It’s Worth a Shot

Humpy Wheeler along with the North Carolina Motorsports Association have created what they are calling the “Motorsports Employment Task Force” to help keep some of the presently displaced NASCAR workforce in North Carolina.

The committee met for the first time last week with representatives from a wide range of academic, governmental, and trade groups. They discussed different ways they could provide support to the, what Humpy Wheeler is estimating, 1,000 individuals who are currently without a job.

I’ll try not to continue to rehash the press release, but the group sounds like they are trying to come up with some innovative ideas for dealing with the current down turn. One of the ideas they suggested was creating a clearinghouse for these displaced employees where potential employers can come and find qualified individuals. Along with the clearinghouse they will be marketing motorsports employees to other industries. Showing other industries the relatable knowledge and skill of team employees is probably the most valuable thing they can be doing.

In addition to this Don Gemmell, a former DEI employee, started a website that launched just yesterday to help displaced ECR and DEI employees. The website, DontCheckUp.com, so far has around 80 names listed by position from either company; some of the names link to resumes. The hope of this site is to give employers another resource for locating quality employees. Gemmell is saying that he is willing to open the website up to people displaced from other teams should they be interested.

I think the efforts of both the task force and Gemmell demonstrate the desperation of the situation. This is the first time I have ever heard of a website like Gemmell’s. While layoffs certainly occur after every season, this year has been exceptionally bad. And because of that measures like these are very important to continued availability of a great workforce.

I honestly can’t say how successful any of this stuff will be, but it is definitely worth a shot. Right now everybody knows somebody that is out of work and I think any possible aid is a great thing.

Below are some helpful links
DontCheckUp.com
North Carolina Motorsports Association
Laid off? What to do next…(SpeedTV)

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