CORPORATE CITIZEN:
Expansion Ammunition
DATE/LOCATION:
January 29, 2022
523 Titus Road, Hooks, TX
PROJECT TYPE/ OCCASION:
Job Fair Hiring Event
Overview
Expansion Ammunition, a producer of primers for the manufacturing of ammunition products, expanded their operations into Texarkana by acquiring a facility on land purchased from TexAmericas Center.
The plant (located in unincorporated Bowie County on TexAmericas Center’s East Campus) required staffing from the ground up. There were 150 positions available, with potential for another 250 positions as the plant ramped up. Available job positions included:
- Maintenance Workers
- Machinists
- Press Operators
- Chemists
- Line Workers
- Material Handling
- Engineers
- Administrative Roles
Goals
Create awareness of the plant, upcoming job fair, and available job opportunities to attract qualified candidates to fill multiple open positions.
APPROACH
Plan a job fair Event
Prior to the planned opening, a hiring event was organized to help connect job seekers with company officials. Hosting an in-person job fair event gave attendees the chance to interact with the hiring personnel and senior management to ask questions and discuss the company (History-Mission-Vision-Values), available positions, qualifications and skill sets required.
Multimedia Approach
Through collaboration with media partners, coverage and custom solutions were crafted to create awareness of the job fair and achieve hiring goals.
Coverage through PR efforts were aired, posted, or run on multiple media outlets.
Custom Solutions
A custom marketing campaign was developed for Expansion Ammunition that was launched two weeks prior to the event and included:
- Radio and TV broadcast and streaming commercials on multiple stations to create awareness of the job opportunities and provide details of the job fair.
- Radio commercials with a local DJs to generate interest for potential applicants.
- Social media posts on station’s websites to expand reach beyond the listening audience.
Social Media Campaign
A robust social media campaign was utilized to provide specific details, answer questions/provide clarification, and maintain event awareness. The social media campaign included posts, a job fair landing page, and event promotion.
- Workforce Solutions Northeast Texas (WSNET) was provided a document detailing the employer, date of the job fair, and its location.
- WSNET referred job seekers to the job fair and posted open positions on the organization’s job board.
RESULTS
3,000+
applications recieved by client
2,000-2,500
in attendance at the on-site job fair on January 29, 2022
1,500+
online submissions, many were out of area submissions of former residents attempting to “Come Home to Texarkana”
150
Positions filled
The client was able to interview and fill all 150 open positions with qualified applicants. For hard-to-find job classifications, e.g., chemist, the company hired multiple employees so that they were on staff when expansion was set to occur.
QUALIFIED APPLICANTS FOR FUTURE NEEDS
Client now had access to a large talent pool of qualified applicants to fill the additional 250 positions needed for the next phase.
“We were blown away by how many people showed up in person to our job fair. We had well over 2,000 folks hand in applications. THANK YOU to everyone who participated in making our first phase of hiring a success so far.”
– Expansion Ammunition social media page
HOW WERE THESE RESULTS POSSIBLE?
- The Texarkana laborshed extends out 75 miles and includes 1.1 million people.
- Of the employees working in Bowie County, Texas, 25 percent drive over 50 miles each day to and from work.
- A workforce study conducted in 2021 projected that over 120,000 people in the Texarkana laborshed should be interested in employment options at TexAmericas Center. This is attributed to:
- 21,000 people being unemployed.
- 35,300 people being underemployed.
- 72,000 people being employed outside the labor shed driving signifi cant miles daily.
- In the summer of 1969, more than 30,000 people worked at the Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant (LSAAP) and Red River Army Depot (RRAD), both of which operated for over 65 years. TexAmericas Center began redeveloping even before LSAAP closed in 2005. RRAD is still an active military installation. People are interested in the legacy of these facilities and are interested in working at a location where friends, family and neighbors once worked.
- The Texarkana labor market is rural and is over four times more likely to| have employees who will be super-commuters; that is: employees who drive 50 miles or more (to and from work) than that of the average commuter in the USA.
Recommendations
- Take a multimedia approach to job promotion.
- Integrate local private and public partners.
- Talk about the core values of the company.
- Talk about the company’s core strengths.
- Talk about any special benefi ts your company plans to offer.
- Work with local marketing/media organizations to reach a larger audience and attract a larger pool of candidates.
- Partner with private and public workforce organizations.
- Host recruitment events on location off ering candidates a unique look at the exact place they will be working.
- In-person interaction can build stronger connections and commitment to a company.
- Not only did Expansion Ammunition find new employees, but they also asked these new employees for recommendations of others who might be interested in employment.
