TLC Associates - Contact Center Leader of the Year

Company: TLC Associates, Cedar Rapids, IA
Company Description: TLC Associates offers a unique combination of experience and expertise in the ability to manage a variety of inbound, outbound, email, and web chat programs. As a 100% employee-owned company, we are committed to delivering premium contact center services based on operational excellence and best-of-breed technologies by a team with a true passion for the industry.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Contact Center Leader of the Year

Nomination Title: Tom Cardella

2020 was a tough year for many companies due to the COVID-19 outbreak that closed down entire communities. Many businesses were forced to scale back or close down their existing business. This wasn't the case for Tom Cardella’s TLC Associates. Given Tom’s commitment to local communities, scaling down was not an option for his BPO company. TLC Associates generates hundreds of jobs to smaller domestic communities that are far from large corporations that generate jobs to larger markets, a fact that was hard to ignore coming into 2020.

As soon as the pandemic hit, TLC Associates managed to move their staff almost immediately to work from home positions. Tom invested in his people and provided them with the tools they needed to work at home and create a COVID safe environment so that the company's sites could remain open and people could maintain their jobs. Instead of scaling back, Tom expanded and grew TLC Associates’ business. During 2020 alone, over 1200 new jobs were added in the US and Dominican Republic. The company opened 4 new sites, 3 of which were domestic US sites in small communities in Georgia, Iowa and Texas. A fourth site was opened nearshore in the Dominican Republic.

During 2020 and 2021, Tom continued supporting numerous local and national charities, including Ronald McDonald House, Special Olympics, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters. In addition, the company was actively involved in supporting Little League Baseball, Soccer, and other activities in rural communities where they were present.

Tom Cardella has been an entrepreneur for over 25 years and has created 2 successful companies. Mr. Cardella is a graduate of the University of Iowa Executive MBA Program, where he graduated in 1995. After graduating, he set up his first business endeavor and founded Access Direct in 1995. Tom grew this company to 2200 employees in just five years, and the new company was eventually placed in the #8 position on the Inc 500 list in 2000 when it was sold to Interactive Corp (IAC). Tom’s success in running this startup helped him become an E&Y Regional Winner in 1998.

After holding an executive position within Interactive Corp (IAC), Mr. Cardella founded BPO company TLC Associates in 2007. Thanks to his leadership as CEO, TLC Associates has been able to establish BPO delivery centers in various communities in the US, India, The Philippines and The Dominican Republic. With close to 2000 global employees, the company currently serves various Fortune 500 clients within the Retail, Manufacturing and Telecommunications industries. In addition to running TLC Associates, Tom also runs RW Cardella, Inc. in conjunction with his sister, helping provide heavy industrial mechanical contracting services to large industrial companies.

What makes Tom’s achievements unique is that all of his leadership decisions revolve around the premise that the employee is the most important piece of his organization. TLC Associates is a 100% employee owned company. It has no outside influence or investors, allowing them to dictate that their company will be run focusing on employees first, and clients second. This allows the company’s turnover to be quite low, which is refreshing given that the BPO industry is known for its high turnover.

Innovation for Tom within the contact center industry is viewed differently compared to other industry players. Instead of investing heavily on technology solutions that reduce costs and promote non-human forms of customer communication such as chat bots, Mr. Cardella prefers to focus on investing in the company’s workforce. Instead of scaling back and cutting jobs in the face of adversity Tom prefers to go the non-traditional route and grow his company’s presence in even more communities.

TLC Associates stands out among its competitors by bringing jobs and bringing life back to rural communities. These communities typically have many shut down store fronts, high unemployment, and low high school graduation rates. The communities and employees are loyal to TLC, and TLC is loyal to the communities by bringing with it much needed jobs, education, and skills. The company’s clients appreciate low-turnover, and a high level of long-term expertise and experience in an industry where that is not usually seen.

Supporting Document/link 1: Article from El Paso Times covering opening of new TLC Associates site in El Paso

Supporting Document/link 2: Article from Nearshore Americas covering opening of new TLC Associates site in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Supporting Document/link 3: Press Release on TLC Associates’ website covering opening of new sites in Americus, GA and Marshalltown, IA

Supporting Document/link 4: Press Release on TLC Associates’ website covering opening of new site in El Paso, TX

Supporting Document/link 5: Press Release on TLC Associates’ website covering opening of new sites in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Supporting Document/link 6: Link to Tom Cardella’s Podcast series: “The Connected CEO”

Supporting Document/link 7: LinkedIn post covering the "Fore the Families" golf outing benefiting the Ronald McDonald House in Iowa

Supporting Document/link 8: LinkedIn post covering a donation to the Wapello County Fair, Davis County Fair, and the Elks

Supporting Document/link 9: Link to an excerpt from a Podcast episode where Tom speaks around the importance of working with local communities

Supporting document/link 10: Link to an excerpt from a Podcast episode where Tom speaks around the involvement they have in the communities where they have sites