Guest Editorial Jeannine Kunz
Managing Director of Workforce and Education SME
smeSpeaks Lack of Skilled Workers Challenges Manufacturers A
common complaint from 21st century manufacturers is having access to a skilled workforce. SME research indicates US manufacturers are challenged to find the talented workforce needed to fill jobs. Addressing this issue is critical because keeping the manufacturing engine going and growing is important to a company and country’s strength and competitiveness.
For their part, manufacturers are increasingly turning to competency models—a structured system to develop the needed knowledge, skills and abilities for specific jobs—to build the high-performance teams they need to meet the de- mands of their current and future business environment. With manufacturing production growth forecast at 3.2% in 2014 and 4% in 2015, this is especially important. Currently, nine out of 10 manufacturers are having difficul- ty finding skilled workers, and they say this is directly hurting the bottom line. In fact, 64% of respondents participating in ManpowerGroup’s (Milwaukee) ninth-annual Talent Short- age Survey said productivity losses were one of the top-two performance indicators impacted by a lack of skilled labor. In addition, nearly 60% of the survey respondents said the gap in skilled labor impacted their company’s ability to grow. While the skilled worker shortage is being felt now, the im- pact is expected to be even greater at the end of the decade. According to The Boston Consulting Group (BCG; Boston), without aggressive action the next decade is expected to bring a potential shortfall of 875,000 machinists, welders, industrial-machinery mechanics and industrial engineers. There are four primary reasons for this lack of skilled workers: • Limited pipeline—There has been a decline in people pursuing science, engineering, technology and math (STEM) education, and younger generations are less drawn to careers in manufacturing.
• Retiring workforce—As baby boomers continue to retire in greater number, valuable experience and skills retire with them. The oldest baby boomers turned 65 on Janu- ary 1, 2011, and every day after that, for the next 19 years, about 10,000 more will hit that milestone.
• Changing pace of technology—At no other time has tech- nical innovation moved so quickly. This is great news for growing companies, but it can be a challenge for workers who are unable to keep pace and are left behind.
• Reshoring—Bringing manufacturing back to the US creates an even bigger demand for jobs. In its recommendations, among others, BCG states that manufacturing companies should return to the historical practice of investing in internal training programs to build the capabilities they will require to remain competitive. While employers invest in equipment, tooling and materials, they often neglect to make a similar investment in their employees. However, if workers do not keep up with technological advances, the whole structure moves out of balance. A well-trained employee will more effectively utilize the capability of new equipment, leading to increased innovation and productivity.
Competency models are one way to develop systems that allow people coming into the manufacturing environment as well as the incumbent workforce to have the needed knowl- edge, skills and abilities for specific jobs. A study by Bersin & Associates (Oakland, CA), “Key Findings–Becoming a High-Impact Learning Organization” (2012), indicates that high-impact learning organizations are better able to drive value from a well-designed, well-adopted and sustainable use of job/role profiles and competency frameworks. The study found that effective use of profiles and competen- cies provides a common language to describe talent throughout
August 2014 |
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