Posted February 16, 2017

 

By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In a couple of weeks, Gabe Hill will have a “tough” choice to make: Golf or fish.

 

And he hopes that will be the biggest decision he’ll face just about every day after that, too. One thing is certain: Whether hitting the greens or the streams, he’ll be able to look back with pride on a long and gratifying career serving the textile industry.

 

After 60 years in the industry – the last 43 at SP Associates, a well-known textile, nonwovens and apparel placement firm – Hill is calling it a career on February 28 as he enters retirement.

 

“And I’ll have the joy of knowing that I'm leaving the business in mighty good hands,” said Hill, 82, referring to Joel McIntyre. (Read related blog here.)

 

For the past several years, McIntyre has been buying out the company so Hill could one day hang up his phone, turn off his computer and grab his weapon of choice – the Big Bertha or the spincaster.

 

And Hill hasn’t come to grips with that reality yet, he said.

 

“It hasn’t really sunk in, but I’ll have to own up to it soon,” he said recently with an I’m-outta-here-soon grin.

 

Perhaps the “R” word materialized in a tangible form last week, when he witnessed employees of a document shredding company enter his office in the South Park area of Charlotte. Their task: Empty nine file cabinets full of more than 40 years of resumes, records and folders into secure bins, to be hauled off for destruction.

 

“I told Gabe that when we get rid of those files, he needs to go play golf because that's like taking all the tools away from a doctor,” McIntyre said, prompting a snicker from Hill.

 

Everything is electronic now, of course, but Hill didn’t like the thought of not having a paper record of all the candidates he’s helped place during his career, he said. And that number is voluminous.

 

“Gabe has placed more than 1,200 candidates in his career,” McIntyre said. “That's a lot of people in our business and a reward of working here more than 40 years.”

 

Added Hill: “I look at this with mixed emotions. I'll miss my friends in the textile business and the opportunity to go get that next challenge.”

 

The more things change …

 

If you’ve been in a part of the U.S. textile industry for any amount of time, chances are you know Hill – or at least have corresponded with him by phone or email. Hill knows “just about everyone” in the industry, McIntyre said, which has worked to his favor as a matchmaker between job seekers and companies. He is definitely familiar with about every textile production firm in this country.

 

“I'm proud of the textile industry and I love what it does for not only its people but for its customers,” said Hill, the company’s president for only a few more days.

 

Hill, of course, saw the U.S. textile industry transition from its “glory years” of the 1960s-1980s to its tumultuous years of the 1990s-2000s, then begin its recent uptick to a leaner, meaner, cleaner industry. Through all the changes, much of the industry mindset – really, what differentiates textiles from others – has remained the same in some respects, he said.

 

“The industry is less paternalistic now than it was in my grandfather’s day and even in my day, but a sense of community still exists,” he said. “Back then, there were a lot of activities that brought families and co-workers together around the mill villages. And without unionization in most cases, there was a common respect in the textile industry that you didn’t see in other industries. Many in this industry still feel that camaraderie to this day. Things have changed, to be sure, but not all of it has been for the bad.”

 

Even during periods of the industry’s precipitous declines in the late 1990s and early 2000s and during the Great Recession, when jobs were bleeding, SP Associates always remained a viable resource, Hill said.

 

“Through the years, we developed relationships with some wonderful client companies,” he said. “Many have been through lean times, but there have always been some (hiring) needs. There are usually a lot of good people available. Sometimes, they're hard to find and hard to match to specific job descriptions. The only time it's been scary is when there are no openings. And even in the lean times when there was a need, we were expected to come up with candidates.”

 

Though he has been with SP Associates only five years, McIntyre has spent his entire career in the industry, most of it in the human resources or placement services. So he’s seen similar trends, as well.

 

“Even when things slow down, manufacturing executives start looking hard into their organization and how they can still get to the next level,” he said. “They start looking at people who can help me improve their operation. They're doing audits, hiring consultants and looking at every part of their business to see how they can improve it. We've seen a lot of that.”

 

One of the most recent trends McIntyre has seen is related to education and training, he added.

 

“Today, what I’m seeing is Six Sigma certification becoming more and more important,” he said. “If you have two candidates with college degrees and one with an MBA, the other with Black Belt certification, that Black Belt certification is often more important than an MBA. That’s what companies are looking for as they try to run their business in the most efficient, most cost-effective way.”

 

And recently, of course, more foreign investment in textile manufacturing is entering the U.S., a good sign of its longevity going forward, Hill said.

 

“They’re coming in for several reasons,” he said. “Labor costs, which level the playing field to some degree; energy costs; sharp, smart people in our industry; and, I think, cotton prices, too. That’s great for the industry and our company.”

