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Are you suggesting that they are firing 100 and hiring 100?

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Then in the article today (more than a year later): “The firm, which has its corporate headquarters in Arlington, employs nearly 440 people in Harrisonburg.”

So according to them and to the DNR, within four years we should have 650 (450 at the time of the agreement + 100 as agreed to + 100 extra) Rosetta Stone employees in Harrisonburg? That would be great. Who’s going to check?

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Rosetta Stone Gears Up
Rapid Growth Translates Into City Hiring Blitz

By Jeremy Hunt

HARRISONBURG – When Rosetta Stone bought the old city police headquarters last year, the company nticipated creating 100 new jobs over five years as part of an expansion.

Fortunately for local job seekers – and counterintuitively, given the dismal economic outlook – the figure didn’t paint a complete future employment picture.

“We’re actually expanding even further,” said Melissa Yates May, director of human resources for the language-learning software company.

“We’ve been very fortunate in our success as a company and fortunate as well in the brains behind the product and where we’re going.”

Doubling New Hires

Rosetta Stone, founded in Harrisonburg in 1992, wants to fill more than 100 positions this year in addition to the 100 expected over the five-year period.

The company held a recruiting fair Wednesday at the renovated building that once housed the Harrisonburg Police Department.

The property, located at 181 S. Liberty St., also is known as the Valley Creamery, in reference to a business once located there.

Rosetta Stone bought the facility for $300,000 in January 2009, and renovations were complete within a few months, May said.

The firm, which has its corporate headquarters in Arlington, employs nearly 440 people in Harrisonburg.

More than 100 prospective employees attended Wednesday’s appointment-only job fair, which was the first this year. The company plans to have more fairs throughout 2010 as it builds a new department, but additional dates have not been set.

The new department aims to assist and encourage Rosetta Stone customers as they progress, says company spokesman Reilly Brennan.

Brennan likened the “customer success associates” to personal trainers at a gym.

“It’s all about basically keeping you on track,” he said.

While filling positions in the customer success department is the focus of recruitment at the Harrisonburg office this year, May said there would be other opportunities as well.

Job seekers at the recruitment fair said they’re pleased that the growing software company maintains a Harrisonburg location, rather than traditional tech hubs like California’s Silicon Valley or Northern Virginia.

“I love that they’re expanding and they’re doing it in our community,” David Wyant said.

Rising Revenue

The expansion comes at a time when many companies are cutting jobs or holding employment levels flat.

While the sluggish national economy continues to batter bottom lines across industries, Rosetta Stone is faring well.

Its fourth-quarter earnings report, released last week, shows total revenue for the period ending Dec. 31 was $78.3 million, up 18 percent from the same quarter the year before.

The company, which went public in April, is traded on the New York Stock Exchange with a common stock symbol of RST.

Rosetta Stone shares closed on Wednesday at $22.80.

Contact Jeremy Hunt at 574-6273 or jhunt@dnronline.com

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