GE Appliances (GEA) in Louisville is taking a new approach to creating a diverse workforce and addressing the labor shortage: hiring refugees and immigrants.

Since February, the company has hired over 50 refugees from Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in partnership with Catholic Charities of Louisville and Kentucky Refugee Ministries. These organizations help connect foreign-born workers to jobs and translators to make the application and onboarding process easier.

“We have partnered with local refugee agencies,” said Gabriela Salazar, recruiter for GEA’s Talent Acquisition department. “They will reach out to us and let us know they have these individuals that are looking for a job at GE and then what we do is have group interviews for them in the language that they feel comfortable.” 

Last October, GEA revealed it would be investing $450 million into its Appliance Park headquarters, adding over 1,000 new positions by the end of 2023. Hiring and recruiting immigrants and refugees also comes as part of the firm’s ESL hiring program.

“In order to hire the people we need, we need to remove barriers to working here, whether that’s language or needing flexibility,” said Stephanie Greene, senior manager iatn GEA Corporate Operations Communications.

“We have nursing pods for nursing mothers. We just launched a partnership with Lyft to help employees get to work who are maybe having trouble with reliable transportation.”