This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
E*Trade, the New York-based brokerage house best known for its presence online, intends to add as many as 100 employees to its Sandy customer-service center by the end of the year.
Once the new hiring is completed, there will be approximately 450 Utahns working at the center, said Jim Carbine, E*Trade's director of customer service who oversees the operations at the facility just north of the Sandy City Hall.
Carbine said E*Trade also signaled its renewed commitment to its operations in Sandy by signing a new 10-year lease to the property that houses the center. "Over the past six years our work force here has grown sevenfold, and that trend continues," Carbine said.
E*Trade took over the Sandy customer-service center in 2005 when it acquired another online brokerage, HarrisDirect. Carbine said at that time there were only 50 employees on site, and it was unclear whether the operations would be relocated elsewhere.
"We weren't sure what the future would bring, so all we could do was commit to doing the best job possible and seeing what developed," he said.
Carbine said it didn't take long for E*Trade to recognize that Utah was a good place to do business and that Sandy was a great location. The office was centrally located. It was close to several universities, which meant there was access to a highly educated work force.
E*Trade isn't the only company in Sandy that intends to add to its call-center staff.
In April, Comcast Corp. said it was planning to add nearly 300 employees to its newly established "collections" call center, bringing the number of employees there to around 600. Comcast established its Sandy call center in November.
Carbine said while there is some competition now for call-center employees in the area, there also are plenty of applicants.
"Our customer-service folks are all Series 7 licensed," he said, indicating that means the new hires need to have an existing license or go through the company's five-week training program to sit for the Series 7 exam. A Series 7 is a general securities license that permits a company's agents to communicate with retail investors.
E*Trade has one of the best Series 7 training programs around, Carbine said.
"So far this year, 100 percent of those who have gone through our five-week training program and taken the Series 7 exam have passed," he said. "Over the past several years, our people have really gotten a handle on how to teach the material.
"Industrywide, the average is 66 percent."
Trina Duerksen, the communications manager for Sandy City, said the city is pleased that E*Trade will be remaining in the community rather than moving somewhere else once its current lease expires. "Having any kind of a call center that pays above average wages is nice for any community," she said.
Someone who joins E*Trade's customer-service center can start at $35,000 a year.
Twitter: @OberbeckBiz