Manpower Still Has Presence in Plymouth

By Stowe, Gene

Manpower will continue to serve Marshall County job-seekers despite the closing of a small office in Plymouth. The South Bend office will work with the residents through an online application form and telephone interviews.

“Many businesses are consolidating and still able to do business in other markets,” says Leena Herald, of the South Bend office. “We still have a presence in Plymouth, even though we don’t have an address down there.”

Manpower also will recruit in Plymouth every month or so in partnership with WorkOne.

Meanwhile, a presence in cyberspace links the applicants and the agency across the miles.

“We’ve developed a new online application system, Direct Talent,” Herald says, explaining that job-seekers can apply online from a computer at home or in a library. “It allows us to do our review of the resume prior to their coming in. We can do a telephone interview at that point.”

Manpower checks resumes to see if an applicant’s skills match current openings. Agency employees then follow up with a telephone interview – whether the person is in Plymouth or South Bend – although they can also do an in-person interview.

“It saves them time if we don’t have any immediate openings available for them,” Herald says. “We’re able to do processing over the telephone. A telephone interview ends up being a more behavioral- based interview,” such as “tell about a time you had to make a judgment call on the job.”

These days, having the specific skills for a job is just about half the required qualification for the position. The rest has to do with relationships in workplace with no room left for misfits.

“What we’re seeing a lot more is it’s 50 percent skills and 50 percent a cultural fit with the company as a whole,” Herald says. “We’re working with smaller groups these days. It’s a much more integrated work world any more.

“If you’re not a fit for that company’s mission statement, core value system and the people that work there, it’s not ever going to work out. They’re not going to be happy either.”

Manpower had maintained a small office in Plymouth for at least 10 years, but it was served from the Warsaw office. South Bend took responsibility for the office late last year, partly because of the stronger commuting connection: “31 seemed more frequently traveled than 30,” Herald says.

For more information, contact Manpower in South Bend at (574) 234- 0157. Or, see the Web site at www.manpowerjobs.com.

Copyright South Bend Tribune Corporation Apr 7, 2008

(c) 2008 Tribune Business Weekly. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.