Speaker:

Clay Martin

CEO/Founder

Isla Talent

Bio: Clay Martin has over two decades of experience working with the Spanish speaking workforce. Early in his career, he served four years in the Peace Corps, and then he eventually founded Martin Recruiting and Consulting and Isla Talent, companies that recruit job seekers from Puerto Rico.

Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

[3:40] AS: Since you talked about how no visas are required, how significant of an advantage is that would you say for manufacturers or any company who's looking to fill positions quickly?

CM: That's a really good question, and you kind of just answered it at the end. The key phrase is filling positions quickly. So most employers, whether it's if they did want to go the visa route, if they did want to hire locally, if they needed to hire 20 to 30 employees, even 10, that would take forever. And most of the time, you know, my catchphrase is kind of I can place anywhere between 10 to 30 workers in about one to four weeks. And it doesn't have to be that large. If someone just said, ‘Hey, I only need a small number, like six,’ I could find six employees and they could be working for an employer probably within a week. So we work very fast because we have this talent pool that's already established.

[4:38] AS: During the relocation process, do you provide or help facilitate housing and flights or any other support of that nature?

CM: Yeah, so this is going to be a long one. That's a great question. So, we help consult, you know, Isla Talent, we do all of the recruiting, but then we also help consult on the relocation and workforce solutions and things like that. So, when I say client, I'm referring to the companies that work with me. So, it is our client's responsibility to provide the flights from Puerto Rico or wherever they might be working. They might be already in the States working. The Puerto Rican recruit might already be on the mainland. So, my clients are responsible for paying for that flight for them to get to the location. And then if you want to, they can deduct that from their paychecks through like payroll deduction. And then also they would be responsible for providing housing and transportation. So, some type of vehicle to get to and from work with an approved driver and then also furnished housing. And you can also do a payroll deduction if you would like to cover those costs. Some clients give subsidized housing, some give free housing, some charge. It's a mix of everything. But at the end of the day, I'm going to help consult on what I think is making the best job offer. And that's a combination of a lot of different things, pay, overtime, nature of the job, housing, how much you charge for housing, things like that. So, the housing basically just needs to be furnished and have basic cookware and appliances. And you know, I don't need PlayStations and things like that, but you know, a TV and just comfortable. And so the client does assist with the relocation.