As the labor shortage grows rapidly and high-paying trade’s jobs remain available, many employers are left trying to determine the most effective way to fill these openings with quality employees.  VHV Company decided to tackle the national issue by implementing a multifaceted open house at their Winooski, VT facility to enlighten students, parents, teachers and guidance counselors of the rewarding opportunities available within the industry.

VHV Company’s open house consists of a one hour class presentation to review their company, the HVAC-R & Plumbing Industry, the career path options that students would be facing and the cost associated with different paths.  Following the class presentation, the attendees are broken out into groups of 5-6 to tour the facility.  The tour consists of 7 stations at various locations around the building that includes estimating, engineering/DB sales, sheet metal fabrication and service/controls and a break.

Each group visits the designated station for a 10 minute presentation of the work associated with that station facilitated by a VHV employee.  At the end of the 10 minute presentation, groups rotate to the next station.  The total tour is approximately 84 minutes; this includes two minutes to rotate between each station.  VHV Company closes out the open house and tour with a classroom Q&A.

VHV Company provides students with snacks and drinks at the start of their classroom presentation; at the conclusion of the open house, they are given Swag items they can take back with them that include small notepads and beverage containers with the VHV logo.  In addition, everyone in attendance is given a thumb drive with VHV’s logo that has the full PowerPoint presentation to be used for future reference.

“We spent a considerable amount of time in planning for the open house and everyone on our Committee agreed that it was well worth the effort in order to provide a smooth presentation.  We make announcements via Facebook, our website, and email invitation using our HubSpot CRM marketing email tool,” says VHV Company’s President Richard Wilcox.

There has been a lot of progress with VHV’s open houses.  “We had three, consecutively run, open house days last fall. Our committee is considering taking the presentation on the road this spring, directly to the schools in lieu of having them come to us. At that time, we would invite students to schedule a time for them to come and tour our facility,” says Wilcox.

“Hosting the open houses has made a significant difference in making the students, parents, guidance counselors and teachers more aware of what our industry has to offer.  We received very positive feedback from the guidance counselors and teachers.  Our open houses have allowed us to present VHV’s capabilities and training programs for possible employment opportunities for the students and enabled us to develop contact with a local vocational school for future employment candidates.  We will be working with them more closely as we move forward,” says Wilcox.

VHV Company has done an excellent job of promoting careers in the skilled trades for high school students who may have had little to no knowledge of the rewards and benefits that a tradesman acquires coming into this high-demanding industry.  Great job VHV Company for opening your doors to share knowledge of the technical trades and share your industry-leading training facility and nationally recognized programs!