One Tennessee company is digging its heels firmly into American soil and challenging other American companies to think carefully before they ship jobs offshore. They’ve come up with a novel solution – hiring rural Americans.
“Hire rural Americans before you ship the jobs overseas,” says Dennis Swartz, President of Healthcare Management Resources (HMR). “The need is great, the workers are available, and the technology is here. You can save money, keep costs low, and keep the US economy strong. We want to stem the tide of shipping jobs offshore to cut corporate costs. It’s a practice that is hurting the economy and will send the country into a negative spiral. It’s short-sighted and has to stop.”
HMR is a hospital business office outsourcing company that performs much of their work in a facility in rural Celina, Tennessee, population 1,700. HMR employees in this location serve client hospitals from Chicago’s largest teaching hospital to rural hospitals spread in several states.
“HMR has not lost anything by re-locating to rural America,” says Jerry Carter, CEO of HMR. In fact, the company boasts of increasing the monthly cash of every business office outsourcing hospital client by over 10%. “Because our employees are located in a low-cost rural facility,” explains Carter, “we can afford to pay good wages and attract top employees, and our hospital clients love the results.”
Swartz and Carter firmly believe that other companies can benefit by using the existing infrastructure and highly productive employees available in small towns across America. Swartz explains that HMR’s cost is actually less than the offshore alternative.
Swartz wants other companies everywhere to follow HMR’s lead and begin looking in rural America as an alternative to outsourcing jobs offshore. “Every company who’s even thinking about outsourcing abroad should be required to re-evaluate their plans and look at rural American options. They may end up saving America”.