![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/RogerRamsammy.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nUnemployment numbers have been at record-setting highs in recent months, but that doesn\u2019t mean companies can take their eye off the ball when it comes to recruiting.<\/p>\n
That was one message from the\u00a0Albany Business Review\u2019s\u00a0“Talent Quest: Attract, Train, Hire Retain” virtual event held Friday morning, June 5.<\/p>\n
More than 200 people registered for the panel event featuring\u00a0David Dussault, CEO of P1 Ventures;\u00a0Roger Ramsammy, president of Hudson Valley Community College; and\u00a0Renee Walrath, president of Walrath Recruiting.<\/p>\n
Three takeaways from the discussion:<\/p>\n
1. Some companies are still hiring and expanding<\/p>\n
Renee Walrath\u2019s biggest piece of advice to people looking for a job: Be positive.<\/p>\n
That goes for recent graduates just starting their careers all the way up to executives who might be considering a new position.<\/p>\n
\u201cA person gave me a call, C-level, and I called a client of mine and said there\u2019s this candidate. They said \u2018Renee, we\u2019re just not hiring right now’ \u2026 but they did a Zoom interview a few months ago, and they recently hired this individual,\u201d Walrath said.<\/p>\n
David Dussault\u00a0of P1 Industries, which makes parts for companies in the power generation and oil and gas industries, said he saw the pandemic as a time to go on the offensive in sales and marketing.<\/p>\n
His company has secured new orders from around the globe in the past 60 days. As an essential business, production hasn\u2019t slowed during the Covid-19 crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d tell college graduates, and I know it\u2019s a cliche, but sometimes the greatest adversity creates the greatest opportunity,\u201d Dussault said.<\/p>\n
2. Some changes brought on by the pandemic may be permanent<\/p>\n
Roger Ramsammy, president of Hudson Valley Community College, said the school had to leap forward \u201ca whole decade in two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Covid-19 prompted the cancellation of in-person classes, professors had to adapt immediately to new methods of teaching and new technology.<\/p>\n
Ramsammy said HVCC is continuing to create new learning opportunities in shorter-term online courses as well as\u00a0preparing for mostly distance learning\u00a0in the next school year.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are waking up and realizing it\u2019s not always the degree that matters, it\u2019s about the skills that you have that matters,\u201d Ramsammy said.<\/p>\n
While most courses are likely to be online in September, Ramsammy said labs and required clinical courses could be offered via smaller in-person groups at the Troy campus.<\/p>\n
For Dussault, the biggest change he made was scheduling at his factories.<\/p>\n
P1 shifted to to a seven-day schedule but dropped second- and third-shift work as a way to have fewer people on the factory floor.<\/p>\n
One result? Productivity has been up 25% since March.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had incredible success with this. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s gonna change for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
3. Don\u2019t forget about retaining employees<\/p>\n
Recruiting is one thing. Retaining your staff should also be top of mind at a time of upheaval, Walrath said.<\/p>\n
She says her team is stronger now than it was before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trusted them, they were working remotely and knew what they were doing, I paid salaries and benefits \u2026 not all companies out there are being as kind to their employees. And they remember that,\u201d Walrath said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Wed, 10 Jun 2020 14:30:17 +0000 by\u00a0d.gardner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recruiting and retaining talent for Capital Region businesses right now By\u00a0Todd Kehoe\u00a0\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Research Director, Albany Business Review \/ June 8,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}