EDD Provides a Labor-Exchange Market

Employers know that finding and hiring even one employee can be a trying experience. So when Sue Taylor, human resources director at the new Sheraton Grande Torrey Pines in La Jolla, needed 320 new employees, she decided to get some help.

Taylor called the state’s Employment Development Department, which provided Sheraton with interviewers to help screen applicants. The department also allowed Sheraton to use its downtown office for interviews.

“We are a labor exchange market for both the employer and the client (prospective applicant) who comes into our office,” said Mamie Greene, the department’s special projects supervisor. All of the services provided by the department are financed by taxpayers’ dollars.

“Employers place job offers with us, and we conduct searches for people who come in here looking for jobs,” Greene said. “We’ll help out on mass hirings,” such as the Sheraton’s, “or, if an employer calls and just wants one receptionist, we’ll do that, too. We’ll search through our files and refer qualified applicants to that employer.”

With more than 250 job applicants flooding two interview sites, Sheraton officials were glad to get the help.

“They’ve eliminated much of the early groundwork for us,” said Taylor, who must fill a variety of positions, from butlers to banquet servers, for the $60-million, luxury-class hotel. Sheraton officials expect the EDD to screen more than 1,000 applicants in the next two weeks. The company will then hire about 320 employees to staff the 400-room hotel that opens Nov. 9.

“They’re doing the pre-screening to see if they (candidates) have the experience and qualifications necessary to work for us,” Taylor said.

Besides screening walk-in applicants, EDD will search its list of potential employees and invite candidates who meet an employer’s criteria.

“We told them (suitable applicants) that Sheraton was hiring and told them to come on in,” Greene said.

In many cases, EDD sends staff members to an employer’s office to help conduct interviews. But if the employer doesn’t have the space to conduct such interviews or would rather hold them elsewhere, the department allows employers to use EDD offices.