For more than 20 years, TSE has had community partnership programs that meet our hiring needs, ensuring we have a diverse hiring pool and supporting our community efforts. There are so many program advocates who work tirelessly to ensure they are reaching people who need their services the most, and to make sure it is generating tangible benefits to employers like TSE throughout the region.
TSE had the pleasure of serving on the St. Pete College Engineering Technology Advisory Board and the Pinellas Technical College Machining Advisory Board. We continue to sponsor Tampa Bay Works and their AmSkills Boot Camp and hire from community partnership programs for people with disabilities like PARC and The ARC. We are also active members of the Bay Area Manufacturers Association and offer student tours and summer internships to high school students from Pinellas County Schools. All of these programs have brought value to TSE over the years and continue to enrich our workforce with diversity and a steady pipeline of candidates. We are proud of the careers we have been able to offer individuals who may not have had the opportunity to join our team without the support of these programs.
HR Manager Michelle Hintz-Prange is interviewed for the documentary.
We are happy to announce a new partnership for the TSE Family of Companies with major preliminary success. HR would like to introduce you to the PERC (Pinellas Ex-offender Reentry Coalition) program that serves the men’s Clearwater and St. Petersburg Work Release Centers. The program is designed to give their clients a second chance at career opportunities that they wouldn’t normally have once released from prison. TSE partnered with PERC because we want to support our community programs and we value any contributors to our talent pipeline. We had our first hire last November, and word of this employee’s great work ethic traveled fast. We hired two more candidates at the beginning of the year and had great success this last quarter! We continue to hire for every division, and we’ve witnessed nothing but one success after another.
An employee discusses his “second chance” opportunity.
Initially, we partnered with PERC to do an On The Job Training (OJT) program. This was so successful we hired 10 out of 13 trainees. TSE was the first company in this region to offer such an opportunity for this disenfranchised group of individuals so it brought publicity to the program and the company. We were even contacted by Florida State University and the Institute for Justice Research and Development about being included in a documentary-style corporate training video on Second Chance Hiring. Of course, we immediately said yes! The film is being funded by banking institution J.P. Morgan and is an opportunity for TSE to share what we do as a company and the successes we have had with retaining talent through our On the Job Training program and hiring of Second Chance candidates through our partnership with Pinellas Ex-Offenders Reentry Coalition. We currently have 15 PERC or former PERC members, which accounts for about 4% of our employee population. The video is narrated by host John Koufos, who is the National Director of Reentry Initiatives at Right on Crime and the Executive Director of Safe Streets & Second Chances, and it will feature interviews from Michelle Hintz-Prange (TSE HR Manager), some of TSE’s Second Chance employees, and the PERC organization. It is scheduled for completion this summer and TSE will share the documentary with everyone as soon as it’s available!
We love being active in our community and supporting these work non-profit organizations across the region. We hope you research community partnerships in your area as we all try to fight this great labor shortage together! Learn more about TSE and the career opportunities available today!
