ASA advances opportunities through industry career awareness

Banner_Guy — To accomplish this long-term objective, the American Supply Association is investing increased resources to establish a national workforce recruitment program.

Hajoca Careers — Mike Tye and Jackson Allen, Hajoca Corporation, share information with school counselors about how they’ve been successful in the PHCP and PVF industry.

by Bill Erfort, Member Services Manager

Recognizing the needfor members to find new talented employees, the ASA Board of Directors has established an important strategic objective to increase the number of talented workers taking advantage of attractive career opportunities in the PHCP-PVF industry.

To accomplish this long-term objective, the American Supply Association is investing increased resources to establish a national workforce recruitment program. The primary function of this program is to connect potential job seekers with ASA member companies in their area.

ASA Careers website

To make this successful, ASA has improved its Careers website, asa.net/careers, and materials to be a valuable one-stop shop of information and additional resources for both parties. On the website, a job seeker can find basic information on the PHCP-PVF industry as a whole, search available positions through the job board and also browse the ASA directory for a member in their area. ASA members are encouraged to place a “careers button” or contact information on their company’s website
for potential applicants.

Also on ASA’s Careers page, employers are able to post available positions, view resumes and even view upcoming career fairs in their area. To assist with the latter, ASA has developed a “Career Day Kit” that contains everything one would need to conduct a successful career day. Included in the kit is a pop-up banner, an informational brochure and a how-to-guide to effectively host a career day. All of this is available to members on demand at no charge.

Target demographics

With the wide variety of careers and high-growth positions in the industry and so many people transitioning from high school, college and the military into the workforce, ASA is targeting these demographics to continue to create awareness about career opportunities in the industry. To start, ASA has placed ads in the American School Counselors Association magazine and recently attended its annual conference in Phoenix.

What better way to inform graduating students than to put the information directly in the hands of their counselors? ASA staff, accompanied by a few volunteers from Hajoca Corp.’s management trainee program, met with these counselors and explained how strong the PHCP-PVF industry is. Hajoca’s employees were able to explain their personal experiences working for an ASA member and utilizing the strongest training programs in the industry offered by ASA University. The biggest attention-grabber for the counselors was that a local ASA member could come to their schools and talk about potential career opportunities.

Continuing the momentum

ASA will continue to reach out to more high schools, community colleges, trade schools, and military bases to promote the many industry career opportunities. ASA is also collecting the information about each member’s HR manager or hiring manager to contact them about upcoming career fairs in their areas. ASA members like Plumbers Supply Co., in Louisville, KY, and Valley Supply Co., in Elkins, WV, have already started to reach out to their local communities and have utilized ASA’s “Career Day Kit.” ASA encourages all of its members to not wait, contact their local schools, and in turn help increase awareness about the career opportunities in the industry.

To learn more

To learn more about ASA’s industry Careers campaign, visit asa.net/careers or contact Bill Erfort, member services manager, at berfort@asa.net or
630/467-0000, x 212.