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Photo by Frank Aymami
Quest
Diagnostics
Michele Kelly already liked the courier work
she did with Quest Diagnostics, delivering
blood work and tissue from area hospitals and
doctors’ offices back to her company’s busy
clinical lab.
“But I had started a family and felt that I
wanted to do more and move up that corporate
ladder,” Kelly said.
That led to her decision to take advantage of
a Quest Diagnostics program that allows
employees to train for another job. She studied
for more than a year to become a professional
phlebotomist.
“I liked that this company was willing to help
me in every way that they could to go up to the
next step,” said Kelly, who began working for
Quest Diagnostics in 1993. “That made me feel
good about being here.”
Such in-house promotions are a part of the
way Quest Diagnostics does business, said
Sameera Rimawi, a technical manager who
started with the company in the spring of
2007.
“They offer online computer training for our
frontline employees, and they regularly have
leadership training,” Rimawi said. “They
encourage you to grow. A lot of people start
here in one position and end up somewhere
else, mainly because they took advantage of all
the different education and training that the
company provides.”
Among the training and education services
Quest Diagnostics offers its employees is the
IntelliQuest Web site, where employees can
view more than 450 class choices. Online
options include in-depth training for employees
in what are known as “patient-touch” positions
such as logistics and phlebotomy. Employees
working in positions behind the scenes can
Quest Diagnostics employees pile into the company’s van. Quest delivers blood work and tissue from New Orleans area hospitals and
doctors’ offices back to their Metairie lab.
Nature of business: clinical laboratory
Where based: Metairie
Employees: 240
Average starting salary: $31,761 ($15.27 per hour) for
exempt employees, $47,528 ($22.85 per hour) for nonexempt
Median salary: $34,653 ($16.66 per hour) for exempt employees,
$62,172 ($29.89 per hour) for nonexempt
Average employment time: seven and a half years
Benefits: health care with 85 percent coverage, dental, vision
and prescription plans, unmarried partner benefits, paid maternity
leave, 401(k) with 6 percent match, continuing education program,
relocation assistance, flexible hours, employee recognition
program, fitness program
Wait time for benefits: about one month
Paid days off: 33
Web site: www.questdiagnostics.com
remain up to date with the latest trends in such
fields as histotechnology, hematology, chemistry,
microbiology and cytotechnology.
“The idea is that the employees are what
makes our company succeed,” Rimawi said.
“They really focus on employee success and
reinforcing us in what we are doing.”
That reinforcement works in several different
ways, Rimawi said.
“We encounter challenges on a daily basis,
but you never feel that you are alone here. You
always have support from the other staff members
as well as higher management to help you
through anything.”
Bobby Mahl, who works in logistics, said a
strong work environment has kept him with
Quest Diagnostics for nearly three decades.
“This is a place where you can just tell that
people like to come to work,” he said.
Doing deliveries inside a wide regional arc
that includes metro New Orleans as well as
much of southeastern Louisiana, Mahl said he
is always happy to return to the Quest
Diagnostic lab in Metairie.
“The people here are all working together
and helping each other out. It’s just a positive
place to come back to.”•
— Garry Boulard
36 2009 Best Places to Work