A staggering 900-plus job seekers are waiting for a call from Fonterra following the dairy giant’s Waitoa recruitment information day on Saturday.
The final tally of would-be workers was revealed by Fonterra bosses yesterday who say the real work begins sifting through the huge turnout for the right people to fill the 90 jobs on offer next year when the company’s $100 million new long-life milk plant starts operating.
North Island operations general manager Ross Singh said when the doors closed on the four-hour recruitment event at the Waitoa community hall, human resources staff had more than 900 names on the books.
The next step will be phone screening the hopefuls, and those that get through this stage will be invited to interviews at assessment centres, he said.
Timing details had yet to be finalised, but the centres will be in the Waikato.
The Waikato Times has reported that unemployment did not appear to be the driving force for the huge response, with many of the 400 people who had turned out between 10am and noon on Saturday already in jobs, often skilled work.
Mr Singh, who was among Fonterra staff on the post-lunch shift, said the picture was similar in the afternoon, with many of the visitors already employed.
«There was a good mix of people and I got the sense a lot were local people.»
It was only the second time Fonterra has used this recruitment model. The first was to staff its Darfield plant.
Mr Singh said the new Waitoa plant, beside the existing processing complex, was on track to be turning out the first export products in March next year.
Source: Stuff