Creativity and a willingness to share candidates helps company fill employee needs

S-One Holdings Corp., challenged by a lack of quality candidates, finds success through employee referrals.

By Grier Ferguson
| 6:00 a.m. April 27, 2018
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

Kim Yochum is the S-One recruiting coordinator.

Strategies

The first quarter of 2018 has been an especially challenging time for hiring at S-One Holdings Corp. The company, with a niche in manufacturing and distribution of inkjet printing equipment, supplies, laminates and adhesives, oversees LexJet, Brand Management Group, ABAQA and other brands and companies.

“We certainly have noticed a lack of quality candidates for the positions we hire for,” says S-One recruiting coordinator Kim Yochum. Plus, some candidates who applied for jobs at S-One don’t respond to future communication from the company. “I have been surprised to reach out to multiple candidates to never have phone calls or emails returned.”

The company's recent search for a supply chain director is one of several examples: the search took much longer than expected, and the firm ended up hiring someone who had to move to Sarasota. “We exhausted a lot of options,” Yochum says.

Referrals have been one of S-One’s best tools for recruiting. It offers a $1,000 referral bonus to current employees who find someone the company hires, which she says provides a good incentive. Existing employees, she says, are like an extra army of people out in the community talking about the company.

The network of human resources professionals in Sarasota Yochum has built also comes in handy. She participates in resume swaps with them, sharing candidates who might not be a good fit for S-One but who could be a good fit for another company in the area and vice versa.

This year, S-One has made a concerted effort to reach out to past interns about jobs they or their friends might be interested in applying for. “We like to keep in touch with our interns because they’re another person who knows how the company works and can tell people about it,” she says.

Yochum works with the intern coordinator and career department at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee to find interns as well as employees. She also attends career fairs. “Even if we’re not hiring, I like to keep a pipeline of people interested in working here,” she says. “If something becomes available, I can reach back out to them.”