Todd Goodfellow, the Spokane-based vice president of inside sales and supplies at Pitney Bowes, says he wants to see the company’s office here begin focusing more on recruiting local talent from the region’s colleges to begin filling vacant jobs almost immediately.

“We can have a better outreach to our local universities, Gonzaga, Eastern Washington, Washington State University, and all the others, to develop a strong working pipeline of students looking for work after they graduate,” says Goodfellow.

“I see this as a better opportunity to strengthen our brand within the community,” says the 52-year-old vice president, who succeeds former Pitney Bowes vice president Thomas Roberts.

Goodfellow says he’s prepared to continue to increase the current number of workers as necessary, though he says he doesn’t have an exact target number in mind. However, Pitney Bowes recently remodeled extensively the 66,000-square-foot third floor of its space in the Rock Pointe East Building, at 1313 N. Atlantic, and Goodfellow says the company can accommodate another 100 employees in that work space.

“We’re growing. I won’t stop hiring, and we’re having a job fair here on March 6 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. just to prove it,” Goodfellow says of his recruiting efforts.

The Spokane office of Pitney Bowes has been here for more than 20 years and currently employs 400 workers, which Goodfellow claims makes it the company’s largest outbound sales and call center in the U.S.

Pitney Bowes sells products and technology to help its customers manage databases for their businesses, provides web-based ecommerce tools, and offers traditional shipping and mailing services that originally served as the foundation of the company nearly a century ago.

Supply and equipment sales, customer support, and technical support, and other disciplines within those divisions are handled in Spokane, Goodfellow says.

“We service the entire Pitney Bowes portfolio from this site,” he says.

The vast majority of employees at Pitney Bowes’ Spokane operation are in sales-related fields.

“This is one of the best service facilities I’ve ever seen,” Goodfellow says of the extensive remodel. He says it’s vital for workers who spend most of their days on the phone to have a comfortable work setting.

Windows all around the periphery of the office flood the company’s third-floor space with natural lighting. A virtual demonstration center has been installed to allow on-site employees the ability to videoconference with their customers via high-definition resolution.

Previous hard-wall offices now serve as smaller conference rooms for work—or for personal use for all employees who may need to use their phones during the day. A full cafeteria was also completely gutted and remodeled.

Pitney Bowes hasn’t participated in the Journal’s surveys for its Largest Spokane County Employers list in recent years. At 400 employees, however, the company would have ranked 47^th on the list in 2017. 

Pitney Bowes is just slightly larger in employee count than West Plains aerospace manufacturer Triumph Composite Systems Inc., Airway Heights auto dealer AutoNation Inc., and Spokane Valley-based Numerica Credit Union. It ranked just behind Multicare Valley Hospital. 

Goodfellow comes to Pitney Bowes after having spent the majority of the last 23 years working in a variety of capacities with Dell Inc. Most recently he worked in the Akron, Ohio, area as vice president of inside sales for Chicago-based electronic components distribution company Newark element14.

At both of those companies, Goodfellow says he learned it’s vital for companies to develop strong working relationships with colleges and universities.

Goodfellow says the modern-day pitch to university administrators, faculty, staff, and students here will include sharing with them the fact that it was Pitney Bowes that developed the geolocation software for both Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. in their respective applications development.

“It mystifies me why our brand isn’t more well known, and people aren’t aware of what we do,” he says.

Pitney Bowes, which is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., has a global workforce of 15,000 employees.

Publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, Pitney Bowes reported $3.5 billion in total sales for 2017 and $261 million in net income for the year.

Goodfellow says both figures are roughly 4 percent higher than 2016 figures, and the company anticipates similar growth in 2018.

Mindy Whitcher, a Spokane-based talent adviser for the company, says Pitney Bowes prides itself on having a competitive and comprehensive benefits package for its workers.

Pitney Bowes has a medical nurse on duty five days a week for employees who is certified to diagnose and to prescribe prescription drugs. The company also offers workers in-house personal counseling and has a massage therapist present as often as three days per week. 

Most employees at the company work from the hours of 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, she says.