Order Reprints Follow @MiBiz
By Joe Boomgaard | MiBiz
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

HOLLAND — More than 20 companies in the Holland-Zeeland area have a message for college students across the Midwest: They’re hiring.

That’s what Lakeshore Advantage hopes to convey at its first Pure Michigan Opportunity Lakeshore event, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28 at Baker Lofts in Holland.

The event, part of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s talent attraction efforts in conjunction with local partners, aims to match college students, recent graduates and other young professionals with companies that have openings to fill.

More than 20 companies in a range of industries, including manufacturing, health care and logistics, have already signed up for the event. Combined, they have in excess of 250 positions to fill.

Christine Powers, business services specialist at Lakeshore Advantage, said the organization’s retention interviews with companies revealed a need for a regional talent initiative. Company executives told the organization they’ve struggled to find the right people to fill their job openings.

Lakeshore Advantage partnered with Ottawa County Michigan Works!, Hello West Michigan and the Holland Area Chamber of Commerce for the event. The organization modeled Pure Michigan Opportunity Lakeshore off LiveWorkDetroit, which brought college students into Detroit to meet with employers and get a tour of city.

Powers said the group wants to target students and young professionals as well as those who may be under-employed coming out of the recession.

“We have a lot to showcase in our region. We want to show them they can have a chance to live in a spot where many vacation.”

Powers said she would like to host at least 200 students.

Attendees will start the day in Holland at Baker Lofts, a mixed-use condo and retail space in a former furniture factory. During a welcome breakfast, Holland Mayor Kurt Dykstra will present talks by several young professionals already living and working in the city. From there, the attendees will board buses for a tour highlighting Holland’s downtown and Lake Michigan beaches. Eventually, the tour will stop at Gentex Corporation headquarters in Zeeland, where students will get a glimpse into the region’s advanced manufacturing capabilities.

“We’re a modern, high-tech, advanced manufacturing location,” Powers said. “This is not your father’s manufacturing. They’ll get a chance to see that firsthand.

Attendees will also hear from staff at the NewNorth Center for Design in Business about other opportunities around the region. Attendees and business executives will work together on an educational design-related project.

“We want students to go away with a flavor of the region. We’re not all engineers. We have product design and marketing, and we want to showcase the opportunities those folks provide,” Powers said.

Afterward, the group will stop back at Baker Lofts for a more traditional career fair experience.

Hillary DeBoer, staffing and retention coordinator in the human resources department at Holland Hospital, said her organization got involved with the event because she could go to one local place and get in front of a number of candidates. Normally, companies have to travel to a college campus to participate in a career fair.

“We do a good job attracting locally, but one thing we need to do a better job at is getting our name out on the east side of the state and elsewhere,” DeBoer said. The students might not know us … as an employer.”

Holland Hospital persistently has about 40-50 openings for positions throughout the organization, not just one the medical care side. DeBoer said people don’t often think of hospitals for finance, accounting, maintenance and service positions. That said, the hospital has openings for RNs, too.

Companies can sponsor the event for $250 and be included on the marketing materials and have access to the participants throughout the afternoon. Business people can attend the networking event for $100. Young professionals must register and pay $15 to attend.

When companies register, they must report to Lakeshore Advantage how many positions they are looking to fill. Powers said the organization planned to follow up with companies to see how many matches were made to fill available positions.

“It will be interesting for us as a region to see how many people we can attract,” DeBoer said. “If I don’t walk away from there filling a job but I meet with a good cross section of people and talk about opportunities — whether now or in the future — then I view that as a success.”