Highlights

Position: Locate Request Agent (LRA)

Work Location: Work from home

Hours: Full-time

Starting Pay: $19.00/hour during training, up to $20.50/hour by end of first year
Department: Call Center

Office Location: Nashville, TN

Shift: 9a/9:30a - 6p

Benefits: Paid time off; paid holidays; insurance options; health savings account (HSA); 401(k) with matching and profit sharing

What is Tennessee 811?

We’re the “Call Before You Dig” service for the state of Tennessee – a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing damage to underground utilities. Our work keeps our communities connected and safe.

Funding for our mission-driven service is provided by member utility companies operating or maintaining underground facilities throughout the state. We cover all 95 counties in Tennessee and we are the only one-call service in the state.

What does an LRA do?

Your primary responsibility will be answering incoming calls from excavators across the state of Tennessee. We'll train you to collect important information about a caller's work area so that our member utilities can take action to protect their underground cables, pipes, and wires. Working from home or our contact center in Nashville, you'll talk to contractors, property owners, utility companies, and a variety of other groups about their upcoming and ongoing digging projects.

As your confidence and proficiency grows, you'll take on new challenges like processing locate requests that are submitted online, taking calls from other states who we support after normal business hours, and outbound calls to make member utilities aware of emergency excavations.

Why should I be interested in this position?

Starting your workday doesn't require leaving the house. Despite the location of our office, our staff currently extends from Ohio down to Texas, across the state of Tennessee, and south into Georgia. If you live in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, or of course, Tennessee, you can be an LRA.

Our pay is competitive and employees working after hours qualify for an added shift differential. We reward performance through merit-based raises at the 90-day, six-­month, and one-year marks, with increases annually after that.

We encourage longevity, growth, and promoting from within. The national average tenure for a call center environment is 1-3 years, but 43% of our agents have five or more years with the company and 77% of our administrative staff started as an LRA. For those with the drive to succeed and grow, opportunities are available.

We know there's more to life than work, so all full-time positions earn paid time off and are eligible for paid holidays.

We're proud to offer a comprehensive benefits package to full-time employees after 60 days of employment. Health, dental, vision, and supplementary insurances are available. You'll be protected by short-term and long-term disability as well as accidental death and dismemberment and life insurance.

Cafeteria pay of $225 per month reduces or even covers our employees' portion of insurance premiums. We also offer a Health Savings Account (HSA) with monthly contributions from the company. Our 401(k) retirement plan includes a 5% profit sharing contribution plus up to 6% matching.

What qualities are you looking for in an LRA?

You'll need to pass a background check as well as a drug screening.

Customer service is key, so we're looking for individuals who are prepared to meet a high standard of courteous and professional interaction with callers and members. Candidates must demonstrate proficiency in verbal and written communications as well as basic competency with computers and keyboarding. Computer-based mapping is used heavily in this position, so candidates should have a basic ability to read maps and reference cardinal directions.

I’m interested in working from home. What do I need?

Candidates working from home will need a space free of distractions and background noise to be successful. You must be able to focus on your work as if you were physically present at the office in Nashville - even if you're working from your bedroom across the country.

Broadband internet with a minimum download speed of 40 Mbps and upload speed of 15 Mbps is required. New employees must provide their own computer, webcam, and phone for the duration of training. Secondary monitors are suggested but not required. We believe in equipping our employees for success, so we'll provide you with a full suite of purpose-built equipment once you complete training.