Tarrant Business

Nationwide Insurance looking to add 100 Texas agents by 2014

Nationwide Insurance wants to add 100 agents in Texas by 2014, including 60 in the DFW area.

Nationwide sends prospective agents it chooses through an 18-24 month training period, working as employees at company-owned offices. “That’ll help them build a book of business,” Mike Switzer, a spokesman for Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio, said.

At the end of training, agents become independent contractors and open their own offices. They can earn up to $95,000 in “capital” during training to open their storefronts, Switzer said.

“It’s a great opportunity for sales professionals and entrepreneurs to run their own businesses,” Switzer said.

The company has 160 agents in Texas. To enter the training program, agents must have the Texas general property and casualty license and the Texas general life and health license. Nationwide sponsors agents who want to earn securities licenses, Switzer said.

Info: www.nationwide.com.

- Scott Nishimura, jobs and workplace reporter, Star-Telegram

 

Mouser Electronics, Klein Tools, hiring in Mansfield

Here's Star-Telegram staff writer Amanda Rogers' story on Mouser and Klein Tools being in the hiring mode.

- Scott Nishimura, jobs and workplace reporter, Star-Telegram

Firm gets set to hire 400 to run hotel at Westlake's soon-to-open Deloitte University

Benchmark Hospitality, the 30-year-old Houston firm that will run the private hotel at the gigantic, soon-to-open Deloitte University training center in Westlake, is gearing up to hire the hotel’s cooks, front desk agents, bellmen, housekeepers, and building engineers.

Benchmark, which is hiring 400 people for the hotel, already has much of the property’s managers and senior leaders on board. Now it’s turning to the hourly staff.

The firm is running a job fair, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday and Tuesday, at Texas Motor Speedway’s Speedway Club, focusing on finding hourly employees, said Mike Reisinger, Benchmark’s HR director for the property.

Reisinger says the hotel will be unusual in that much of the hourly staff will work Monday-Friday and have the weekends off. That’s because Deloitte, the major business services firm, will run most of its training during the week, Reisinger said.

Reisinger says he’s focusing on finding employees in the Fort Worth, Keller, and Denton County areas. The jobs would start around the beginning of June, he said. Benchmark will ask job candidates during the fair whether commuting distance might be a problem, Reisinger said.

The firm is having conversations with The T, Fort Worth’s transit authority, about vanpools to the hotel from bus stops, he said.

More info on the jobs: www.benchmarkinwestlake.com.

- Scott Nishimura, jobs and workplace reporter, Star-Telegram

McDonald's says it's hiring 1,200 in North Texas

McDonald’s says it expects to fill 1,200 restaurant jobs in North Texas during the company’s national Hiring Day, Tuesday April 19.

To apply, visit participating McDonald’s restaurants April 19, or apply online at www.mctexas.com.

McDonald’s said it’s hiring seasonal, and “sustaining” full and parttime people “based upon individual restaurant needs.”

McDonald’s Texas 2010 factoids:

• Employed more than 55,000 people, with a $633 million payroll.
• Purchased more than 170 million pounds of beef from Texas ranchers, and nearly $230 million in Texas-grown ingredients.

 - Scott Nishimura, jobs and workplace reporter, Star-Telegram