PRIME ASSOCIATES to BEARS From

For years, Prime has recruited students from Missouri State University and the relationship between the two continues to strengthen.

BY JULIANA GOODWIN

There are so many non-driving career opportunities at Prime, and that’s the message Jaime Ely wants to convey to students at Missouri State University. It takes a variety of skills to keep Prime operating at the top of the industry, which means there are all kinds of jobs available to soon-to-graduate students..

For more than a decade, Prime has recruited at Missouri State University’s College of Business, and Prime is now stepping up those efforts. Jaime Ely, Operations Manager in the refrigerated division, has been with the company for 25 years. “As Operations Manager in the refrigerated division, I’m responsible for onboarding all new associates in our division. I review resumes, interview applicants, hire those candidates and help develop and onboard them as new Prime associates,” Jaime says.

Jaime is a graduate of Missouri State University himself and recruits at two career fairs on the Bears’ campus, one in the fall and one in the spring. In March, Ely teamed up with the Dean of the College of Business, David Meinert, to coordinate a visit to Prime with professors and department heads. While touring Prime, they learned about the wide variety of career opportunities available to students, which will help keep Prime at the top of mind as students seek future career opportunities.

“Part of what we are trying to do is create an ongoing relationship with professors and department heads, so they have a better understanding of what type of student we need and what careers we have to offer,” Jaime says.

There are many majors that are a natural fit at Prime, including majors that focus on supply chain and logistics. “We have hired students with backgrounds in management, marketing, sales, finance and general business, accounting, and a few IT folks,” Jaime says. To get the attention of more students, Prime paid to be Employer of the Day in April, which is when a company sets up in Glass Hall, where the College of Business is housed. For one day, Prime had Glass Hall to itself, which gave Jaime a chance to interact with and recruit students, and build brand awareness.

Jaime says as Prime looks to ramp up recruiting efforts on campus, it also plans to get more involved in some of the student organizations and business fraternities on campus.

Internships

Internships are a big way Prime recruits new graduates. Jaime says he has five interns in his department and a few others on the sales side of the room. Most interns work 20 to 30 hours a week, which includes a 12hour shift on the weekend. This enables students to get a lot of hours in, and then they can make up the rest of the hours with a few evening shifts.

Internships are paid and are generally offered to juniors or seniors. Interns can shadow associates in different departments to see if there is a career opportunity that might appeal to them. “Our goal is once we hire an intern and develop a relationship with them, we offer them a fulltime position and extend that into a long-term relationship,” Jaime says.

“We have invested time and energy into that intern, and we keep track of graduation dates. It is our goal to have an offer in their hands prior to graduation so they know they have a full time offer they can rely on.”

Selling Points

One big reason why Prime is focused on increasing recruitment efforts on college campuses like Missouri State is that the company is enjoying continued growth. Last year, the company grew 12% and is poised to grow another 6% this year. That type of growth is attractive to students.

They also enjoy the amenities on site including a gymnasium, weight room, cafeteria, in-house spa, child care, a sleep lab, hair salon and much more. “The thing we sell students on is the compensation package as a whole and how that compares to other job opportunities in the area,” Jaime says. “We feel like we are highly competitive with the career opportunities we have here. Since the onset of COVID, we find more and more associates value the remote opportunities we have as well. Once someone is trained, we allow an on-site and off-site work schedule. That is a big attraction.”

There’s also an effort to recruit at the University of Arkansas, and Jaime looks forward to seeing that relationship plus the one with MSU grow. “We have had an ongoing relationship with MSU that has been very beneficial,” Jaime says. “I have seen a great value in this relationship.”

All three of these MSU students started off as interns at Prime. Now, they’re official full-time team members.

By The Numbers

Prime recruits at MSU at least 2 TIMES a year. The company is interested in increasing its engagement with students by becoming active in student organizations.

There are currently 10 interns from MSU at Prime

2/3 of fleet managers are MSU graduates

Interns work 20-30 hours per week.