Call Center Employs 250 People with Disabilities — Has Lowest Attrition in High Attrition Industry

J. Lodge, a Call Monitoring company in Fort Myers, Florida, employs over 250 Americans with disabilities–and boasts the lowest attrition in their industry. No other call center even comes close.

According to Executive Vice President Andy Schrider, the company’s dual mission has been the same for 11 years: to help clients improve the customer care experience within call centers, and to provide meaningful employment for Americans with disabilities. “Our employees are a part of our mission and they truly believe in it,” he recently shared on Think Beyond the Label’s website. “They are able to work from home while maintaining a flexible schedule to meet their needs. Our clients love our mission and the superior service that we provide, and we are always growing.”

 The company is named after a man named Jackie Lodge who suffered from quadriplegia and could only control his wheelchair with his tongue. Despite his intelligence because his parents had been killed when he was only a boy, he was forced to live in the state’s only available accommodation–a home for people with extreme mental disabilities.

Jackie was often bored and welcomed any visitor who would strike up an intelligent conversation. Andy Shrider’s family got to know him, bringing him crossword puzzles and magazines just to help him occupy his mind. At that time, Andy’s father was in the call center industry, which suffered from two main problems: poorly educated employees and horrific attrition. A call center job was not valued by most of the agents who had one, and they often moved onto other industries. Corporations were desperate to get good people to manage the moment of truth with their customers. The Shriders saw this need for an attractive labor force and the need of the disabled community to gain meaningful employment, and decided to do something.

That was when they started J.Lodge, structuring its employee model around those with physical disabilities. This model has been the backbone of J.Lodge’s success and is what differentiates it from their competitors.“Our employees are professionals like you and me,” says Shrider. “They are just looking to work and add meaning to their life like anyone else. You could not ask for a better employee.”

So add J. Lodge to the success stories of companies who counter the barriers I capture in my chapter, “Disability: The Diversity Issue We Fear the Most” in The Inclusion Paradox. They not only do not fear disabilities, they are in fact, redefining ability and in so doing driving up their margins through low attrition.

Does your company have a similar story to share? If so, I invite you to share it with readers on this site. And if not, what’s keeping your company from tapping this prime talent pool?

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