Hiring for attitude while hunting for skilled labor in manufacturing

How does a metal fabrication shop hire someone who’s a good fit? As one Indiana fabricator has found, good communication during the hiring process has a lot to do with it. Getty Images

There’s an old saying that employers hire for skills and fire for attitude. Many fabricators would agree. After all, you can teach a technical skill, but changing a person’s poor attitude is a harder nut to crack.

Even with the COVID-19 recession, many fab shops only dream of being able to “hire for skill.” Fewer and fewer applicants have relevant experience. This only increases the hiring manager’s challenge: They can’t find people with skill, so they hire mainly on attitude, which often means relying on gut reaction. Still, they sometimes hire such people only to find later that the relationship sours and attitudes change when the new hires can’t grasp even the basics of metal fabrication. Everyone thought the new hire would be a good fit. As it turns out, not so much.

Thing is, hiring is a two-way street, a fact that Kathy Crimmins knows very well. She’s director of cultural development at General Stamping & Metalworks (GSM), a large metal fabrication operation based in South Bend, Ind. “Over the years I’ve come to realize that job candidates need to know as much about our company as we know about them.”

Hiring is about communicating, and things go awry when the communications break down and surprises ensue. Ideally, neither fab shop managers nor the new hire should enter into their relationship blind. And as Crimmins explained, GSM has worked to keep that communication channel wide open throughout its hiring process.

The Role of Company Identity

Anyone who has worked in the industry knows that the metal fabrication business isn’t homogenous. Two shops might have similar or even identical machines, but the procedures and overall shop culture might be utterly different.

At one end of the spectrum, a small job shop might have a lot of informality when it comes to employee career development. They hire someone, perhaps have that person shadow experienced operators. But the org chart is flat and there’s little to no bureaucracy.

At the other end of the spectrum, you have the highly structured, usually larger shop with set job descriptions, procedures, and comprehensive training programs. An extensive org chart doesn’t mean an operation is overly bureaucratic and inefficient; it’s just different.

GSM falls into the latter category, and Crimmins is sure to communicate this fact. A decade ago GSM restructured to create a deeper org chart designed to give as much support as possible to front-line employees. (For more on this, see “A new business model, a new structure, a new business.")

Two fabricators also might have different expectations for those who work with equipment. Some shops might have entry-level machine tenders that basically just run programs and handle parts, then have full-fledged operators who also know how to set up and perfect a program. As Crimmins explained, GSM tends not to hire machine tenders; it hires operators. Those operators might tend a machine as the need arises. But if GSM hires an operator, it expects more than button-pushing, a fact Crimmins makes clear during the hiring process.

During every interview, Crimmins encourages questions and makes sure the entire focus isn’t one-directional: that is, the candidate doesn’t spend all her time answering questions. The conversation should have enough space so the job candidate can ask questions too.

Kathy Crimmins, director of cultural development at General Stamping & Metalworks, manages the hiring process at the fabricator. She considers where a job candidate would fit not just for an open position, but for other positions within the whole organization.

Crimmins also hands over an employee handbook that describes the company’s philosophy and way of working, as well as all the details of work life, from vacation accrual to work hours. “And right up front, we clarify the work hours,” she said. “It doesn’t happen often, but if times are busy, we sometimes work 10-hour days. In the past, people weren’t always ready for that, and it wasn’t always made clear during the interview process. Now we make sure they know it.”

The Role of Training

No matter how well a hiring manager conveys the details about job expectations, the company, and its culture, a new hire can struggle when training isn’t what he or she expects. Hiring managers face two simultaneous challenges. First, companies across metal fabrication take different approaches to training. So even new hires with a lot of experience sometimes realize, after a few days on the new job, that they signed up with a company that has a very different way of operating.

Second, many job candidates have no relevant experience, so the training piece of the puzzle is important. A new hire’s attitude can turn sour if they find they’re just turned loose after minimal training. Trial by fire might work for some—indeed, many entrepreneurs who launch fabrication job shops relish such environments—but it’s not for everyone.

