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The Hunt for Heads
Experts talk about getting and keeping the best employees
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Business New Haven
2/5/2001
By: Linda G. Mele
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Connecticut employers have been bemoaning the scarcity of qualified, trained candidates for several years now, but some have taken the bull by the horns and developed recruitment and retention programs and policies that they hope will make their companies too attractive to ignore when someone is looking for a job - and too attractive to leave once they've been hired.
Dick Dawson, director of human resources for Cytec Industries in Wallingford, says his company uses “all available resources” when it's looking to hire new people.
“We have an internal job posting system for positions throughout Cytec's plants,” Dawson explains, “which is the first thing we use. If people are interested in another position or another location they can bid for the job.”
Dawson says while his plant hasn't had a lot of openings, it's still heavily involved in college recruiting.
“We've earmarked a dozen universities that have chemical engineering curriculums and send a team out to those campuses to do career fairs and interview prospective graduates on-site.”
Dawson says Cytec has been “fairly fortunate with newspaper ads for non-technical and administrative positions.
“The Internet is also becoming a good place for employers and employees and, periodically, we use one of the job Web sites - not our corporate one - to find applicants,” Dawson says.
Cytec has more than 5000 employees worldwide involved in sales, research and manufacturing in 36 countries.
According to the company Web site (www.cytec.com/recruit/degree.html), the company believes that “people make the difference. From their first day at Cytec, employees are empowered to be creative and responsible and to contribute to our successful performance in highly competitive markets. Cytec needs top-notch people from diverse backgrounds to continue to thrive in a global marketplace.”
Paul Moyher, manager of corporate human resources at Bic Corp. in Milford, says his company uses a variety of resources to recruit new people.
“We have our own Web site (www.bicworld.com) where we list job openings,” Moyher says, “and we've occasionally used Hotjob.com and Monster.com.”
“For some recent openings we listed on the Internet we received more than 500 résumés for each job. That's a phenomenal response in such a lean marketplace,” Moyher says.
“Years ago, when the unemployment rate was high, we would get that many responses from newspaper ads, but it was surprising to get this many when it's a candidates' market,” Moyher adds.
Headquartered in France, Bic currently has some 9,000 employees worldwide, with 7,900 of them working in locations outside France.
According to its Web site, the key to Bic's success is the belief that “our two most important resources are our people and products. We understand that to compete in today's global marketplace we need the latest technology and a creative, highly skilled workforce.”
Bic also has a college recruiting program to find qualified personnel for trainee positions and internships. “We typically hire three or four trainees a year,” Moyher notes.
“For factory workers we advertise in the newspaper. It's difficult to find skilled tradespeople, so we have to attack recruitment from a half-dozen different ways,” Moyher says, “including the use of employment agencies and headhunters. Today, you can't use just one resource.”
Moyher says Bic also has an employee referral system wherein employees are rewarded for referring candidates the company hires.
Barbara Pearce, president of the North Haven-based H. Pearce Co., Realtors, says her company uses newspaper ads and referrals for both administrative and sales positions as well as a direct mail campaign to known agents to fill the company's employment needs.
“We used an employment agency once, but we were not happy with the results,” Pearce says.
“We also get specialists to teach our managers how to recruit and offer agents a chance to invest in the projects we invest in,” Pearce says.
The company's Web site (www.hpearce.com) features a blurb on the main page about employment opportunities: “H. Pearce Company is constantly seeking to expand its staff of residential and commercial real-estate professionals.”
It also features a separate page about the type of employees/agents the company seeks and instructions about how to contact the company for more information.
Perhaps Pearce hasn't had much luck with employment agencies, but Don Kaiser, President of New Haven's Dunhill International Search and its Dunhill Legal Staffing Division, says business has been booming over the last four years - and looks like it will continue to for the foreseeable future.
“The [personnel placement] industry has changed over the last 20 years,” Kaiser explains. “You can't be a generalist any more.”
“We had to decide to be specialists, and in the U.S. our niche is legal and international personnel,” Kaiser says. “If companies have those special needs, they will call us.”
“There is a shortage of qualified candidates to fill many positions, but companies still want quality candidates. They won't settle for someone not qualified just to fill an opening, especially since they have to pay us when they hire someone through our efforts,” Kaiser says.
“If we're screening properly, we'll give them the top half dozen candidates to look at,” Kaiser adds.
According to Kaiser, his agency now sees more applicants than ever before. “They're coming to recruiting firms rather than going direct to companies through newspaper ads or relying on friends to give them referrals,” Kaiser says.
