Employers get creative in region's tight labor market

When recruiting employees, companies supplement print and online classified ads with booths at job fairs and flyers posted at Job Connect.

But the current tight labor market is prompting a move to traditional advertising media.

"We're looking at billboards on the back of city buses," says Mark Phillips, senior controller at the Amazon distribution center in Fernley.

And,Amazon plans prime-time television spots.

The company will also run commuter buses from Reno to bring in the several hundred holiday-season workers needed for the Thanksgiving to Christmas gift-giving season.

Even that might not be enough this year.

"We may have to tap into the California market, and put people up in motels," Phillips adds."We're always trying to think outside the box."

More television ads were aired by Greater Nevada Credit Union.

"We used our own employees, who talk about job satisfaction," says Kirstin Plemel, marketing manager.

The ads are not position specific, but direct viewers to the company Web site.

"I've not spoken to a single business owner all year who did not have positions to fill," says Tom Brooks, owner of the Carson Valley Golf Course.

One solution he's hit upon, says Brooks,"is hiring older retired folks who want to do something, not sit in an armchair.

"If the grounds maintenance work involves heavy lifting,we send two or three; they get the job done faster without undue physical strain," he adds.

"With the cost of living in Douglas County, it's harder to find someone not managerial who can afford to work here," he adds.

At the Carson Valley Inn, Bill Henderson, director of sales and marketing, says,"We are experiencing it.

CVI has not had a full compliment of employees for over a year.

"Short of constructing employee housing, it's difficult to get anyone.Developers are not proposing affordable housing because there's such strong demand for upscale housing."

Some employers are prospecting for new grads.

"We have more employers calling us directly than ever before," says Mitzie Going, graduate services director at Career College of Northern Nevada in Reno.

She says graduates in high demand have administrative and accounting skills.Medical assistants are also actively sought.

But at Truckee Meadows Community College, Bonnie Green, job fair coordinator, says employers didn't ask her to arrange the job fair set for 10 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

on Oct.

26 at the Dandini Campus of Truckee Meadows Community College.

She recruited the 14 employers and five agencies participating.

(For information, call 673-7063.)

The college ran a virtual job fair online each spring for the past three years.

It lasted about two months,with about 60 employers listed.

With the physical space now available at the new V.

James Eardley Student Services Center, the time was right to hold an actual job fair, she says.