State Farm, one of the nation’s largest insurance providers, recently announced its plans to hire approximately 1,100 new associates at its facility in Tempe, Arizona.
“Tempe is a growing area where we’re looking to increase our customers,” said Alana O’Neal, a Talent Acquisition Specialist for State Farm. “So we’re expanding in our hiring needs.”
The firm says it is looking to fill positions in a variety of different areas, from sales and bank underwriting to technology development. O’Neal says the company wants to hire people from diverse skill sets and career backgrounds, including people with customer service experience.
To help fill those 1,100 positions, State Farm hosted its first-ever Virtual Career Fair on Thursday, July 11. Participants in the job fair had the opportunity to explore positions, chat directly with recruiters, and share information about their skills and experience.
“It was about giving them a personal touch, where they can meet and chat with a recruiter online,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal said the career fair was “very successful,” and attracted over 2,300 jobseekers from across the country. State Farm says the virtual career fair was targeted towards a wide range of demographics and helped them reach new audiences of potential employees that might not have been able to attend an in-person hiring event.
She said the company is not concerned about finding enough employees to fill the open positions and has had “a lot of conversations” with potential new hires. She also said the company has received “great feedback” from jobseekers about the online format of the event.
All of the jobs are in-person positions located at State Farm’s Tempe office, located within the Marana Heights office complex near Tempe Town Lake. State Farm occupies five buildings within the two million square foot complex, which completed construction in 2017.
“We built these beautiful facilities so people would really enjoy coming to work right here, right off of Tempe Town Lake,” O’Neal said.” We’re hoping people will just really want to come to work because of the location.”
O’Neal says she thinks the increase in new employees could also have a positive effect on Tempe businesses, as employees engage with nearby shops and restaurants.
“We plan to be here for a long time,” she said. “We’re just excited about the growth, excited about being in this Tempe location, and what’s to come in the years ahead.”
This story was originally published at Chamber Business News.
