In an effort to fill close to 400 positions for the upcoming
commercial fishing season, Copper River Seafoods is taking an aggressive online
approach to wooing potential employees for its facilities from Cordova to Dutch
Harbor.
The company has posted an online video, with a link to job
applications, at www.copperriverseafoods.com, to tell people about career
opportunities that begin on the processing line.
Robin Richardson, chief business development officer for
CRS, said that the company expects to be recruiting and hiring all summer.
The online application process is designed to give CRS more
efficiency in its hiring program and give applicants a lot of information about
the company and what their jobs will entail. Once CRS determines which
applicants are qualified for the positions they are applying for, the
applications will go to individual managers within the company to determine if
their facilities are the right fit for the applicant and whether the applicant
is the right fit for the company, she said.
CRS, founded in Cordova with some 40 employees, now employs
more than 500 people in Anchorage, Cordova, Kenai, Dutch Harbor, Kasilof,
Ninilchik and Togiak.
Its management has worked closely with the Alaska Department
of Labor, which also is engaged in hiring people for the Alaska seafood
industry, to develop a workforce of people who start on the processing lines
and work their way into a career in the fishing industry.
The company also does a lot of internal training, using
certified apprenticeship programs
CRS wants the next generation to see the career potential in
this industry through a business model that hasn’t existed before, Richardson
said.