“Learning is a very personal process,” Crimmins said, “[but it] can be assisted by others.”

GSM has built up its training in both formal and informal ways. Formally, the company has dedicated trainers, many of whom have undergone extensive training at equipment OEMs. Others at GSM develop curriculum for training classes tailored for different operator skill levels.

Crimmins and others at GSM also work to identify informal trainers. These people might have years or even decades of experience on the job. “But they’re doers, and they’re often quiet,” Crimmins said. “They can be shy and even humble about their talents, so we work to draw it out of them.”

This starts with simple observation. Managers watch their most productive employees, then ask questions—not during a scheduled meeting, but right then and there, just as the veteran operator is performing the feat. “Asking them about a specific task right as it’s happening is often the best time to tap into their knowledge,” Crimmins explained. “They often don’t even realize they’re doing it.

“And they can be beautiful teachers,” she continued, “but they teach by showing and walking somebody through it. They’re doers [who learn by doing], and the people they’re teaching are usually doers as well.” That personality match makes informal training more effective, which in turn helps knowledge spread throughout the shop. When the knowledge spreads, frustrations ease and fewer attitudes sour.

Screening and Interviews

GSM has an assessment process for hiring when the candidate has experience or training from another company.

“[But] because the labor market has changed so drastically, many people come in without skills we can assess,” Crimmins said. “So when they submit their application or resume, we scrutinize certain areas quite a bit. We look at the type of work they did and see if they’re transferrable. And we also look at how long they were at their last position.”

GSM screens by perusing applications and calling applicants on the phone. And those phone conversations can reveal a lot. “Sometimes we can find out about someone’s willingness to learn by asking them about a time when they had to learn something difficult,” Crimmins said. “We ask how long it took them and who helped them along the way.

“Most of us don’t learn by ourselves easily,” Crimmins continued, “and in our environment at GSM we collaborate a lot. We continually feed each other information. So those who work here need to not only ask for help when they’re stuck, but also listen to people who are seasoned.”

Seeing the Whole Candidate

Pre-pandemic, Crimmins screened candidates over the phone before talking with the department supervisor or other hiring manager to decide which candidates to bring in for formal interviews and plant tours. She now accomplishes as much as she can over the phone—though she’d prefer to take the applicant on a tour of GSM’s new building, which has gleaming office spaces that extend into a gleaming shop floor. “I loved it when we had people visit the facility and see the organization in action. I miss the wow factor.”

She can still accomplish quite a lot over the phone. Regardless, even during the pandemic, GSM’s overarching hiring strategy hasn’t changed.

“We’re looking at the whole candidate and seeing where they might fit in the organization,” Crimmins said. “Traditionally, you might look at a candidate and determine whether or not they’re a good fit for a specific job. I take a different approach. I look at a candidate and ask, Where might they fit? How much effort will we need to get them up to speed to where we need them? And how willing will they be to get there? When you uncover this, that’s when you can discover their attitude toward learning.”

About the Willingness to Learn

Attitude toward learning really gets to the heart of the matter. Someone might follow instructions, but they might not learn enough to collaborate and solve problems. Conversely, they might not listen and, with their ego in the driver’s seat, do things their own way despite what others tell them. Companies look for the sweet spot between these two extremes: someone who listens, learns, collaborates, and solves problems, but all with a healthy dose of respect and humility.

Finding employees who fit well within an organization can help unlock this sweet spot, hence Crimmins’ focus on that “good fit” rather than filling the open position. She clarified that, yes, GSM needs to fill open positions, and experience and skill play huge roles. No fabricator can function without skilled people.

These days, though, job candidates who don’t have relevant skills far outnumber the ones who do. But again, skills can be taught, especially if there’s a good fit: The employer fits the employee and the employee fits the employer. That good fit can turn an unskilled person with a good attitude into untapped talent.