By: Deborah Johnson Wood
If there’s a message to be delivered, BlueWater Technologies will do it creatively with video, lights and sound — and their success in delivering those messages effectively has propelled the Grand Rapids office into 35 percent growth every year for five years, and increased staff from five to 23.
The company headquarters is in Southfield and the Grand Rapids branch is on 44th Street, but the company has staff working full time at DeVos Place, handling all the audio/visual needs there.
“We buy A/V equipment and install it into board rooms, training rooms, classrooms, command and control centers, video conferencing rooms,” says Mack Truax, branch manager. “We did a huge video wall that has opened for a lot of trade shows, and we do multimedia, kiosks, and digital signage. We convert from analog to high def; we create anything that needs a display, from flat screen TVs to giant touch screens like on CNN where someone can move the elements around by touching and dragging them. And we do live events.”
Truax needs four more technology engineers, but can’t find the right candidates; engineers with the specialized skill sets and level of experience Truax needs are employed already.
“We are currently working in multiple states and we’re hiring local contractors because can’t find skill sets here,” he says.
BlueWater is training people to fill the jobs, but the process is taking longer than the company’s growth rate.
“We need the skill sets faster than we can train the people,” he says. “We often use contract trades to fill the job positions, but we prefer to hire full time employees so they can get to know the business, our clients and our culture.”
Source: Mack Truax, BlueWater Technologies
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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