Telereach Deceptive Hiring Practices, Hostile Work Environment, Deliberate Lack of Training, Deceptive Pay Practices Houston, Texas

After two lengthy interviews, one lasting 2 1/2 hours, the technical interview lasting 2 hours and receiving assurances Telereach was a place where I could expect long term employment and possible promotion, I joined the training class in mid January, 2010.  By mid February 2010, I was told the company didn't consider me a good match. 

Randy, the recruiter, who initally interviewed me, was very forthcoming about his business and social relationship with Tory Johnson of Women For Hire.  I'm now appalled he would take advantage of of any business relationship he had with her and am gratified that since word of Telereach has reached Ms. Johnson, the company has been removed from her website.  Her site is where I found the company in the first place.  I relied on that information from her site and Randy was very convincing about the fact he knew her well and that she endorsed Telereach.

During the entire application and interview process I repeated my desire for long term stable employment multiple times.  Each time I was assured the people at Telereach, a small personal company, was looking for long term employees who would stay around.

Setting up eveything for employment took a good deal of time and went smoothly with the exception of my telephone recorder.  I spent a great deal of time working with that device and even though it produced poor quality recordings, I was told my equipment passed all the tests.

I incurred out-of-pocket expenses for the recorder and a cell phone contract. I didn't order the cell phone until I had received an employment offer. The one time the company called me, they didn't even use the backup number, which was my cell phone. I got a thorough verbal dressing down for not having a professional recording on my home phone. I was told it had to be professional in case prospects called me back. They didn't seem to listen when I told them I was using a blocked line for my own safety and privacy. I never did get into the Recruiting Conference Call, and still don't know why.

By the time the first Monday Morning Sales Meeting had ended, I realized this company was not what it presented itself to be.  The Sales Manager was unprofessional, hostile, harried, distracted and actually played the Rocky Theme plus laugh tracks for motivation.

The training was poor, incomplete, contradictory and most of the sessions were cancelled.  We were told there was more information than we could possibly digest so we would be instructed on a need to know basis.  We were then chastized for not knowing. 

The production manager was alternately hostile, pleading, sarcastic, demanding, angry, or attacking.  The last time I was exposed to that type of behavior, the sales force got together and had the person fired.  She could have been a character in a sitcom, certainly far from professional.  Other employees actually apologized for her behavior.  Her behavior was unacceptable in any environment much less a workplace.

The sales data base was incredibly difficult to use and slow.  I was told I should be able to complete the steps necessary to finalize an appointment within 3 minutes.  That was impossible.  Both the trainer and the production manager complained about the data base but when I had difficulty with it, it was my fault.  I received about 10 minutes of instruction on how to use it before having to dial and cope with learning it at the same time.  It isn't any easy data base to learn under any circumstances.  I began to suspect we weren't supposed to learn too much about it.

For a week, I was told to work and rework a list of 220 names.  For anyone with any call experience, this is an inadequate number of names for someone who dials 25 numbers an hour and is dialing 7 hours a day.  I was promised new names, never received them from one person, finally received them from another and was scolded for the low number of calls I made.  I was promised instructions on how to pull names from the data base and never received that either. 

The calls lists were not lists of qualified leads.  They were supposedly reviewed by Telereach clients before they were approved.  In my calling experience, the lists could have been taken out of a phone book.

I believe the commission structure and payroll sheet were designed to create confusion with the goal the employee would not understand what a billable hour was and short his/her own pay.  Eveyone I spoke to at Telereach said they didn't understand the payroll sheet either, but, that is the way it was.

I am currently waiting for my two payroll checks to clear.  No taxes were taken out and I was listed as a Contract Employee. 

By the end of the second week of training, the trainer, who had only made it to some of her meetings, took Friday off and announced she was going on vacation.  It became clear we had not received adequate training and I was given extra days to complete boot camp.  I was also informed they were gracious enough to allow me to retain credit for the appointments I had previously made.  I was told before the end of my "grace period" it would be impossible for me to catch up, that I wasn't a good fit and they wanted me to resign.  I have part of that conversation recorded.

The job sounds simple on the surface.  Telereach contracts with companies to set appointments for their salesforce.  Each call is scripted, each appointment is recorded and that recording saved.  Once the appointment is approved, certain procedures are followed, the appointment is confirmed and noted on a calendar.  The Telereach employee receives billable hours and Telereach is able to bill their clients.

This is where the lag occurs.  Telereach has to make so many appointments in order to satisfy their contract get paid by their client.  If the contractual goals aren't met, Telereach doesn't get paid and the employees have to wait for their checks.

The new employees call fresh lists of names and can make appointments on the first call if they happen to catch the person at the right place at the right time.  However, most appointments are made during a follow-up call.

All of the example appointments we listened to during training (or on our own time) were followup calls.  None were first calls.

If an employee is retained past boot camp, then Telereach has to pay that employee a base dialing rate of $7.55 an hour if that employee makes 25 dials an hour.  The base rate doesn't apply if the employee dials under that rate. 

The company has an interest in early drop out and high turnover rate.  The benefit to the company is the prospect lists have been refined, information has been collected and close rates on followup calls are higher. 

The fact that Telereach doesn't have long term contracts with clients makes working there more difficult.  A client can cancel at any time leaving the caller scrambling to find another client, a new script and a new list.

I was told to rework a small list and ran up against many people who said they had recently received calls from the same company.  I think the lists were being scrubbed and recycled.  I wasn't given the time to go back to my previously called prospects.

The "newbies" call the fresh lists, determine whether a company is qualified and when there will be a future interest, make notes and are then asked to leave the company.  The list has been cherry picked for the experienced callers who make the appointments.  Benchmarks are based on what the senior callers are able to acheive on followup calls, not cold calls.  Therefore it is highly unlikely an newbie will get through boot camp or meet quotas.

I believe the interruptions during the day to submit call logs and attend mini meetings are deliberately designed to disrupt the flow of work and create a high failure rate.  Any real dialog between the trainer and the newbie is discouraged.  The hostile environment is real.

Telereach internally publishes how many appointments have been set during the day and the week.  I noticed these didn't match the appointments on the calendar of the accounts I was working on.

Telereach benefits financially to treat new employees poorly, to provide poor and inadequate training so they can fire them for underperformance against unrealistic benchmarks.  Under training also keeps Telereach from paying promised training pay.  If Telereach cancels a training session, the employee isn't paid for training.  The training isn't made up.   I also believe the hostility of the trainer and production manager is deliberate.  Please avoid this company at all costs. 

Telereach deliberately uses the revolving door of employment spinning so their core employees can keep the rewards.