $30 per month commuting subsidy and cash incentives.

Potential employees must go through a three-week training session before acquiring a work space.

Hays is N.E.W.'s sixth call center, handling consumer concerns for approximately 100 clients. Between 30 and 40 of those clients are big-name companies such as Sam's Club or DirecTV.

In order to get N.E.W. to Hays, the Ellis County Commission provided $50,000 of a $250,000 cash incentive package.

It also voted to refund real estate and personal property taxes to Heart of America Development Corp., the local non-profit group that purchased the building and land from Sykes.

The Public Works Department helped with the dirt work to expand the parking lot, and Carlson Surveying and Mapping agreed to donate services for the expansion.

N.E.W. held its grand opening and ribbon-cutting on the first day of the December, and all levels of employees, executives, Chamber of Commerce representatives, members of the public and legislators were in attendance.

Around 100 people were present to listen to corporation founder and CEO Fred Schaufeld speak.

Sykes Enterprises, which opened in 1996, jumped ship in June of 2004 after attempting to close its doors two times in just a few months.

It was once the fifth-largest employer in Ellis County.

The call center fielded customer service calls from computer users having problems with their hardware or software.

It was first announced the morning of Jan. 20, 2004, that the company would close that March 22 because of market conditions and changing client needs.

The decision was going to leave around 270 people high and dry, wondering where their next paychecks would come from when the time came.

Many of those employees were Fort Hays State University students, and paying for tuition and books was going to be a problem for some.

Sykes was even looking for prospective buyers for the building.

But just 10 days before the the plant was to close for good, Sykes' headquarters in Tampa, Fla., indefinitely suspended their plans to bar the door.

In this case, indefinitely turned out to be only three weeks.

Employees had to hear “we're shutting our doors” for the second time in four months.

The final day of operations was set for June 14.

Sykes originally came to town through a deal including $2 million, free land and infrastructure improvements. Some of the incentives were paid for by local individuals and businesses, Ellis County and the city of Hays.

Reporter Stacie Sandall can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 136, or by e-mail at

ssandall@dailynews.net.