The company's Web site boasts: “Dunhill Staffing Systems is North America's premier search and staffing service, with offices throughout the continental United States, Hawaii and Canada.” It also features information about employment opportunities with Dunhill.
Linda Cronan, Human Resources Manager for Garrity Industries Inc. in Madison, notes that her company has a very low turnover rate.
“When we do need someone we use newspaper ads or network through the various manufacturing associations,” Cronan says. “We also tell our customers when we have an opening and ask them to recommend candidates.”
According to the Web site (www.garritylites.com), Garrity focuses on one product area: lighting. “Garrity Industries is a leading world-wide manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of disposable, refillable, and rechargeable flashlights and lanterns, plus several specialized lighting products.”
The company has more than 2,000 employees working in 12 facilities around the globe.
Jack Dwyer, vice president of human resources and Administration for the New Haven-based Sargent Manufacturing Division of Assa Abloy Inc., says that although his company didn't use recruiters years ago, it frequently does so now, especially for professional engineering, information technology and accounting positions. “We also use newspaper ads and employee referrals, but we've had mixed results with the Internet,” Dwyer says.
“We post openings on the Web sites in [the Assa Abloy] group, which we developed about a year ago,” Dwyer says, “but only hire about ten to 15 percent of what we get from the Web. “To be honest, we have almost zero turnover in our professional staff. Most openings are for manufacturing positions,” Dwyer adds.
So, once these companies find the right people, what do they do to keep them besides offering the usual benefit package?
According to all the companies, the total package is what often makes the difference to prospective applicants when they're trying to make a decision about which employment offer to accept.
And the ever-increasing cost of health-care insurance and the diversity of plans from which to choose can make or break an employment deal.
Many employers now offer participation options that result in tailor-made packages. For example, if employees don't need maternity benefits or if they're covered under their spouses' plan, that can significantly reduce their health-care insurance costs.
“Employee retention is very important to us,” Dwyer notes. “We are an older company that had well-established policies and procedures that we've had to modify over the years.”
Dwyer adds that Sargent has become more flexible and has one of the most comprehensive benefits packages in the New Haven area.
Some of Sargent's benefits include tuition reimbursement and helping employees take full advantage of the tax codes regarding day care and other benefits for the 650 Sargent employees located here.
In addition to tuition reimbursement, the benefits package includes involving people in the organization and making them feel as if their contributions make a difference, Dwyer notes.
Marcia Hallman, the benefits/HRIS supervisor at Bic, says her company has a broad array of programs in place for employees.
“People want to stay with us because of the way we treat employees,” Hallman says.
“We value employee contributions and recognize them. Our salaried employees can choose flexible summer or services like film-developing, dry cleaning, a company store and discount tickets to movies,” Hallman says.
Hallman says Bic also sponsors health fairs, flu shots and mammograms for its employees and an active employee activity club that hosts a variety of trips.
Scholarships for the children of employees are available, and the company belongs to a child-care consortium and Milford's Kids Count program, which helps parents with their parenting skills.
“We're very involved in the local community and we promote from within,” Hallman says, “drawing from our 900 employees in Connecticut, South Carolina, Florida and Iowa.”
“The culture of our company originates from a philosophy that believes the people in management have trust and confidence in its employees and allow them to make decisions and see the fruits of their labor,” Hallman says.
“We're a good employer that treats employees fairly,” Cytec's Dawson says. “We also promote from within and our benefits program is one of the top programs in the area.”
“Cytec also has a very competitive compensation policy and the normal maternity/paternity leave,” he adds.
The company's tuition reimbursement program pays 75 percent of tuition and fees for job-related courses. If it leads to a degree Cytec reimburses the remaining 25 percent, explains Dawson.
Sports leagues, sponsorship of Little League teams for kids, trips to major league baseball games and golf tournaments are also available to employees.
“We host a very large holiday party for employees and their guests, provide an internal employee assistance program that helps with financial, medical or other family problems and offer a stock-purchase plan in which employees can purchase stock through payroll deductions,” Dawson says.
Cytec also believes in getting involved in the community. Its employees volunteer time to man booths for the annual Celebrate Wallingford festivities and support the local chamber of commerce and the United Way.
“At Garrity, we believe in a lot of public recognition and providing a caring and compassionate work atmosphere,” Cronan says. “The company president recognizes employees and their contributions on a regular basis.”
The privately-owned company gives employees Christmas gifts and hosts summer picnics. In addition, this flashlight manufacturer hosts a “longest day of the year” picnic at the beach.
“We're a family-friendly company,” is how Cronan puts it.198
In the final analysis, as many employers as there is out there, that's how many different compensation and benefit packages are available from which an employee can choose.
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