When Metropolitan Life Insurance (MetLife) decided to locate its Financial Business Center in Tampa two years ago, it used many criteria to find a suitable environment for the company's employees. MetLife wanted to expand to a city that offered a business-friendly community, an available labor pool at reasonable costs and an educational system that would continue to produce valuable employees for the future.
To help ease the pressure MetLife employees faced in determining whether or not to transfer with the company, Tampa Electric participated with the Tampa Chamber's Relocation Committee which traveled to MetLife offices in Atlanta, New York City and New Jersey to meet with employees and present information about the quality of life, education and housing offered in Tampa.
According to Roy Bertke, MetLife's director of corporate public relations, "our 25-year experience with a major administrative office in Tampa has been excellent." The colleges of Business & Accounting at the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa are among the top in the nation, and are expected to provide MetLife with a skilled labor market needed for higher-level financial services and accounting functions.
In addition to the measures Tampa Electric took to ensure a smooth transition to the Tampa Bay area for MetLife employees, the company relied on the utility's engineers to help with the infrastructure changes in the MetLife building to accommodate the new operations.
