Web site created to help former Alltel employees
by July 30, 2009 11:45 am 259 views
Alltel executives led by Kevin Halpin and Mike Stafford have created a Web site to help the thousands of former Alltel employees — some of those in the Fort Smith area — who found themselves unemployed after Verizon bought Little Rock-based Alltel.
The Web site — After Alltel — was originally started as a blog to answer questions about rolling over 401k plans, enrolling for COBRA insurance options, and other routine, but important transitional business, according to this report from Roby Brock at TalkBusiness.net.
The blog evolved into a chat room, or discussion group, and today it has added a menu of services to include a jobs networking group and former Alltel talent database aimed at helping workers with special skills sets find new employment. Employers seeking workers can enlist at the site and share their needs so that matches might be made.
The database is not only attracting eyeballs from Alltel-connected workers; its attracting eyeballs from economic developers. The Little Rock Chamber of Commerce views the collection of skilled employees as an exclusive marketing tool to recruit businesses to the region.
Stafford and Halpin aren’t paid for the site; it’s a labor of love and dedication at this point as they try to get a customer experience consulting business off the ground. They hope the site will pay dividends for them and many others in the short run and the long term.
“Our vision is to recruit businesses, potential employers on the left hand side and on the right hand side, we’ll recruit after Alltel talent,” Stafford explained.
On Sept. 2, After Alltel moves to yet another level. A jobs networking group will meet for the first time at the Little Rock Chamber’s headquarters. On Sept. 9, a start-up networking group will hold its first session at the chamber.
“They will both be one-day events,” Stafford said. The first meeting will be for those who want to transition into another job in the corporate world. The second event will be geared for those who want to start their own businesses.