Florida universities provide rich source of talent
Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, March 23, 2009
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In 2002 and 2003, when City Furniture was gearing up for major expansion of both its City and soon-to-be Ashley Furniture HomeStore chains, President Keith Koenig was exploring new ways to staff up the business.
Koenig and others at City figured that getting a good base of talented young people on board could have a big effect on the retailer's success.
“I've felt for a long time that the home furnishings industry is full of too many white males that look like me,” Koenig said. “I tell my team I want the future of my company (and management) to be a very diverse group, and we weren't getting as many candidates as I wanted from our traditional recruiting.”
It wasn't long before the Fort Lauderdale-based retailer began an active college recruiting program, employing students as interns to test their abilities.
Typically, City identifies a group of college juniors and puts nearly all of them into sales training for eight to 12 weeks during summer break, depending on their schedules.
Koenig said such training isn't inexpensive, “but it gives us a good look at a lot of young folks and also the ability to maintain staffing while full-time folks are on vacation.”
The company soon discovered that many of these students make strong employees, and some are outstanding, including Arlester Shorter, a Florida A&M graduate, who was the highest-paid summer intern at his school in 2005 and is now showroom manager of City's new store in Naples, Fla.
City now pulls from several schools. The University of Florida, Florida State University and Florida A&M are the biggest sources, but the retailer also recruits from other universities and colleges across the state. Early on, City set up a management training program for the recruits, but today, most of the students enter through its sales organization, with City promising “the door will be open to you,” if they master the job, Koenig said.
“It takes the right person,” he said. “If you have strong skills and customer service skills (and are highly motivated) to achieve financial reward, you can have a lot of success.”
Koenig said this past summer, City probably had about 20 college interns and he bets more than half of them eventually will get full-time offers from the company.
As expected, the program has had a dramatic impact on City's operations, he said, noting that the students are smart, talented, ambitious and fun.
Many of the graduates now holding full-time positions go to the college career fairs for City, serving as recruiters and helping to size up candidates they think would make the best future employees.
In that environment, they can talk with prospects about their experience at City with ease, Koenig said. “Here's how much I made last year. Here's what the work is like.”
And another bonus to having a strong pool of talented young people at work in the showrooms: they don't mind working evenings.
“We're crystal clear with everyone that we're all about nights, weekends and holidays,” Koenig said.
Nights typically aren't “a big deal, he added, because they don't go out (for fun) until late, anyway.” That's just one of the many benefits of hiring young go-getters.
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