HARLINGEN — The TaskUs space on the west side of Valle Vista Mall doesn’t look like a typical office.
And that’s totally by interior design.
“Traditionally, this is what our workspaces will look like at any site,” said Chris O’Bryant, director of operations for the business services company. “Open, fun, feels bright, not so ‘officey,’ if you will. It’s our way of doing business.”
And business, if the company’s hiring is any indication, is pretty good.
O’Bryant and John King, vice-president of operations for the New Braunfels-based company, said Wednesday before the location’s official ribbon-cutting (they’ve been operating for several months) that so far they have hired almost 1,000 workers here at the Harlingen site.
“We’ve actually hired about 900 people since we’ve been down here, “O’Bryant said. “The workforce down here, this level of talent, just surpassed my expectations.”
“And the effort,” King added.
“We have some obstacles with very unique clients, and I’ve never had a teammate leader or anything down here step down or away from whatever challenge we had,” O’Bryant said. “They’re always willing to go the extra mile. So I’m very impressed with the workforce down here.”
TaskUs signed a deal with the mall owners about a year ago and have spent months renovating and hiring.
When new mall owners Kohan Retail Investment Group bought troubled Valle Vista for $12.5 million in 2018, they vowed to build a non-traditional mall tenant base, and TaskUs certainly fits the bill.
TaskUs offers a broad range of services to business clients, ranging from customer service to digital content security to artificial intelligence to consulting.
The “non-officey” space at the mall is a fantasy of pastel colors and sweeping curves, with arcade games and a Foosball table, presumably for use only during break time.
Both O’Bryant and King, however, insist the intent of their company is serious, and while non-traditional, the space is used efficiently, split between customer service and training areas.
After the ribbon-cutting, the focus of the day at TaskUs was collecting donations for the Harlingen-based charity Loaves and Fishes.
“The biggest thing I told my team today and yesterday and the day before, I told them I’m super excited, this is a huge milestone for us to do a ribbon-cutting.” O’Bryant said. “But it’s more about giving back to the community, and that’s really what TaskUs is about.”
The arrival of TaskUs wasn’t just a coup for city officials and the Harlingen Economic Development Corp., but it also filled a major space at Valle Vista Mall, which they regard as a double victory.
“Everybody here should be congratulated who brought this new company into our city during the middle of a pandemic, which is a remarkable achievement,” said Mayor Chris Boswell. “Not only for the leadership of the company, TaskUs, who had the faith and the confidence to keep growing their business in spite of the difficulties that everyone was experiencing, but congratulations to all of these employees who have come on board during this time.”
“It’s wonderful for our city, it’s wonderful for the community, and it’s wonderful for the people of our community,” he added.
