Crowne Plaza taps community for engineering talent

Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan is tapping into the community for workers after having a hard time filling positions in its engineering department through traditional recruitment channels.

The hotel held an Engineering Apprentice Fair last Sept. 1, hoping to find people who may not have formal technical training but have the right attitude and willingness to learn.

Glenn Policare, Learning and Development manager at Crowne Plaza, said the hotel had already tried the usual ways of recruiting workers.

“We've gone through all the traditional routes. You put advertisements in the newspaper and labor. So let's just do something a little bit different,” Policare said.

He said the hotel needs more people in its engineering department and believes there could be untapped talent in the community.

The approach appeared to generate interest, with a line of applicants waiting during the Sept. 1 event.

Crowne Plaza is offering a paid, 12-week apprenticeship program that will rotate participants through four disciplines for three weeks each: heating, ventilation and air conditioning, repair and maintenance, duty technician work, and carpentry and painting.

The program is expected to start in mid-September and run through mid-December. Apprentices will be paid $7.50 an hour.

Policare said applicants do not necessarily need to arrive with technical expertise because the hotel is looking for people willing to learn.

“We're looking for attitudes, and we're looking for enthusiasm. Those are things that you need to bring to the table, and we're going to teach ability,” he said.

Policare said Crowne Plaza already has experienced employees who can teach apprentices the different skills needed to maintain the hotel.

“We've got some amazing individuals in our department, so we want to give them a little bit of an opportunity to teach these kids or individuals what can be done and see if we can find some of these guys to join our team at the end of the program,” he said.

Cindy Bernal, Crowne Plaza's Maintenance and Repair manager, said the paid apprenticeship also gives the hotel an opportunity to identify people who could eventually be hired directly.

“Hopefully we can have some good skills and talents from them,” Bernal said.

The Engineering Apprentice Fair is a pilot project, and Policare said its success could lead to similar programs elsewhere in the hotel.

“Well, this is our pilot project, so if it works for this department, we may do this for other departments as well,” he said.

Applicants interviewed by Marianas Press said they welcomed the opportunity to learn new skills and find work.

One applicant from Chinatown described the type of work offered through the program as “pretty good.”

Another applicant said he found the work “pretty interesting” as he waited to take part in the apprenticeship process.

A third applicant had a longer story to tell. He said he previously worked for the government but left his job to take care of his sick mother.

“I left the government because of my mom's illness,” he said. “I had to sacrifice.”

With another family member now helping care for his mother, the applicant said he was ready to return to work.

“I hate staying home. I mean, if there's anything that I can do...” he said.

He expressed interest in HVAC and general building maintenance and said he already had some hands-on experience from renovating his mother's house and learning from maintenance workers employed by his in-laws.

“I learned on my own. I picked up from working with my in-laws' maintenance guys. So I learned a lot from them,” he said.

The applicant, who is 59 years old, said age would not stop him from continuing to work and learn.

“It's all in the mind. It's just the number going up. But if you're strong and hard in mind, you can still do a lot of things,” he said.

“And I still want to do a lot of things in life. Not just stay put and stay idle.”