Proctor & Gamble mega production facility open for business, ramping up hiring effort (1,500 jobs)

TABLER STATION — While 1,700 construction and contractor crews work to complete the $500 million Procter & Gamble Co. facility at Tabler Station in Berkeley County, the Cincinnati-based company continues to ramp up its hiring efforts, officials said Tuesday during a site tour.

According to company spokesperson Jeff LeRoy, the consumer goods maker and supporting businesses could employ up to 1,500 people by 2020 when the plant is in full operation.

“Right now, there are 70 P&G employees working on Bounce,” LeRoy said, referring to the company’s first production line for the popular brand of dryer sheets that went into operation in March. “Eventually we’ll go to zero construction workers and just north of 900 P&G employees.”

That number, however, does not include another 300 employees who will work at Technimark and Logoplaste, two companies that will make packaging for P&G products, as well as many more support staff in security and other support positions.

“It’ll be four shifts, 1,500 people total, by 2020 when we are in full operation,” LeRoy said.

Other popular consumer products to be made at the West Virginia plant include Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Aussie and Herbal Essences shampoos and conditioners; Olay, Old Spice, Gillette and Ivory body washes; Dawn, Joy, Gain and Ivory dish washing products; and Swiffer cleaning products.

“Bounce is adding lines,” LeRoy said, referring to a second production line expected to be operational in the fall. “The next one to come online is the shampoos and conditioners by the end of 2018, the dish soaps by early spring 2019 and by the back half of 2019, Swifer should be up.”

But before then, the big push is to ramp up Procter & Gamble’s already aggressive hiring efforts adding an average of 25 to 35 employees a month.

“We got almost 500 either hired or transferred already at Tabler Station, which is phenomenal, considering we only have one line making product,” site Human Resources Leader Keith Busby said inside P&G’s main building.

Busby, who moved to West Virginia with his wife and six children just after the groundbreaking in September 2015, said the steady stream of applicants is encouraging. He said the majority are coming from four states, with 50 percent from West Virginia.

But the first 500 is only the beginning. Busby said that within the next two years, staffing must reach 900.

“I need to hire about 350 more local, so we have a long ways to go and we need a lot more applicants,” he said.

As recently as Tuesday evening, 24 new local applicants were tested at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College as part of a partnership with P&G to train the manufacturer’s employees for specific jobs.

The positions that are available require technical and leadership skills, Busby said.

“We’re looking for a multi-skilled person that will come in to learn basic mechanical, basic electrical, troubleshooting, problem solving, have leadership capabilities and be able to do things like that,” he said. “And we hired people from all different backgrounds.

One of those hired is Bunker Hill resident Stephanie Reel, who began working at the Tabler Station facility in February 2017.

“I feel appreciated here,” Reel said while standing near P&G’s Bounce production line.

Reel, who was hired as an entry level technician, was quickly promoted to shift leader less than three months after her first day on the job.

“I think my biggest surprise was how my leadership skills were noticed, because I was one of the first line shift leaders,” she said.

Reel said her experience has been so exceptional, she’s working to encourage others to join the team in Berkeley County, including her 17-year-old son.

“He is looking forward to starting the application process in January, and he wants to work here as well when he turns 18 in March,” she added.

And while the first production line churns out approximately 200,000 cases of Bounce each month, the state’s largest construction effort remains on schedule, according to site construction lead Tony Wagner.

“We have moved six million cubic yards of dirt and stone on this site,” Wagner said while driving up a man-made mound in front of the 458-acre manufacturing site.

He’s been working on the project since the very beginning, long before ground was broken nearly three years ago.

“I’ve been on this project since April 2013,” he said. “I did the site selection and the master plan of the site, and now it’s all coming together.”

When complete, the plant will have over 1 million square feet under roof, housing state-of-the-art manufacturing processes and distribution facilities.

P&G expects to recruit new hires from a 60-mile radius around Tabler Station through 2019.

My old man was from western New York state, right near the PA border about as far west as you can go in NY. The northernmost part of Appalachia. His home town is a ghost town, no industry, nothing there. Anyway, he always used to say that some day, some smart business was going to set up shop in Appalachia because there are plenty of rugged, hard working people, the kind that worked in machine shops and blast furnaces and tanneries and all sorts of god awful jobs before their areas became blighted. People that want to work and are smart enough to be trained to do pretty much any sort of work. Blue collar initially, but eventually even white collar stuff. But somehow even with the most powerful politicians in the country representing their region these areas with scads of poor folk never see a factory open near them.

Maybe it's happening finally. Looks like my old man's prediction is turning true, people swarming for the jobs.

Twice in my life, P&G contacted me and said they would be interested in interviewing me for an unspecified professional position. They just needed me to send my resume and fill out a little additional paperwork (which proved to be a lot).

Both times, I was actually looking for a professional opportunity and carefully complied with their request.

Both times, I got an obvious form letter stating that while they felt me highly qualified for "the position I applied for," they had decided to hire someone else.

I really have no problem with that type of form letter when you send in a blind resume for consideration. However, when they contact you and solicit you to jump through a bunch of hoops, I would think that a targeted regret letter would be the least I could expect.

Accordingly, I see them as a dishonest organization who probably uses their employees like disposable tissue. I don't care to even be a customer of such an organization.

I know what I would do so you want me to come to work for you.

I would ask

What’s the job

What’s the pay and when do I start.

If you want me that bad that you recruited me. I am not filling out an application.

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