Why fabricators need to think about career paths

Manufacturers know that global competition and increased customer demands have put them in a situation where they need bright and creative minds at all levels of the company. If they are to be modern manufacturers, they need modern manufacturing workers.

That’s why they should understand the importance of discussing career paths with new and current employees. They want employees who have their eye on the future, not on the clock, and on developing skills that make them much more valuable contributors. Sure, better skills make those individuals much more attractive to other metal fabricating operations, but modern shops know that to be the best, they need to work constantly to improve. They are comfortable with the risk of offering training to their employees, even if they may eventually leave for other employment opportunities.

Fabricators see the discussion about skills development and career advancement as healthy for their organizations. Here are three reasons that it makes sense for metal fabricators to be thinking about career paths for their employees.

Keeping Employees Engaged

Ace Metal Crafts, Bensenville, Ill., is heavily invested in training. Of course, the fabricator focuses on welder, machinist, and fabricator skills development, but the effort isn’t limited to the pursuit of operational excellence. The company wants to develop leaders that are able to sustain the company’s trust-based culture.

Jean Pitzo, the company’s CEO, sees this “dual path” of training as necessary to being competitive. The benefit of technical skills development is most obvious to those in the fabricating business, but the leadership training is one that is often overlooked because a traditional, fear-based hierarchical structure is prevalent in U.S.-based companies. Pitzo said that style of management doesn’t work for her company.

As an example, she points to welders who have outstanding credentials for the traditional job shop, but struggle when they tackle the stainless steel jobs that Ace Metal Crafts is known for. Often the welder becomes frustrated and withdraws, leading the welding trainer to throw up his hands, believing that he can’t reach the welder.

Pitzo said that it takes several months to a year for employees who came from very intense, fear-based management cultures to begin to trust co-workers and believe that people want to help.

“I ask what they like, and it’s, ‘Everybody helps me,’” Pitzo said. “They are shocked that the guy at the next welding table will help them. So once you get those walls broken down, they really want to learn.”

With the leadership training, employees become used to helping others, not lording over them. As the trust builds, communication strengthens between all parties in the organization. That makes discussion about further career development an easy one. Shop floor employees can emerge as leaders for a functional area or one of three value streams that all jobs flow into.

“Leaders can be abusive, or leaders can change the world because they can change one life at a time,” Pitzo said. “If someone is happy at work, they go home and treat their family different, right? It spreads because they’re not beaten down in a bad, unhappy culture all day.”

Ace Metal Crafts has 116 employees. At that size, it can accommodate some internal employee growth, but sometimes employees are in a position where they can find an opportunity that is too good to pass up, according to Pitzo.

The real story is the number of employees who stay. Pitzo said that because the culture encourages open communication, trust among co-workers, and skills development, employees like working for Ace Metal Crafts, sometimes even when more money is offered elsewhere.

“I could go out and pull five guys in there that got offered more money and didn’t leave,” she said.

Unleashing Talent

Traci Tapani, owner and co-president of Wyoming Machine Inc. in Stacy, Minn., wants to have conversations about career development with employees, both new and experienced, but finds that most people are thinking about the everyday aspects of the job, not the path that can lead to something else down the road. These conversations about career development never took place in the past, so people are not so receptive to them in the present.

“But I think when we approach them, as long as you’re patient as the employer and try to be helpful and not push people beyond what they’re capable of in that moment, they start thinking about it,” Tapani said. “I’ve had the chance to ask a couple of my people, ‘What are your hopes and dreams for the future? What do you see yourself doing?’

“And I always tell them, ‘Even if it’s something that has nothing to do with Wyoming Machine or you think it doesn’t, it’s helpful if you take a risk and share it with me because we can think about what’s best for you,’” she added.

Like at Ace Metal Crafts, Wyoming Machine management finds that such career-focused conversations can lead to an open and honest dialogue with employees. Wyoming Machine also has found the discussions useful for labor planning or reorganization. For example, if an employee is bored with a manufacturing task, perhaps something else can be added to the mix to boost engagement. In another example, management might learn that someone has plans to leave the company because of retirement or relocation.

The trick is trying to get the employees to consider something that they might not have believed was possible. Currently Wyoming Machine is trying to do just that by exposing experienced employees with plenty of production experience to Microsoft Excel®.

“Let’s say they want to move into engineering someday. In this day and age, you need to be able to take data, slice it, dice it, and chart it,” Tapani said. “That is a serious weakness with people in production jobs.”

The benefit of this type of exposure to a spreadsheet program is that employees learn about how their production processes fit into the larger manufacturing puzzle. Tapani said that when shop floor workers are exposed to the truth as defined by production statistics, they take more ownership and accountability for their performances.

By trying to unleash those hidden desires, Wyoming Machine has found talent in unlikely places. A former fast-food worker, familiar with following processes, has grown into a steady and reliable force on the production floor who also happens to be pursuing a production technician certificate at a local community college. A high school graduate who planned to play softball in college had a great summer working experience at Wyoming, showing enthusiasm for the work and respect for her colleagues. She might find her way back to manufacturing one day in some capacity or another.

“I have an obligation and responsibility to try to work with people where they’re at and help them get where they want to be if I can, or at least play a role in it,” Tapani said. “It serves them, and it serves me. I see it as a win-win.”

Making Employee Transitions Easier

Jay Manufacturing Oshkosh Inc. is located in the heart of one of the more competitive markets for fabricating talent. An individual with press brake or welding experience is a hot commodity in the Fox Valley region of Wisconsin.

The metal fabricator has about 80 employees, and that number hasn’t expanded greatly over the last five years. The company has been able to maintain about the same staffing level even as its fabricating business has taken off. It’s all about having the right people in the right places for everyday execution and eventual opportunities.

“What we are really looking for are the soft skills that employees will have. Those skills include analytical thinking, problem solving, a willingness to learn, and an ability to teach others what they have learned themselves,” said Trina Procknow, Jay Manufacturing’s vice president, administration.

Procknow said the technical skills can be taught. Identifying individuals who can work well in a team environment and demonstrate a flexibility that is needed in a production environment where no two days are alike helps to create a pipeline of potential leaders for the fabricator.

“I think this approach helps us,” she said. “We aren’t just looking for button pushers.”

Procknow said the company has had success finding internal candidates for some open positions in recent years. Some of these employees were identified early and were offered the training necessary that made them logical choices when leadership positions opened up. As any manufacturer will agree, it’s easier to find entry-level workers than it is to find the right fit for management or leadership roles.

Cross-training is a constant goal because it helps production to run more smoothly when scheduling isn’t linked to one skilled person being available for a particular shift. But it also is beneficial for the employees, according to Procknow, as they look to improve their own skill set and make themselves more valuable contributors to the company’s success.

Reality in a job shop, however, suggests that this type of training has to be balanced with productivity.

“It’s a little bit of a balancing act. Some days we have more time for training and sending folks out to seminars. Other days, not so much,” Procknow said. “However, that kind of helps. It helps people to understand that every day is going to be something new. Every day is a training opportunity to learn something about our own area or to help solve a problem that a customer has brought to us.”

A career path in fabricating isn’t a straight line, but it does start with a simple step forward. Fabricators that can assist their employees in taking those early steps in the short term are positioning themselves for success in the long term.