Where to Find Employees in Pittsburgh? (Millvale, Sharpsburg: insurance, employment, school)

[SteelCityRising]

With our booming local economy creating a shortage of workers, our business has recently been having difficulty securing new job applicants to fill multiple vacancies. As such I've been filling up the slack, and working seven days per week is for the birds, even if the pay is good!

Historically our business had utilized CraigsList to post job ads; however, that site now charges $25 per job ad, and the return has been minimal the past few times we've posted there.

I've turned to social media as a way to try to get the word out.

In the past I would post flyers with little pull-tabs on various community bulletin boards, but that would typically yield no positive results.

Are there any other employers/HR professionals on here? If so, how do you recruit new talent? I loathe the idea of poaching staff members from competitors.

Tangentially, it seems like a lot of people here DON'T work, yet they all have money. Are there a lot more trust fund hipsters here more than in the past? I couldn't go more than a month or so sitting idle before I'd start to run into difficulty paying my bills.

[guy2073]

People are hard to find. Work ethic does not exist anymore. I was very sick this year, i had to hire someone to do physical work that i once did. All i can say is ugh.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by guy2073

People are hard to find. Work ethic does not exist anymore. I was very sick this year, i had to hire someone to do physical work that i once did. All i can say is ugh.

It's maddening just how poor many people's work ethic is nowadays. Our business is an absolute revolving door because people think the position is "too tough". I voluntarily work longer hours, make only slightly less money than I'd make in my field, and have much less stress. It's the easiest money I've ever made. It's all a matter of trade-offs. I work 60-70 hours per week; however, working so much DOES make you fully appreciate your day(s) off.

I've consistently been the primary breadwinner in every relationship I've ever had, and I don't personally think I even work all that much to be quite honest. Where can an employer find these elusive "work horses" in Pittsburgh? Indeed? Monster? Dice? CareerBuilder? LinkedIn? I just keep striking out, as we've lost five more employees over the past two weeks.

[TechCom]

Senior employees are hard to find because of retiring boomers. New ones are easy. I graduated in 2011. Been hard as hell to find steady work. I'm hoping that now that I scheduled the first part of my CPA exam that things will change.

[Hopes]

Indeed is the website I use. I didn't realize that Craig's List is now charging for employment ads on the Pittsburgh board. Once people realize the jobs are more likely to be legit, you'll probably get more action there. Pennysaver used to be good for the type of job you're trying to fill, but now that it's part of the Trib newspaper.

For the type of job you're trying to fill, I'd try all of the following. Remember to ask people how they heard of the job opening so you can figure out which produces the best results.

City Paper

Post Gazette

Trib

CareerLinks (unemployment)

CCAC Job Placement Office. They help students find jobs while attending school and after graduation. They send emails to all students with job listings.

Job placement office or student services office at all east end universities.

Church Bulletins --- For example, St. Raphael in Morningside prints classifieds once a month.

Call St. Raphael and other East End catholic churches and ask for the social worker nun's phone number. A couple of churches might share a social worker, but call around to find the most social worker nuns you can.

Social Service Offices

There's one at community Center in Millvale
Millvale Satellite
223 North Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15209-2621
(412) 821-0904

There's one in an old church in Sharpsburg. I can't find the number. North Hills Community Outreach will have it, and they also do job placement too. NHCO

Catholic Charities -- Home - Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh

Community Service Agencies

Any community service organization that trains workforce, such as:

The New Choices Program - Pennsylvania Women Work --- women reentering the workplace.

Home | www.pghcsi.org

Pittsburgh Job Corps

Just try to get in touch with as many people as possible who work with people in need. They don't just work with the indigent. They're also organizations people go to when they're in transition from being laid off, etc.. I'd call the food banks too. They know which people are perpetual welfare lifers and which ones are just needing help until they can get back on their feet.

[UKyank]

Traditionally the reason behind not being able to fill a position is that the pay is not high enough.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

With our booming local economy creating a shortage of workers, our business has recently been having difficulty securing new job applicants to fill multiple vacancies. As such I've been filling up the slack, and working seven days per week is for the birds, even if the pay is good!

The problem is that your employer requires people to use their own vehicles.

This makes it very difficult for prospective people to even guess what they'll be able to net, with the wear and tear, insurance and gasoline to calculate. I guess some people are familiar enough with the industry to be able to figure it out, but you're really addressing just a small subset of idle Pittsburghers.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Traditionally the reason behind not being able to fill a position is that the pay is not high enough.

That's why he needs to find students (which means creating flexible schedules to appeal to students) and people in transition who will work any job to get a new start and make ends meet until they find something else. That's who he was when he took the job. He came to Pittsburgh wanting a new start and he took anything. It worked out for him because they rewarded him for his hard work and promoted him. Since he's not going anywhere, there's no chance for newcomers to make a real living from this because there's no room for advancement as long as he's in the supervisor position. As a result, he'll have a difficult time finding committed lifers if they don't increase the incentives.

[ditchdigger]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

The problem is that your employer requires people to use their own vehicles.

This makes it very difficult for prospective people to even guess what they'll be able to net, with the wear and tear, insurance and gasoline to calculate. I guess some people are familiar enough with the industry to be able to figure it out, but you're really addressing just a small subset of idle Pittsburghers.

This. ^

His high turnover might well be due to the fact that his people are learning the hard way that using their own vehicles isn't worth what they're being paid.

I was in the snowplowing business, which is particularly hard on equipment. For that one reason, among others, I'm glad to be out of it. Lots of guys with a pickup truck think they can hang a plow on the front end and makes big money, and find work as subcontractors to the companies that have the actual contract with the customer. It's bad enough when you get to keep the full rate that's being charged to the customer, but having been there and learned the lessons, there's no way in hell that I'd work my truck as a subcontractor for the going rate that's being offered.

SCR, can tell us again how that hybrid you had handled the rigors of being a delivery vehicle?

[I_Like_Spam]

Uber and Lyft entering the Pittsburgh market also has to be making an impact on people inclined to get involved in the delivery business.

There are only a limited number of people willing to use their personal vehicles as their means to a living, if the ride sharing concerns are recruiting some of them, the number available to deliver food is reduced.