CHARLOTTE, Mich. — The Shyft Group, formerly known as Spartan Motors, plans to reconfigure its Charlotte campus and add more than 500 new jobs to keep up with the demand for its new Velocity F2 walk-in van introduced in October.
Chad Heminover, president of Shyft Fleet Vehicles and Services, says the hiring process will begin near the end of February for a March 1 launch date.
“There’s going to be a variety of jobs. So there are going to be just normal manufacturing assembly jobs, as well as salaried positions, that could go from a supervisor to a manufacturing engineer, manager, to even a general manager," Heminover said. "So, we’ve got a lot of positions that are open, but we are going to be hiring a lot of general assemblers to help us with this great opportunity we have from an order that we got from one of our larger customers.”
Community organizations are putting their support behind the expansion. The Lansing Economic Area Partnership is facilitating partnerships that will help with recruitment and training of the new hires.
Lansing Community College’s Business & Community Institute, along with Capital Area Michigan Works! will supporting recruitment and training through the Michigan New Jobs Training Program.
“The business and community institute at LCC is the unit that delivers customized corporate training to regional employers," aid Bo Garcia, Dean of Community Education and Workforce Development, "and, whether it's training, consulting, coaching, professional seminars, it’s in our intent to help companies grow, increase their productivity, reduce their operational inefficiencies. Now, an instrument we are able to use is the Michigan New Jobs Training Program and that’s the economic incentive that the Shyft Group is accessing in relation to this really exciting, tremendous project."
“Individuals from the Shyft Group that are eligible for the Michigan New Jobs Training Program, will be trained through funds that would typically go to the state income tax division," he said. "Those dollars will be diverted to to Lansing Community College and used to train their employees.”
The increased demand for the Velocity F2 walk-in van comes, in part, because more people are ordering things online due to the pandemic. Heminover says that the new campus will be assembling these vans for a recognizable brand that will be announced at a later date.
“It’ll be exciting once we get this launched and I think the people will be proud of the vehicle that they’re going to be building, and they’ll know the brand that we’re building that vehicle for, once we get to that point,” Heminover said.
“We’re just super excited about the opportunity to re-invest in an existing campus and…selfishly, Charlotte is my home also…so, we’re really excited to be building on existing great work here,” added Samara Hamilton, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the Shyft Group.
The hope is that this expansion will provide a needed boost to the local economy, while also helping to meet the fleet vehicle demand in 2021.
To see job listings, go to TheShyftGroup.com/Jobs.
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