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An oilfield worker talks with Brigade Energy Services about job openings with Brigade's Human Resources Business Partner-North Brittany Minter, while Area Manager for the Rockies Sam Hunt, far left, and District Manager Chris Glaholt, center, look on.
Max Fletcher, left, and Captain Travis Rosaaen were among employers at Williston's annual Spring Job Fair.
An oilfield worker talks with Brigade Energy Services about job openings with Brigade's Human Resources Business Partner-North Brittany Minter, while Area Manager for the Rockies Sam Hunt, far left, and District Manager Chris Glaholt, center, look on.
Max Fletcher, left, and Captain Travis Rosaaen were among employers at Williston's annual Spring Job Fair.
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The Sidney Police Department is down three officers, and a couple of those positions have been open now for two years. They were among the many and diverse employers packed into The Well at Williston State College for Job Service North Dakota’s annual Spring Job Fair in Williston.
The fair has typically been heavy with oil industry employers, but this time the fair was a little more diversified. Oil and gas still made up about 40 percent of the booths, but there was plenty of representation from other sectors that are hunting for workers.
The Sidney Police Department positions come with the possibility of paid on-the-job training for the right person, Captain Travis Roesaan told the Williston Herald, up to and including entry-level training at the police academy. There are also pay incentives for those who have more training already.
The Sidney Police Department wasn’t alone in their hiring struggle. A number of employers at the job fair Thursday afternoon talked about positions that they’ve had open for months at a time, in a labor pool that’s gone increasingly dry as the state’s oil and gas sector returns to work.
MDU Resources, for example, has had a field operations coordinator position open in Williston since at least last fall.
“We’ve had it open a couple of different times,” District Manager Shane Homiston told the Williston Herald. “We just kind of sat on it over part of the winter, and now it’s been open again for almost two weeks. It actually closes next Wednesday.”
Homiston said the Job Fair did connect them with a handful of individuals whose background would meet the minimum qualifications, and he’s encouraged those individuals to go online to apply for the position.
“Hopefully we get some interviews out of it anyway,” he said.
He hopes the good work-life balance with competitive wages in a stable industry will be attractive to some who are tired of the ups and downs of the oil and gas sector.
“Some days you put in a little bit longer, some days a little less,” he said. “But that’s one thing we look at, you knows providing work-life balance. We also have some incentive programs that we offer at our company.”
But it was also impossible to notice the definite pull from the more than 40 oil and gas booths for the 600 or so people attending the job fair. There were lines at many of those booths,, as people talked to hiring managers about what opportunities are available.
Among these were Williams County’s No. 1 Employer, Halliburton, which listed material handler, field service representative and chemical account manager among positions it was hiring.
Midstream company Kinder Morgan, meanwhile, sought gaugers, an Ops Specialist, mechanics, line patrollers, operators, E & C techs, and measurement techs, while Nabors Drilling sought derrick hands, motor hands, and floor hands, to name just a few.
Flex Energy Branch Manager Jacob Tuckett said his company is looking to hire five individuals. They, too, were touting work-life balance as part of a competitive salary package.
“It’s very competitive,” he said. “There’s a lot of good jobs out there. It seems like a lot of people are desperate for candidates to hire.”
Flex Energy wasn’t offering perks like housing incentives, but neighboring Brigade Energy Services, which said it would like to hire 20 people, has worked out agreements with housing provider to offer their employees discounted rates and is offering free training to boot.
“We’ll help them out in getting the One Basin One Way,” Area Manager Sam Hunt told the Williston Herald, listing off several other certifications and training programs for oil and gas workers.
Hunt said the job fair brought a good cross-section of workers, and he felt they made some good contacts to follow up on after the Job Fair.
Williston Job Service Office Manager Paula Lankford, meanwhile, was pleased with the participation for the job fair from both employers and job seekers. She plans to maintain the employer listings at the website, Jobsnd.com/JobFair, for a while to give those who may have missed the event a chance to still apply for positions.
“I think today we brought back that sense of excitement and hope and that there are people looking for work in this area,” she said. “It was remarkable. There are plenty of jobs, and we also have the opportunity with this in—person event to promote those jobs outside of this are where people aren’t living and working to see if we can recruit them to the area.”
The event was also attended by the new Job Service ND Director Patrick Bertagnolli.
“I want to stay on the front line as much as I can and just what these employs are going through and I just want to stay connected,” he said. “Really appreciate all the employers showing up today. We hit capacity, 107 employers. That’s fantastic. Hats off to the Job Service team for just really rallying the troops and getting them here today.”
Bertagnolli said plans are in the works for job fair events that will take North Dakota opportunities to a much broader market.
“We’re looking at we’ve got this talent-based platform, that’s a virtual platform,” he said. “And we’re gonna be doing some things in the very near future where we’re doing some out-of-state recruiting to get people to really take a good look at North Dakota.”
Bertagnolli said he wants to use the platform to reach major metro areas, to make sure job seekers there are aware of the opportunities available in the state. The effort will include not just oil and gas, but healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, government and other jobs.
“We’re excited about it, we’re optimistic about what’s gonna happen,” he said.
If you missed the job fair, fear not. Job Service ND Williston is keeping its job fair page active for a while at Jobsnd.com/JobFair, along with instructions on how to apply.
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