 

Golden Rule hard to beat

 

For SP Associates, sales volume is probably higher than it’s ever been, according to Hill and McIntyre. And that’s a testament not only to the industry’s ability to weather the storms and return to a sense of stability, but to Hill’s ability to develop long-lasting relationships around certain qualities, McIntyre added.

 

“In our business, you can have a lot of recruiters, but there's a big difference in having a recruiter and a successful recruiter,” he said. “And for years at SP Associates, Gabe did more business himself than everybody else did put together. He has a God-given talent. The reason for that is everybody knew that if you needed a textile person, Gabe was the guy to call. That's held pretty true for the last 40-plus years.”

 

Which is the biggest reason McIntyre decided to leave a large staffing firm where he had spent many years to join SP Associates in 2013, he said.

 

“It was Gabe's reputation,” said McIntyre, who spent 22 years at Springs Industries, mostly in H.R. “His integrity has been a key part of this business.”

 

For Hill, being a “people person” is a must in his field, and that comes naturally, he said. But being someone who is concerned for peoples’ wellbeing is a plus that has been another key to success, he added.

 

“Our client companies pay our fees, but we owe the candidates real consideration, too, because we're affecting the lives of those individuals and their families,” Hill said. “If you care about people, the old Golden Rule is hard to beat. You treat them just like you want them to treat you. And if you care about people and their future and you care about the companies, you have found a good balance that works.”

 

Since Day 1, Hill and McIntyre have split commissions. Being longtime friends who trusted each other profoundly, they figured that arrangement would work best – and it has worked “beautifully,” Hill said.

 

Textile candidates cut from a similar cloth

 

Hill and McIntyre work closely with clients and candidates before they put the two together, they said.

 

“You have to first get the company to give a good job description,” Hill said. “And we need to know exactly what type of person they’re looking for. The sooner we know that, the quicker we can find the right person for them.”

 

When candidates contact SP Associates, Hill and McIntyre work with them to ensure that all their i’s are dotted and all t’s are crossed before presenting them to clients, they said. It’s done informally but is necessary for success, Hill said.

 

“On the flip side, from the candidate, we need a good resume,” Hill said. “Oftentimes, we'll take a resume and we'll tell them there’s no way we can find them a job until they get more specific about what their experience is. And we need the person to understand that he or she has a responsibility to show up, be on time, be enthusiastic, look sharp and be prepared to do an interview. And that's not real easy sometimes because many people haven't interviewed before or have forgotten how to do it. So we have to prep both sides to make that marriage work.”

 

Having both worked as textile industry recruiters for all those years, McIntyre and Hill say that, in general, candidates are cut from similar cloth – who, well, actually love the sight of cloth being cut or the smell of cotton being opened.

 

“I honestly believe that 95 percent of the people who have worked in this industry and moved to another industry – not by choice, but by a plant closure – and who call us say, ‘I want to get back in textiles. It’s in my blood. Can you help me?’ ” McIntyre said. Very seldom do you hear anybody who's working in a textile plant say, ‘I don't want to be in the textile industry anymore. I want to go into some other industry.’ "

 

When resumes came in years ago, short tenures at jobs were usually red flags, McIntyre said. But as the industry shrunk, job-hopping has become more of the norm, he added.

 

“In the last five or six years, a person may have six or seven jobs listed,” he said. “So I ask them to go back and put on their resume why they left, because of those six jobs, five of them were probably because of plant closings.”

 

In good hands, in great shape

 

Soon after joining the company, McIntyre said he knew at some point that Hill, a friend since the early 1980s, would want to retire, he said. So he mentioned the possibility of buying the company so Hill could start planning for that day.

 

“I never really had thought about it, but we talked back and forth for a year or two, and we finally agreed that this was the way we would go,” Hill said. “We worked out a transition plan that has kept me active in the business and doing what I love to do and what I've done for the last 40-something years here now.”

 

And speaking of love for the job, McIntyre said he would like to work another 10 years himself – which, then, would make him Hill’s age, 82. At some point, he would like to convince one or both of his two sons to join the company, to ensure longevity for a business about which he is passionate. But there would be a probation period if that occurs, he said.

 

“You're still on probation around here until you're 72,” McIntyre quipped.

 

As February and a career wanes, Hill is not only leaving the business in good hands, but in great shape, he said. And McIntyre is happy for he next chapter in his friend’s life, he said.

 

“The great thing about Gabe is he's 82 years old and in great health,” he said. “And if you can shoot your age, you need to be playing golf. If you put him up on the senior tees, he'll take every dollar you've got.”