Partnership park firms to hold spring job fair

Ten companies from the Partnership Industrial Center will host a spring job fair 9 a.m.-2 p.m. May 13 at The Courts E-Plex, 4136 E. Kearney, across from the main entrance to the industrial park. Representatives from Ozarks Technical Community College will be at the job fair to provide information on training and educational programs for prospective employees.

Diana Taylor, The Maiman Company's office manager, said the Partnership Industrial Center companies held a successful job fair last fall, and The Maiman Company hopes to fill about 25 positions with the spring job fair.

"We had our first job fair in the fall of last year. All of the companies involved with it seemed to have a really good turnout. A lot of people stopped by ... it was supposed to start at 9 a.m. and people were lining up at 8:30," Taylor said.

Taylor said The Maiman Company, a door manufacturer, needs to fill positions in production and sales for its new plant, which will be built across the street from the partnership park.

"With the onset of the increase in sales, we're looking to fill some sales positions to start right now," Taylor said. She said The Maiman Company also has maintenance positions open and vacancies in its newly created second shift.

The Maiman Company has been in the Partnership Industrial Center since 1996 and has approximately 60 employees.

Taylor said when the company has training needs for its employees, job fair participant OTC is the first school it looks to.

"We'll look at OTC's software development and production training programs. We worked with OTC to set up a blueprint training program some years ago," Taylor said.

She said the low unemployment rate has forced The Maiman Company, like many other employers, to utilize alternative resources to attract qualified employees to the company. The job fair and $1,000 employee bonuses for referring new employees to the company are two of many ways The Maiman Company tries to attract employees.

"We've tried to utilize some different ways of hiring. We've done some radio spots; we'd never done that before. Just recently, I've gotten together with the career placement centers at the different universities, including the University of Missouri-Rolla, and there are several different job Web sites we're on now, including 417jobs.com. We've gotten quite a big response from that, as well," Taylor said.

DaBryan Coach Builders has operated out of the Partnership Industrial Center since October 1999 and will also participate in the job fair. DaBryan needs to fill six to eight positions in the welding, body shop, upholstery and detailing areas, according to Director of Human Resources Dan Blauvelt.

"We normally run with about 108 (employees) total. Right now I'm down to about 100," Blauvelt said. He said it's been a challenge to fill vacancies at DaBryan with qualified employees, and in addition to the Partnership Industrial Center job fair, he uses classified advertising, Job Source and the Internet for recruitment.

Diesel Exchange owner Lisa Hendrick said her company has openings in its disassembly and engine-building departments, and she would like to hire as many qualified employees as she can.

"If five good people came through at the job fair, we'd like to hire five good people," Hendrick said. She said employment opportunities at her company are listed on Diesel Exchange's Web site and she also advertises the company's openings in the classified pages of area newspapers.

Also, she said, "Just from being in the Partnership Industrial Center, people just stop by. We're in a good location, and that really helps."

The other seven companies participating in the job fair are A.C. Buckhorn, AmeriPride Linen & Apparel, Dameron Color Labs, Megavolt, Polar Tank Trailer, ReGen Technologies and Unimark Plastics.