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Building
a Tandem Workforce
In a recent issue of The Economist magazine, I was surprised
to read that at John Deere, 35% of its 46,000 employees are over 50
years of age. The
article was titled “How to manage an aging workforce” and
discussed baby boomers in the workforce.
Through simple retirement, John Deere could have over 16,000
people moving from their employment ranks in the coming years.
On one hand that means jobs may be opening up; on the other
hand, that’s a lot of experience lost.
It’s not only retirement that moves our more experienced
employees out of the workforce.
I saw a situation recently in the UK where a corporation
decided to streamline its European operation by consolidating two
plants. The eliminated plant had a majority of workers that were
close to 60 years old. Many
loyal employees had given 25 or more years of service to the company
and it seems unfair that their plant was closed down.
This scenario illustrates how economic and social forces are
clashing in the modern world.
The
experienced workforce, the baby boomer generation of machinists, is
very valuable to our industry and we are just beginning to see how
valuable.
Throughout the industry there are solid companies, with
a structured (union) work force, that cannot find people to fill
employment vacancies. These
companies need skilled employees who can fit right in (ie:
with minimal training) and be productive.
The company cannot afford to hire a less then skilled person.
When an experienced machinist retires from a solid company,
the vacancy has a salary structure that requires a certain level of
expertise in that position. The
company cannot employ an unskilled person due to the wages and
knowledge the job requires.
Most of these type companies (and unions) are not organized to
allow entry-level people to be paid on a “trainee” or apprentice
basis for 1-2 years to learn the job.
Many experts have talked about new initiatives to bring
bright, young minds to manufacturing.
It is a struggle; social pressures are against young people
entering our industry. Manufacturing
is seen as a shrinking industry and who wants to join that career
path?
This attitude is more then just unfortunate -- it can be
scary. If companies
aren’t investing in training their newer employees as the
experienced generation retires, and society is not pushing smart
young people into machining, we maybe left with a semi-skilled labor
force to hold up a core industry in this country.
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The February issue of Tooling &
Production focused on manufacturing of fighter jets.
When you think of these awesome machines you realize they are
designed by engineers with PhDs.
These jets are then engineered by professionals with
master’s qualifications and flown by pilots with bachelor’s
degrees. Yet in some
cases, the manufacturing and assembly staff many not have graduated
high school!
Our industry is happy with this
situation. In fact, many companies are not interested in training
their workers at all. They expect employees to come to the job with
the skills required.
This is the reality of our society. We cannot fill good,
well-paying, machining positions with skilled employees and there is
not enough encouragement for young people to learn and enter the
manufacturing industry.
I believe with ingenuity and determination we can solve these
problems. First, we must
realize that computer-savvy young people are not going to get
excited about engine lathes and manual mills.
High schools and trade schools must focus on CNC technology
and relegate manual machining to hobby skills.
Next, we cannot afford to project our industry as
old-fashioned, dying or “moved to China”.
Let’s show those smart, young people that our industry is
all about technology. New
technology is diminishing the mundane tasks.
Manufacturing today is about doing more complicated work with
new, high tech machinery -- just take a look at the booming growth
in medical machining.
Finally, I believe we must maintain a link between the
experienced baby-boomers and those just introduced to manufacturing.
Veterans have the manufacturing knowledge while the younger
generation has the enthusiasm to use the new technology in new and
exciting ways.
Encourage the veteran machinists to stay involved.
Some may not be ready to retire and will eagerly respond to
mentoring a younger person. A
seasoned veteran can pass along good work skills and perhaps some
good life skills as well. Benefits
for the older worker can be both mental and physical, keeping them
going forward.
Something as simple as a restructured work schedule, a shorter
workweek or other organizational changes, can form a bridge between
the knowledge of the older employee and the enthusiastic desire to
learn in the younger.
Let’s encourage the older worker to keep working.
The younger folks will benefit along with our industry in
general. The older
worker is a great resource - don’t lose it. |
