Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tampa Tribune article on local job fairs:
BUSINESS NEWS
Myriad local job fairs deliver hire expectations
By Jerome R. Stockfisch | Tribune Staff
Published: September 13, 2015
TAMPA — On the promenade at Amalie Arena, hundreds of people sat in neat rows of folding chairs waiting to be called into interview sessions behind a black drape.
Hours later on the same day, thumping dance music, an impressive layout of food and drink and well-dressed millennials greeted applicants poolside at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
The atmospheres couldn’t have been more day and night, but the twin events had the same goal in mind: to bring potential employees onto the two sites for heavy-duty hiring sprees.
The recent economic development successes in the Tampa Bay area seem to have brought with them an unending parade of job fairs, with businesses, malls and other employers hoping to fill positions in a low-unemployment economy.
“There are a number of things going on,” said Mary Trombitas, president of the Targeting Performance human resources and organization development company and head of Suncoast HR, a human resources professional group in Pinellas County.
“I think there’s been a challenge finding the right skill set for specific jobs,” she said. “I think there may be available talent but maybe not the right talent. Today, with all of the various methods to search for people, with all of these job boards and recruiting companies, people are looking for a different method to finding talent.”
At a job fair, she said, “you can assess quickly; you get face-to-face contact. Employers, hiring managers and HR managers still like to meet people. Despite the use of social media, they still like to connect.”
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Amazon.com held two of the higher-profile job fairs this fall as the online retailer attempts to fill 2,000 positions at huge distribution centers it just built in Ruskin and Lakeland.
Last month, the Tampa Premium Outlets mall in Pasco County invited job-seekers to its fair at the Embassy Suites on the campus of the University of South Florida; thousands jammed the hotel convention space trying to connect with the 800 retail positions that were available.
Amalie Arena held an event in August and another last week as the Tampa Bay Lightning ramp up for the start of the 2015-16 National Hockey League season.
“We saw 500 applicants over the two days for approximately 250 part-time hourly positions, 100 with Tampa Bay Sports and Entertainment and 150 with Sportservice, our food-service provider,” said Lightning spokesman Bill Wickett. “Positions still remain open in the Chase Club and in our housekeeping department, so we are continuing to hire.”
The facility looked to hire ushers, guest service representatives, security, housekeeping, retail, concessions and kitchen staff to work not only Lightning games but also Tampa Bay Storm arena football games and some concerts. Among the attendees Wednesday was David Gracia, a 20-year-old from Tampa hoping to land his first job in the Chase Club or the Lexus Lounge.
“I thought it went really well,” he said after a job interview at the arena. “The Amalie is like a second home to me. I’ve been attending events here eight to 10 times a year since I was 8 years old.”
Gracia said the atmosphere at the Amalie fair was “very relaxed,but professional at the same time.”
There was a truly relaxed ambiance at the Seminole Hard Rock job fair, where celebrity chef Marc Murphy of TV’s “Chopped” is opening a yet-to-be named Mediterranean-inspired restaurant in November.
The restaurant will create 130 jobs.
The vibe at the Hard Rock job fair was by design, said Kristen Reuther, recruiting manager. And rather than use the term job fair, she referred to it as a “meet-and-greet” or “networking opportunity.”
“At the Hard Rock, the No. 1 thing is guest service and the personalities that our candidates have,” Reuther said. “These are the types of experiences that let us understand what those personalities are, versus you sit in a chair for an hour. These events are dynamic. We want to see how they interact with people. These types of events work best for us because that’s what we need to see.”
Rahim Heck, 29, a chef’s assistant at a restaurant in the Coronado Springs resort in the Disney complex, is seeking a position at the new restaurant.
“This was a nice meet-and-greet,” he said at Wednesday’s event. “I knew the information I wanted to see for the job would be here. It’s very open. It gives me a visual of what they’re going to expect.”
Those seeking cook positions can apply at www.seminolehardrocktampa.com/marc-murphy.htm.
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Job fair organizers aren’t always motivated by the needs of their business. Citing high unemployment in pockets of her district, State Rep. Janet Cruz, a Democrat from Tampa, organizes an annual fair drawing hundreds of various local employers and hundreds of job-seekers. This year’s was in July at Higgins Hall.
On Oct. 16, Hillsborough County Commission Chairwoman Sandy Murman will host a similar job fair at the Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry Campus.
“When they offer these job fairs and there is no cost to the employer, that is very attractive,” said Deborah Erdahl, human resources manager at Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay and chairwoman of the workforce readiness committee for the professional group HR Tampa. “You’d be foolish not to go to them, even if you have a limited number of positions to fill. And that face-to-face — you can have a two- or three-minute interview with someone, and it tells you a lot more than a piece of paper does.”
