Thermoformers search for a younger workforce

Fort Worth, Texas — “Hunting Unicorns” was the title of a panel discussion on finding young employees that kicked off the Society of Plastics Engineers' Thermoforming Conference.

That says it all.

Just like the rest of the manufacturing sector, thermoformers are scrambling to attract young people, in the face of low unemployment and the lingering perception by many that manufacturing is not a good career choice.

Thermoforming company officials are saying the situation is getting even more difficult, said Dan Sproles, who runs Sproles Business Consulting LLC in South Bend, Ind.

“Probably the last year or so, [they are saying], ‘I just need a warm body,'” he said.

Monica Jacobs, an executive recruiter for rigid plastic packaging with the Cincinnati-based executive search firm KLA Industries Inc., said low unemployment means prospective employees are getting multiple job offers.

“Companies really have to sell themselves,” she said. “You want every candidate to leave that interview wanting to come work for you. Of course, you make the final decision.”

Jacobs said investing in automation like can pay back two ways: by replacing employees in positions prone to high turnover, like pickers and stackers, and by attracting young people to thermoforming.

“It gives you a way to embrace the next generation,” she said.

Sproles said the basic interview process has to change when trying to hire young people. Companies are not going to find candidates experienced in thermoforming, so pay attention to body language. Many of them have not worked in a factory before, so it can be intimidating.

That makes the onboarding process very important.

“Once you get to work, you have to train, you have to explain, you have to help them,” Sproles said. Thank them. Know their names. Show some appreciation.

Sharon Haverlak, vice president of people and culture of sheet extruder Sekisui SPI in Bloomsburg, Pa., agreed that introducing a new younger employee to a manufacturing company takes attention to detail.

“Onboarding is about consistency” to explain the company's vision and culture, Haverlak said. “You have a much better chance of retaining an employee if you do a good, thorough job of onboarding.”

Haverlak said when Sekisui hires someone off the street, the company takes two weeks to train them in the “hard skills” of the factory job. “When we're looking for our shop floor, we want to find people with good soft skills like communication and teamwork,” she said.

Bloomberg is near the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Pa., and its thermoforming center. The Sekisui SPI sponsors scholarships and sends employees for training, she said.

The panel was moderated by Conor Carlin, sales and marketing manager at Attleboro, Mass.-based plug-assist maker CMT Materials Inc. There are unforeseen issues, he said. One is wage stratification. Say a company hires young programmers and pays them well. Older machine operators could resent that.

“You can end up driving a wedge in the wage classes,” he said.

Haverlak encouraged thermoformers to sponsor the Plastivan to visit local schools. Bringing high school teachers and guidance counselors into a factory is also a good idea.

“The conversations are very important” she said.

Sekisui also brings retirees to come back and mentor younger employees.

Two Texas school groups toured the trade show floor at the Thermoforming Conference.

Nathan Troutman, senior manufacturing engineer at Precision Formed Plastics Inc. in Grand Prairie Texas, said sponsoring field trips and local STEM education programs is a good idea.

Sproles said a key is to get the attention and interest of young workers, then do mentoring.

“The biggest problem is work ethic,” Sproles said. “It's hard to find people with good work ethic.”

Later in the conference, keynote speaker Ryan Avery, himself a millennial, described how to recruit, retain and motivate millennials. The motivational speaker co-founded AveryToday Inc. in Englewood, Colo.

Many thermoforming people in the audience were baby boomers. Avery said people have to understand how different generations raised their kids. Boomers grew up in a triangular, hierarchical family, with their mom and dad at the top of the pyramid.

“You were at the bottom of the list. And you saw that if you worked hard and learned and you would you would be at top,” he said.

Avery said that defined life and work ideas for the boomers, Avery said. “Baby boomers know what it is to work hard,” he said. “You are the definition of hard work.” Boomers paid for their car and even their own college.

Then, when the boomers became parents, what did they do? Instead of a triangle, family life was more circular, he said.

“We sat at the same table that our parents sat, and you talked to us,” Avery said, getting laughs from the audience. Parents asked their kids for advice. How do you run this computer, this smartphone?

“So we were in a community since day one,” he said.

Instead of being told to clean their rooms right now, as the boomer would have heard as a child, Avery said: “We were the generation of ‘do-it-whenever.' ‘Make sure your room is clean before my friends come over.'”

Avery said companies need to be more circular to reflect this upbringing.

“Whatever happens inside our family unit is how we perceive and do things in our professional lives as well,” he said.

He joked that a millennial will go into a top executive's office and ask, “How's it going?”

Millennials, he said, might want to come in late, work, run some errands at lunch, and then work from home in the evening. That's a big change.

“Baby boomers, you had a work-life balance. You shut your computer off at 5 o'clock and you want home and did your own thing,” he said.

Also, Avery noted that baby boomers were hired for their great resume, knowledge and experience. What you know. But now you can Google anything. So the key answers from prospective millennial employees is “I will.”

“So the next time you hire somebody and they have a great resume, keep in mind the ‘I will' as well,” Avery said.

Instead of the usual student-designed parts on the parts competition, this year's conference pitted students racing radio-controlled cars on the final day.

Companies sponsored the students, who got a standard chassis, then students had to design the shells and thermoform them. The SPE thermoforming division handed out trophies and cash prizes to the best design and the race winner, as well.

Mark Strachan thought up the idea, rented the track and put it together in Fort Worth.

“Basically, I was thinking how do we get the students excited? When they come here, how do we involve them? How do we engage them? And how we get more schools to come? And how do we get the companies involved?” Strachan said.

Strachan, director of Global Thermoforming Training Inc. in West Palm Beach, Fla., said the student design competition was getting stale.

“It was static and there was no real excitement generated,” he said. “And so now you have the various companies that are engaged with the schools, engaged with the student. And now this is creating some excitement. The colleges all want to come in and race,” he said.