Finding them is the first order of business, of course. For several months, a number of industry companies and suppliers have used eTC’s Classifieds sections to solicit for job opportunities. Some have reported success in finding great candidates, while others have had to keep looking due to a lack of qualified applicants.
Industry, government, universities and colleges are all working diligently to bridge the skills gap. Beyond generating interest in a trade, training folks is at the heart of this issue. So I was happy to learn last week that the State of North Carolina allocated another $150,000 to Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center in Belmont, N.C. to address key training issues associated with the industry’s rapid growth.
With this issue is not going away anytime soon, I’m interested in hearing from you. How are you attracting new talent? Are you working with local technical and community colleges to assist in training and development? What has been the most successful tool you’ve used to identify potential employees?
If you have a moment, please email your thoughts. I’m more than willing to serve as a communications mediator to dispense any ideas that could benefit us all – and, hopefully, add water to a shallow pool.
Posted January 20, 2016
A constant refrain I hear in the industry is “we can’t find enough skilled people.” We’re all aware of the much ballyhooed “skills gap,” a popular term used to describe the mismatch between employer needs for skilled talent and the lack of enough people to perform specific skills. Indeed, the talent pool for skilled employees is shallow, and a Skills Gap Misery Index even exists to track the chasm. Though some claim this is overblown, we know all too well it is real in manufacturing.
Not only are most production facilities chock full of high-tech machines – on the mill and supplier side – and finding enough people trained to operate that equipment or are willing to learn those skills is a tough nut for most.
For the textile industry in particular, the challenge may be bigger as we re-emerge from the doldrums while often lacking the workforce to reach our full capabilities. The industry has a huge image problem to overcome based on misperceptions or past experiences. Too many shuttered mills and decades of gloomy headlines have turned off many potential hires, not only youngsters but seasoned employees who favor stability in the service sector over a typically better career in textiles.
At last month’s ITMA Showtime with Mike Durham, Burlington Technologies’ president and COO, told me about the labor shortage he encountered when his company bought Keystone Weavers and moved its operations to North Carolina recently. But I was encouraged by his counterpoint: “The perception of the textile industry is changing, however. People are now starting to see it as being a stable career again.”
Regarding the youth, we need to go ahead and relinquish the idea that they will have the same work ethic as our grandparents, parents or us. The generations behind us have a reputation of churlishness, selfishness and, well, laziness. In general, though, I beg to differ, having worked with numerous Gen Y’s in recent years. I find them to be amazingly smart, talented, energetic and willing to learn. I know that’s a sweeping statement, but I believe strong, young candidates are out there – even for production jobs.
We just need to attract them to our industry, first by abandoning all pre-conceived biases about their abilities and motivations. They communicate differently, of course, and are much more plugged into the world around us than we ever were. We should embrace these characteristics and figure out how to use them to our advantage.
Mind the skills gap
This page proudly sponsored by Frankl & Thomas, Inc.
