Open For Business

NPMA’s Workforce Development Program launches new member website

With 260 employees serving 17 counties in North Carolina, Terminix Triad has grown by leaps and bounds since the family-owned business opened in 1932. But like many businesses, it’s currently experiencing growing pains.

Juanita Ellis, vice president for human resources and business strategy, said Terminix Triad would like to hire 20 additional workers, but with a stubborn national labor shortage, the supply of qualified candidates just isn’t there.

“I think everyone right now can attest to the challenge we’re having finding labor,” Ellis said. “I’ve never experienced anything like this before, and I’ve been in HR for many years.”

That’s why Terminix Triad is among the founding members of the NPMA’s Workforce Development Program. The initiative is dedicated to promoting careers in pest management and directing jobseekers to a new job board exclusively for NPMA member companies, PestControlJobs.com.

Each member company in the Founders Club has pledged $5,000 annually over a five-year term to fund the Workforce Development Program. In return, founders get unlimited job postings, access to recruiting and onboarding resources and VIP treatment on the job board, including designation as a “featured employer,” first access to advertising opportunities and cross-promotion through social media and feature articles on PestControlJobs.com.

Dennis Jenkins, president of ABC Home & Commercial Services of Dallas/Fort Worth, said the job board will be an important component of his company’s recruiting efforts. The business, which employs about 240 people, has full-time recruiters and offers a generous referral bonus to workers who successfully refer friends to the company.

But Jenkins expects PestControlJobs.com to be an invaluable resource, especially with employment in the pest-control industry expected to grow 7% annually over the next decade, compared with 5% for other industries, according to the NPMA.

“I love the fact that as a founding member, we can post any number of jobs in any area for free, but even if you’re not a founding member, it’s a great place to list a job,” Jenkins said. “I’ve owned my own business for 32 years, and I can tell you that the No. 1 determining factor of how much business we’re going to do in a month is how many people we have to do it with.”

Pest-control companies in the United States and Canada that are NPMA members get one free 60-day job listing a year. They also can join the Founders Club to get unlimited postings or the Patrons Club to receive six free job postings a year, with additional postings available for a discounted rate of $150 each. Patrons pledge $1,000 annually to the initiative.

Targeted ads on social media drive traffic to PestControlJobs.com, and once there, jobseekers get a lot more than job listings. There’s detailed information about the industry, including descriptions of career opportunities and success stories from pest-control professionals, along with outreach materials targeting groups such as women, veterans and students.

“The job board is a great addition to the other resources that NPMA has made available to member companies,” Ellis said. “From the candidate side, I think it provides valuable information on why our industry is important to society, how it creates meaningful work and how it can provide a lasting career for many.”

Members of the Founders Club and Patrons Club get access to a host of recruiting and onboarding resources at www.npmaworkforce.org, including customizable recruitment brochures that are great to hand out at job fairs and schools, Ellis said. In addition, there are job-description templates that give prospective hires a clear idea of their responsibilities, she added.

“There are also some great presentations that can be customized and used for presentations at schools, which can help generate interest in our industry at an early age,” Ellis said. “I think as more companies become familiar with the resources available and share ideas and information, the website will continue to create value for member companies, especially those that may not have specialized teams to develop those resources in-house.”

Jenkins said the job board will help to inform jobseekers that the pest-control industry is resilient, offering quality workers career opportunities that tend to stick around, even when other industries shed employees. He said his company weathered the past few recessions better than most local businesses and has grown its business each year, and that’s a message worth sharing with workers who crave stability.

“This initiative is going to be telling our industry’s story over and over again, and we’ve got a great story to tell,” Jenkins said.