On-The-Job Career Development Program is about Attitude, Not Experience
(Two Rivers, Wis.) — Attitude and aptitude trumped lack of experience for six people recently hired at HYDER Industries, an information technology company based in Two Rivers, Wis. HYDER selected them for a new career development program targeting people with no experience in the information technology (IT) field.
“It has paid off for us,” says CEO Christopher Hytry Derrington. “We build IT knowledge through coaching, training, job experience, and immersion into the business. We found good people we otherwise wouldn’t have met. It’s paid off for them because they found new career paths in the growing field of IT.”
Six months ago, Hytry Derrington quietly started a pilot project to test a program called “Launch Pad.” The idea was to take people fresh out of school or from other industries who had no professional IT experience, and give them a chance to work in one of HYDER’s four technology companies; eliminating the Catch-22 of “You have to have experience to get experience” that haunts both employers and employees.
Working in IT isn’t the same as manufacturing or retail, according to Hytry Derrington. “It is a completely different culture than people will find at most other jobs.”
Those who are selected are placed in entry-level positions in areas like marketing, customer service, or human resources, and then mentored as they learn to work in a technology environment. “We coach them to find a career fit while teaching valuable technical skills,” says Hytry Derrington. “It’s career baptism that allows them to adapt their job skills and experience into the world of technology. Over a period of time, they pick a career path ranging from programming, communications, HR, marketing, finance, sales, or other areas and move on to one of our companies.”
HYDER’s four companies are Rural America OnShore Outsourcing, Sitepro Video, Brand My Message digital marketing, and Sitepro web design and development. The companies have offices and associates in 13 states. Hytry Derrington targets rural communities to take advantage of the lower costs of a rural lifestyle and the availability of hard-working, dedicated professionals who don’t want to move to a metropolitan area.
Laura Falvey was one such person. After a short career working on the factory floor, she decided she wanted a different future. After earning an associate’s degree in business, she is now pursuing BS degrees in human resources and business at night while working for HYDER’s Rural America OnShore Outsourcing during the day. “I thought I would probably stay in the manufacturing environment but eventually move into the front office,” Falvey says.
Instead, she was hired under Launch Pad and assigned to Rural America to do some social media work and help out in the HR department, where her strengths became evident. “I started out doing job postings on various employment sites and some social media,” she says. “Then I started reviewing resumes and was soon interviewing people. It has evolved into working on all aspects of HR.”
Her current title is HR Coordinator, though that is expected to change soon as her role continues to grow and she gains insight into the business. Hytry Derrington says Falvey is an example of how people with the right attitude and the drive to succeed can find success in IT if given the chance.
During the training and coaching portion of Launch Pad, associates are paid $12 per hour. Upon completion, the base pay goes to $14 and increases as the associate’s responsibility grows. Such a salary is competitive in rural communities like Two Rivers, a city of 13,000 on Lake Michigan that enjoys a cost of living half that of nearby Milwaukee and Chicago. “It provides for a comfortable living and gives our companies a competitive advantage over offshore companies and those in more expensive metropolitan areas,” adds Hytry Derrington.
Two Rivers City Manager Greg Buckley says Launch Pad addresses an issue common to smaller cities. “Companies have positions they can’t fill and there are good people who can’t find work,” says Buckley. “We hear so much about the skills mismatch in today’s economy, and here’s a company taking action to do something about it. This is good, old fashioned entrepreneurship that drives small cities. It is not only our history, it is our future.”
That is the nature of the IT industry, adds Hytry Derrington. “We need to reinvigorate the entrepreneurial spirit in the U.S. and IT is leading the way,” he says. “That requires new ways of thinking and new ideas to support small business and rural America so they can remain a vital part of our business environment.”
Hytry Derrington knows there are no guarantees that the people he develops will stay with his companies. “The goal is to provide a stronger IT workforce, and we intend to hire many more people through Launch Pad. They can help us grow, or they might eventually take what we’ve taught them and go somewhere else. They may even go on to start their own companies, and I hope they’ll start their own Launch Pad if they do.”
About HYDER Industries
HYDER Industries is a technology acquisition company focused on bringing jobs back to the U.S.A. and providing American companies with talented, experienced rural professionals. It has 32 associates working in 13 states at its family of companies headquartered in Two Rivers, Wis., part of Lake Michigan’s TechShore technology association:
Rural America OnShore Outsourcing provides IT application and software project development, and IT staff augmentation.
Award-winning Sitepro Video produces videos and motions graphics for the web, TV, DVD, interactive CD, and HD video via Blu-ray disc (great for business presentations and tradeshows).
Sitepro develops websites, mobile and ecommerce applications, and provides hosting for websites and email.
Brand My Message provides online, email, mobile, social media, and in-bound digital marketing solutions as well as eLetterhead™ for Outlook email.
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For More Information: Karen Johnson 920.482.4353 , ext. 110 Karen.Johnson@ruralamericaonshore.com–
