Task force continues work on recruiting employees

Group still seeking volunteers, input from 'concerned citizens'

MOSES LAKE — Efforts to recruit employees for jobs from within and around the Columbia Basin continues this week.

The operations task force meets Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the ATEC Building in Room 1855.

Allan Peterson, one of the training committee leaders, said the meeting will recap its recruitment efforts and the group will continue working on O-net codes as a system of getting employees into the area.

Work-source Business Services representative Dustan Knauss is working to gather occupational classifications and compiling the research so that individuals drawing unemployment insurance who are coded with a specific code would be contacted to alert them of available positions.

"We're hopefully starting to finalize the direction we're going to go, and then go forward," Peterson said.

Marketing committee chair Jeffrey Wiberg said he hopes to "tack down" the locations for a traveling recruitment booth at jobs fairs and the like outside the Columbia Basin area.

"I want to see us pick carefully selected venues to attend which are going to give us the most exposure," he said. "Basically the most bang for our buck, be very respectful of the funding we are going to be receiving from area businesses."

Wiberg also wants to see efforts for a Web site, centralwashingtonjobs.com, come to life and allow businesses to post a little bit more about their company culture than simply posting about an available position.

The force's training committee has identified a Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce program of Tuesday tours as something to expand for educational purposes.

"In my mind, we really need to start wrapping some of this stuff up and getting going on the things we need to work on," Peterson said. "This O-net code, classifying job skills and getting people, really can help local people best, first, which is what I think we should be trying to do."

The group continues to look for more volunteers and more input.

"Like any volunteer organization or effort, we're always bereft of enough people or enough resources," Wiberg said. "The thing I would hate to see most is for this whole effort to fall on few shoulders, or for the energy which started this whole process to fizzle."

Wiberg is certain there are enough people in the community interested in growing who might not be involved in business leadership, but would be excellent resources for the task force's efforts.

"That would be great if we could reach out to what I would call concerned citizens who could help," he said.

"The pages are still mostly blank and input is there," Peterson echoed.

The meeting is open to the public.