A call for the metal fabricating industry to shape up

With Internet, you don’t have to spend too much time wondering what happened to former colleagues or friends. The answer often can be found with a few keywords and a search engine.

I did just that as I was thinking about some potential interview candidates for an upcoming story on the different career paths that fabricators can follow. I had met this young welder about five years ago, and I was wondering just what he was up to.

Well, it wasn’t welding. He’s in the U.S. Marine Corps after finally giving up on trying to start a meaningful welding career. Truthfully, the timing of his job hunt couldn’t have been worse. He was trying to find a manufacturing job coming on the heels of the Great Recession.

His words—found on a social media forum—are pretty shocking. He complains of being the only welder who hadn’t been incarcerated at one job and then being told that his AWS certification was not good enough to substitute for real-world experience. Being among “derelicts and losers” in his job search didn’t do much for his believing that he was on a strong career path.

Fortunately, it seems that this young man has found a home in the U.S. armed forces. He has the intelligence and drive to make a positive impact in the Marines.

Unfortunately, his experience in trying to establish a career in metal fabricating is not an isolated case. As companies complain about the lack of skilled workers available to step right in and start contributing on the shop floor, many of them aren’t doing much to create an environment that is professional and welcoming. Too many metal fabricators just want someone to put their head in the arc and stay at it for the majority of the eight-hour shift. They aren’t thinking career path. They aren’t thinking skills development. They are thinking that the shop floor workers are a human resource to be used up and tossed aside when done.

It’s an ugly truth. Shops that complain about the welder who can’t pass a drug test or the machine operator who can’t show up on time also probably don’t do much to attract workers that don’t have drug or absentee issues. What they project is often what they attract.

Also, please don’t blame the millennials. They’ll make fine workers—for the right companies.

This is a case of metal fabricators needing to operate like real businesses, not just some sideline hobby. Attracting and retaining metal fabricating talent is a key to growing a business. Shop owners and managers need to create an environment where people can contribute and develop skills that can help the employer and benefit the employee.

Sure, an employee can leave, but if the work environment is rewarding, that same employee might come back when he finds that he can’t find something that replicated what he left.

Even if they do depart and don’t come back, good companies doing the right thing have a much easier ability to attract good job candidates—leaving the derelicts and losers to apply elsewhere. (Hopefully, that’s not in the metal fabricating industry.)