Business Spotlight: An Interview with Donohoe Construction Company

Donohoe Construction Company, the Washington, D.C., region’s oldest full-service real estate company with five divisions and more than 1,300 employees, is collaborating with the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County on Chevy Chase Lake Residential, a public/private venture to build affordable, multi-family residential units off Connecticut Avenue and Jones Bridge Road. The company has turned to WorkSource Montgomery to help fill jobs at a variety of levels from trades workers to administrative staff. We spoke with Donohoe Senior Vice President and Workforce Development Board Member Neil Stablow about his company’s partnership with WorkSource Montgomery.

Describe your partnership with WorkSource Montgomery?

The Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County stipulates that one third of new workers we hire for this project must be County residents. Through my involvement with the Workforce Development Board, I saw this as a perfect opportunity to tap into the services that WorkSource Montgomery offers to businesses in Montgomery County.

What’s the value that WorkSource Montgomery brings to your company?

One of the biggest challenges our company, like many others, is facing is finding qualified people. Today’s construction field is more sophisticated and technology driven than in the past. We are trying to get that word out and let people know that we offer well-paying jobs as well as job security. WorkSource Montgomery’s new vision and strategies align with what we are trying to do as a company and that is to connect qualified employees with good employers.

What do you ultimately hope to achieve by working with WorkSource Montgomery?

We see this venture as an innovative and coordinated approach to hiring local talent, and we are looking to develop a long-term partnership with WorkSource Montgomery. We have additional projects that will be launching soon and having a qualified talent pool we can continually pull from is a tremendous asset.