By Elizabeth Cook

elizabeth.cook@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Representatives of about 40 firms manned tables at the Rowan-Cabarrus Community College Job Fair on Thursday, hoping to find employees with the skills their companies need.

“I think so far we’ve got some good resumés,” said Carl Gambrell, operations manager at Carpenter Industries of Concord, which makes and sells restoration parts for Ford cars, trucks, and tractors.

Gambrell and Debbie Blanton, the company’s human resources director, were looking for machinists, press operators and others — everything from customer service to information technology to design.

This was their first RCCC Job Fair, and college President Carol Spalding stopped by. “Do you know about our Advanced Technology Center?” she asked.

They did.

At another table, representatives of Compumedics USA in Charlotte fielded questions as they sought prospects for field service engineer and technical phone support analyst positions, among others.

Song Yu, technical director in the Americas for the Australia-based company, said he usually looks for prospective employees in this region at Central Piedmont Community College and UNC Charlotte but decided to broaden his search. His first RCCC Job Fair was better than he expected, he said.

Filling Compumedics positions can be difficult, Yu said. The company fills a specialized niche, manufacturing diagnostic devices used to monitor the brain, sleep and blood-flow.

“I’ll even take a clinical specialist out of LPNs or RNs,” he said.

The challenge of finding new employees was a common theme for several of the companies.

Robert Kanofsky, owner of G&S Heating Air Energy in Kannapolis, was looking for a service technician, and RCCC’s training program in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning made it a logical place to look.

“In our industry, it’s tough to fill positions right now,” he said.

No experience is necessary, he said. If people have a good work ethic, the company will train them.

Brad Wood of Gerry Wood Auto Group in Salisbury said he had 10 positions open, from part-time sales to customer service and lube technicians. All told, the firm has 156 employees, he said.

Bayada also has multiple positions open — in its case, for certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses and registered nursings. Turnover is high and the company is always looking, said associate Hannah Efird, so the job fair was a help.  “Things like this make it a lot easier,” she said.

“Our core values are compassion, excellence and reliability,” Efird said.