Our Sites

Supporting professional development in sheet metal forming

Recruiting, training, and retaining skilled employees

The pace of change in new materials, product specifications, and forming technologies demands that metal formers employ creativity and learn new skills. Employees must understand and apply the best practices and technologies for efficient production and quality products. Successful training for a sustainable workforce includes:

  • Introducing university students and new employees to the forming and materials industries.
  • Teaching the best production processes for efficient manufacturing.
  • Introducing material properties and their influence on design and forming operations.
  • Keeping employee skills current in the latest forming practices and technologies.

A variety of skills are needed to develop and produce new high-strength materials and forming technologies. New generations of high-strength materials challenge the capabilities of existing forming technologies. Aluminum and other sheet materials also require different manufacturing processes and equipment. Both new and experienced employees must remain informed and aware to accept and optimize the many changes the industry faces.

The Manufacturing Institute recently estimated that "600,000 manufacturing jobs are unfilled each year because employers can't find skilled workers." Finding new manufacturing employees means the industry must compete for young minds. Recruiting, developing, and retaining talent is a nearly constant challenge for employers of skilled technical employees. Manufacturers need to reinforce with students and young employees that turning ideas into products is rewarding and meaningful work. This will require manufacturers to change their attitudes with employees, sharpen their focus on product engineering, and eliminate historical infighting among departments.

The media frequently mentions the need for the U.S. to encourage its best young minds to enter science and engineering careers. Competition for talent comes from other companies filling technical positions, other careers with less demanding curriculum and promises of rewarding salaries, and management careers that reward budgeting and administrative skills.

Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. estimates that 53 percent of skilled-trades employees are 45 years and older. The number of qualified new employees appears inadequate to replace experienced people. There also is a trend toward employers becoming overly selective in hiring. To quote Sharon Begley of The Wall Street Journal, "Companies often create the very shortages they decry by insisting on applicants who meet every item on a detailed list of qualifications." The solution requires active participation of all technical employees to inspire talented young students, support and encourage younger employees, and maintain current skills to use new materials and technologies.

Not only do employers need new talent, but they must train managers to accept, develop, and focus the new skills of younger employees. Recent college graduates bring skills formed by technology and the availability of ubiquitous communication networks.

Employers must develop effective programs to recruit younger employees while keeping the skills of their experienced employees up-to-date.

6 Steps Toward an Employee Development Plan

An effective employee development plan includes a number of activities and tasks.

  1. Define Organizational Business Goals and Values. Business goals and values define the company and its ambitions. Elements include business strategy, business and ethical challenges, operating culture and values, desired leadership behaviors, business opportunities, and product strategy. Company and business unit goals and values should already be recorded and easily available. These goals define your product’s position in your desired market, including its desired styling and quality goals. They also include your values for customer interaction, your relationships with your employees, and your commitment to employee development.
  2. Establish Employee Development Goals. Employee development goals include measures for performance, desired strengths, and current weakness to be remedied. Each business unit must define how it measures the success of its operations. Frequently business unit performance measures include targets for process efficiency, throughput, scrap reduction, employee injury, and product quality. Managers should identify the employee skills necessary to accomplish the business unit’s goals. Once defined, the unit should assess current strengths and weaknesses in workforce skills.
  3. Define Skills and Talents to Develop. Companies must understand the employee skills necessary to meet business goals and support company values. Once weaknesses are known, the obvious solution is to define necessary training to improve the performance of responsible employees. Equally as important, managers must look ahead to ensure that the company maintains employee skills to support emerging and newly adopted technologies and practices.
  4. Prepare Development Strategy. Development strategy defines how the company will meet its learning objectives. Opportunities include e-learning, individual instruction, team training, mentoring programs, and professional association memberships.  Within budget constraints, the business must define the most efficient ways to deliver training. Some technical and operational topics work best in an interactive environment where the student can share experiences with others. Some topics require sharing information on a discrete topic where a short video presented by an experienced practitioner will present an adequate solution. Understanding your employees’ needs and available courses will help provide a roadmap to an effective development strategy.
  5. Plan Growth and Development. This is the curriculum each individual and department will follow to fulfill the development strategy. Alternatives include internal training and mentoring and external training and development sources. This is the stage where you match your employees needs with the most efficient available courses. You should define and plan the training schedule for each employee. This includes formal training sessions and should allow for the flexibility to learn topics as unanticipated issues arise.
  6. Define Desired Results. Although development measurements are elusive, employers should identify desired results and measure progress toward achieving those results. Examples of esired results are an improved succession plan, improved skills, team communication, improved collaboration, and administrative skills.  Each course should have an expected measurable result. Managers should also support employees as they implement newly learned information into their daily activities.

Skills Development for Each Career Stage

Most manufacturing companies have employees at varying stages of experience and different skill levels. Manufacturers need to tailor their employee development programs for different types of employees.

Students and Early-Career Employees.  Manufacturers must inspire students and early-career employees and introduce the industry's challenges and opportunities. Metal forming and metallurgy have long and rich histories supporting the evolution of societies. Exposing younger people to the historical importance of metal forming will form a foundation for building an understanding of the need for future products.

Likewise, manufacturers must develop and encourage creative and critical thinking skills to promote further advancement in the industry.

Experienced Metal Formers. Many variables affect product quality in formed sheet metal. From milling operations to press line forming, the properties of sheet metal can change as it is processed.

To ensure success in building a quality product, make sure experienced fabricators understand the effect of sheet metal properties on forming, how processing alters properties, and the consequences of design and manufacturing decisions.

Administrative Professionals. Administrators in accounting, human resources, and purchasing can be valued partners. Teaching administrators about the requirements and dynamics of metal forming can help reduce administrative roadblocks to advancement.

Just as important is teaching manufacturing and design professionals about budgetary and purchasing priorities to help foster productive partnerships among departments.

Effective Training Through Understanding

Professional development is a deliberate activity. Effective training requires management to understand its current staff competencies and weaknesses.

The training program should support immediate requirements while preparing staff for changes in materials, processes, and technologies.

Bill Frahm is president of 4M Partners LLC, P.O. Box 71191, Rochester Hills, MI 48307, 248-506-5873, bill@learning4m.com, www.learning4m.com.

Resources

Rodney C. Adkins, "America Desperately Needs More STEM Students. Here's How to Get Them," Forbes Leadership Forum, July 9, 2012.

Sharon Begley, "Behind 'Shortage' of Engineers: Employers Grow More Choosy," The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 16, 2005.

"Boiling point? The skills gap in U.S. manufacturing," The Manufacturing Institute, 2011.

Joshua Wright, "Bringing the Aging Skilled-Trade Trend Into Focus," Economic Modeling Specialists Inc., March 9, 2013.

About the Author
4M Partners LLC

Bill Frahm

President

P.O. Box 71191

Rochester Hills, MI 48307

248-506-5873