Putnam investing in Maine
By Bonnie Washuk
Lewiston Sun Journal
June 1, 2000
Maine will soon be adding a new industry: mutual fund companies, according to state officials.
On Wednesday the head of a worldwide mutual fund company came to the Blaine House to announce that the company is creating a “virtual expansion” in the state thanks to Maine’s excellent telecommunications infrastructure.
Between July and the end of the year, Putnam Investments will hire 200 people in Maine for jobs that pay a low of $22,000 and a high of $70,000. There will be no Putnam office built in Maine. All of the Maine employees will work from their homes on computers provided by Putnam. Home-based jobs through the Internet is the wave of the future because it offers workers more flexibility and it saves companies from building and maintaining office buildings, officials said.
Within six to nine months Putnam expects to add another 100 workers, bringing the Maine workforce to 300. The work employees will perform ranges from customer service to accounting to computer programming. Officials stressed the jobs are not telecommunication sales and are full-time with a full complement of benefits.
Initially, the base of operations will be in Bangor, said Putnam Investments CEO and President Lawrence J. Lasser. Husson College in Bangor will provide new workers with six weeks of training in July.
Putnam will also provide Husson students with part-time jobs and training starting in the fall.
But by next year, all employee training will be done on home computers.
Because Putnam employees will be working from their homes, there is no reason why Lewiston-Auburn and southern Maine residents should not apply for jobs, said Karnig Durgarian, Putnam’s senior management director in charge of operations.
Putnam is one of the oldest and largest mutual fund companies and manages $370 billion. The company has offices in Boston, London and Tokyo, and employs 6,000 workers worldwide.
Gov. Angus King praised the news as an extraordinary opportunity for Maine. “What Putnam is going to be doing is establishing a virtual operation center in northern and central Maine. By virtual what I mean is there will not be bricks and mortar,” King said. Workers will be in their homes “just as if they’re in a major Putnam facility.”
Lasser explained that the glamorous part of his company is seeing that a 401(k) or a retirement plan performs well. Making sure that happens stems from taking care of Putnam’s 11 million customers. Putnam’s mutual funds are sold through banks, financial planners and stockbrokers. After people make investments, “it’s our job to make those investments grow in a responsible way to provide the service,” Lasser said. That means answering telephone calls, responding to mail and following up on a client’s instructions – the customer service part.
“What we are talking about today is the two-thirds of our employees who do customer service increasingly by computer and Internet,” Lasser said. “We are, in effect, creating extensions of our offices in people’s homes to take advantage of educated, motivated people” who want to live in rural Maine.
Putnam now employs 339 at-home workers in Massachusetts who do their jobs as effectively through computers as if they occupy a Boston office. The labor shortage is prompting the company to look outside Massachusetts.
Lasser offered several reasons why Putnam decided to expand in Maine:
a highly sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure that is vital for workers to be wired to Putnam;
attractive demographics – people who are educated, motivated, of the right age, who want to work in what used to be considered unconventional work settings; and
“people who have a work ethic and a motivation to do great work, which is what our company is about,” Lasser said. Putnam needs people who realize that “great companies are built by great people, including great people who work at home.”
Putnam prefers job candidates with bachelor’s degrees who have strong communication skills, are self-motivated, possess basic computer skills and are detail-oriented. However, the strongest asset a candidate can offer is a good attitude, Durgarian said.
For more information, Putnam’s Web site is: www.putnaminv.com. For a recorded message about jobs call 1-800-700-8347. Resumes can be faxed to: 617-760-3821.
