Cruise line flooded with hopefuls.

Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has received 1,423 applications so far for 245 jobs at the 165,000-square-foot customer service center that it's building in Springfield's Gateway area.

With odds like that, not every applicant will get a call in this round, said Chris Monnette, director of trade and support service, who is leading the company's hiring effort and will oversee the center's day-to-day operations.

"The silver lining to this is we're expecting some good growth," Monnette said. "We'll likely double in size by the end of next year, so those are the people we'll go back to."

Royal Caribbean has said that the center could swell to 1,000 employees by 2009.

Monnette said he has hired about 10 managers - about half are transfers from other Royal Caribbean sites and half are local hires. Now, the focus is on hiring 232 cruise representatives, who will book cruise reservations.

Royal Caribbean aims to hire all of them from the local area, Monnette said, and has made offers so far to about 100 candidates.

In the past month, alone, 600 people attended the company's informational sessions, Monnette said.

To help handle the load, Royal Caribbean hired Personnel Source to screen the customer service representative applications.

"When we started, it was just me here in Oregon, and trying to just get to 250 in such a short time frame was just impossible to do," Monnette said.

"By going to Personnel Source, we had an immediate staff to help us get us up and going."

About five Personnel Source employees and five Royal Caribbean managers are immersed in the hiring process, Monnette said.

Newly hired cruise representatives will work for the first 90 days as Personnel Source employees on temporary assignment at Royal Caribbean.

At the end of 90 days, "the hires will be eligible for employment with us," Monnette said.

Royal Caribbean requires a 90-day waiting period for health, dental and vision benefits, and the 90 days worked as a Personnel Source temporary employee will satisfy the requirement for temps who later become regular Royal Caribbean employees, Monnette said. During the 90-day temporary assignment, employees are eligible for benefits through Personnel Source, he said.

Judging by the applicants he has met and the interviews he has conducted, Monnette said he's very pleased with the quality of applicants.

A number of applicants have experience as travel agents. Others have worked at area call centers.

"The thing I've found the most exciting is people come here and they're enthused," Monnette said.

"You can see it in their faces and their tone. I've often believed that when you're hiring, the most important thing to have is the desire and the drive to do well; a lot of the skills can be taught."

Royal Caribbean plans to begin training its new cruise representatives on Oct. 1 in leased space in the former Symantec building on West Broadway in downtown Eugene.

The company plans to "go live" at the West Broadway site on Nov. 7.

Then, provided that construction of the Springfield facility stays on schedule, Royal Caribbean will probably move there on Dec. 19, Monnette said.

Those interested in applying for customer service jobs at Royal Caribbean can drop off a copy of their resume and fill out an application at Personnel Source at 555 Lincoln St., he said.