Price is Right: How HealthEquity expanded into rural Utah.

• Author: Sutherland, Spencer
• Position: Lessons Learned

With unemployment levels along the Wasatch Front remaining incredibly low, employers looking for new talent have few options--and none of them are particularly attractive. They can try to lure employees from their competitors, recruit out-of-state employees, open a location outside of Utah or outsource work to a foreign country.

When Draper-based HealthEquity was faced with the tough task of adding dozens of new employees to its customer service team, company leaders decided they needed to try something new. In late 2016, they opened a satellite location in Carbon County, Utah.

"We've always paid a little more than the average [customer service center] along the Wasatch Front and that has allowed us to get the cream of the crop," says Steve Neeleman, founder and vice chair of HealthEquity. "We felt like if we could offer a very competitive pay scale in a place where we weren't going to face the same competition, we could continue to get the cream of the crop."

That place turned out to be Price, Utah--two hours southeast of HealthEquity's office in Draper.

A good fit

There are several reasons the 8,000-resident town was a good fit for HealthEquity, including access to a well-educated population, thanks to the Utah State University Eastern campus in Price. The town is also home to an unemployment rate 60 percent higher than the state average and local leaders who are quick to welcome new business to the area.

HealthEquity has already hired 30 employees at the satellite location and plans to bring on another 25 by the end of 2017. The company hopes its rural location will not only provide good paychecks today but greater opportunities for its Price employees in the future.

"One of the things we're most proud of is our internal promotion rate," Neeleman says. "Right now, these employee may want to stay in Price but in the future they may want to move into another opportunity [at our Draper office]."

Welcoming arms

Though HealthEquity's entrance into rural Utah has been a success, it hasn't always been easy. "The biggest challenge is keeping our culture intact," Neeleman says. "Whenever you expand, you always need to think about how to help [remote] people feel the love. Communication challenges have been mitigated over time with video conferencing and the use of technology--though clearly it's nice to see people face to face--but when we're having a party in Draper to celebrate our team members, we need to be doing the same thing in Price. You...