Recruit like a Pro

Partners in Progress and the SMACNA-SMART Best Practices Market Expansion Task Force have developed a full suite of customizable recruitment tools suitable for any local area.

The SMACNA/SMART Best Practices Market Expansion Task Force has everything labor-management partnerships need to kick-start recruitment initiatives in their local areas. These recruitment tools use an evidence-based approach to attract new recruits to the sheet metal trade, leveraging research collected by surveying apprentices in their first, second, third, and final years of training.

Online Ordering System

The Partners in Progress Online Ordering System allows local areas to customize and order posters, t-shirts, and banner ads to reflect the relevant details of a specific region.

Brand Ambassador Program

Studies involving online consumer habits have found that 90% of people searching for programs and products online trust peer recommendations, and user-generated content is deemed 50% more trustworthy than traditional media. Consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals, and 81% of American consumers trust advice and information from blogs. Most importantly, 9 out of 10 people trust recommendations from within their networks.

Apprentices, journeypersons, and other members of the industry who love the trade and actively spread the word about the advantages of SMACNA and SMART careers to friends and family in social media can earn the title of “Brand Ambassador”. Visit the Industrial Athlete Official Facebook and Instagram pages @industrialathleteofficial to learn more.

Ambassadors demonstrate members’ skill, pride, and craftspersonship and the high standards consistent in the unionized sheet metal industry. “We represent contractors and members that are a cut above the rest, and we should not be shy about making it known,” says Paul Pimentel, SMART’s manager of research and communications.

Read about the program in Partners in Progress’ August 2019 issue, page 4.

Those interested in being brand ambassadors should tag posts with the hashtag of our recruiting campaign. Exemplary brand ambassadors will receive $100 Amazon gift cards.

Organizations and members can purchase t-shirts emblazoned with the marketing campaign message to assist brand ambassadors with getting their message out more effectively.

Webinars

The Task Force held a series of webinars to promote the resources available to the local areas for recruiting. The information and resources covered in these webinars include banners and banner ads organizations can use on local websites and social media pages, with How-Tos, and Best Practices for tools such as Facebook custom audiences. In addition, the webinars provide information about additional available resources that are coming and a brief review of what is currently available to support your local efforts, with some examples of how they are being used in the field. To access these webinars and other recruitment tools, create a free account at pinp.org and click the Resources tab. ▪

Questions?

Lisa Bordeaux, A Mod Up LLC 503-422-6764 bordeaux11@gmail.com

Paul Pimentel, SMART 202-783-5880 ppimentel@smart-union.org

Maggie Powers, SMACNA 703-803-2981 mpowers@smacna.org