Voyageur Panel restocks hiring pool

About 470 people went to Barwick last Friday and Saturday to fill out applications for Voyageur Panel–even though there are no vacant positions there.
Human resources co-ordinator Kirstan Bodnarchuk said last weekend’s application session was to boost up their hiring pool of potential employees just in case a position does become vacant.
“It takes a good month to two months to go through the hiring process,” she said. “What we don’t what to happen is we have a need on the floor and there is nobody available.”
Applicants begin the hiring process Monday with a written test. “People have to be available Monday, Feb. 9 for the testing, which is the first stipulation,” Bodnarchuk said.
The process for filling the hiring pool will be the same as the original process used to hire the 100 or so floor positions at the oriented strandboard mill.
“The hiring pool would be full of people who made it through the hiring process,” Bodnarchuk said.
As positions become available at the mill, Bodnarchuk said job offers would be given out–conditional on the applicant passing a medical and drug test.
Anyone who applied for Voyageur Panel in its first year of operations but didn’t get a job had to have their application in by Saturday to be considered for the new hiring pool.
“We’re going to start right from scratch,” Bodnarchuk said, adding this will allow all past candidates to update their resumes or list any new work experiences they’ve had in the last year.
But it also was stressed to all applicants that passing the hiring process this time wouldn’t guarantee a job. Since the mill started last year, Bodnarchuk said turnover there was less than 10 positions.
“We don’t expect a lot of turnover,” she said. “But we need to be prepared.”