Recruiting Rugged Workforces: Agencies offer HR departments an able ally.

• Author: Newman, Amy

Alaska's resource development industry offers some of the state's most lucrative jobs. But the trade-off for those hefty paychecks is logging time in some of the state's most rugged locations and harshest climates, working long hours isolated from family for extended periods of time.

So the ability to recruit and retain a reliable, skilled workforce that can handle the technical, environmental, and even mental aspects of these jobs is a crucial component of a project's success.

Most large companies have an equally large human resources (HR) department capable of overseeing the hiring process. Coeur Alaska, which operates the Kensington gold mine outside of Juneau, for example, typically handles hiring for both salaried and hourly positions, says Chrissi Gilbert, HR manager for Coeur Alaska.

Smaller companies, however, don't always have the resources to handle mass hirings. Even companies that do often turn to outside agencies to handle the process.

"If we're finding we're having a hard time filling a position, or if we know it's going to be a very specific skillset we know is going to be hard to find, we will use a recruitment firm," Gilbert says.

Recruitment agencies are an often unheralded support service in Alaska's resource development industry, working alongside HR departments to help find and woo the right worker for the job. And Alaska recruitment firms are uniquely positioned to meet their clients' needs.

"Recruitment agencies in the Lower 48 who have a foothold in Alaska may specialize in one area," explains Paula Bradison, CEO and managing director of Alaska Executive Search, which has provided recruitment and staffing services to Alaska businesses for more than forty years. 'As an Alaskanbased firm, we're just experts in Alaska."

Recruitment firms help companies across industries fill a variety of positions--from oil and gas to mining, construction to healthcare, or administrative assistants to engineersthrough temporary, contingent, or direct hires. And they do it through a combination of intense networking, word-ofmouth, and traditional recruitment practices.

The Role of Recruitment Agencies

Why would a company--especially large, multi-national ones--use a recruitment agency to fill positions rather than its HR department?

A lot of reasons, it turns out. And like most business decisions, those reasons usually come down to time and money.

"To recruit effectively requires a lot of time and effort to engage with the client and...