Workforce issues worry North Central manufacturers
Ask Jeff Duval, owner of Leominster metal fabrication shop ET Duval & Sons Inc., about hiring workers, and he has a lot of stories to tell. There are guys who come in late on their first day — and again on the second and third. There are those who have trouble accepting guidance on how to do the work better. And there are those who say the varied, physical labor the job requires is simply too hard.
“When you tell them to work with their hands and not just press a button, they don't know what to do,” Duval said.
Results from a survey of 50 North Central Massachusetts manufacturers released by the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership this summer suggest Duval is far from alone. Thirty-four of the companies said workforce issues are a challenge, with 18 citing a lack of trained, skilled workers and 11 saying low ability levels and a lack of interest in manufacturing among high school graduates create problems.
The North Central area has a different mix of manufacturers than other parts of the state, according to the report, with a large concentration of small metal fabrication and plastics molding operations.
Jack Healy, MassMEP's director, said the group plans to make recommendations about addressing the issue in October. But already, he said, some local schools and manufacturers are working together to try to improve the training pipeline to bring students into factories with strong entry-level skills.
Healy said new efforts are needed to fill gaps left by a changing economy. Most schools no longer teach once-common subjects like blueprint reading, and many small manufacturers are less prepared than they once were to train new workers, he said.
One MassMEP initiative designed to help address the workforce issue is a computer simulation program called Learn CNC, which stands for computer numerical control. High school students or current workers seeking training in their time off can get almost 80 hours of instruction in CNC skills.
“It's exactly the same interface you would use if you were on the big machines,” said MassMEP Project Manager Leslie Parady.
Meanwhile, Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner is addressing some of the concerns manufacturers such as Duval express through a federal grant-funded advanced manufacturing training program. Julie Crowley, regional project manager for the program, said the program teaches students about their potential roles in a company and the skills and behaviors they'll be expected to have.
Some manufacturers have also turned to staffing agencies to find qualified workers and give them preliminary training before they hit the factory floor. At Mar-Lee Medical in Fitchburg, controller and human resources manager Fred Lanni said it's been hard to find qualified applicants for machine operator positions in recent years.
“We're finding that, as far as operators go, we're doing better going through temp services,” he said. “We hire very, very little directly.”
John Henshaw, dean of workforce development at Mount Wachusett, said the college has noticed an uptick in the number of manufacturers working with staffing agencies and has begun incorporating them into its efforts as well. In some cases, the agencies send representatives into the classroom to meet students and set up interviews, or even run assessments for skills such as manual dexterity.
But Henshaw said there can be a downside to manufacturers' use of the agencies. Because the middlemen take a cut of the money a company has available for labor, workers end up with less. That can make it more difficult to get potential employees interested in the entry-level jobs, particularly if they don't see a pathway to more advanced and higher-paying manufacturing work down the road.
Both for new high school graduates and for long-time manufacturers retraining for new jobs, Henshaw said it's important to understand that even if the starting wage at a factory isn't particularly high relative to those in other industries, the positions tend to offer other benefits. Often, they include opportunities for overtime and a chance for advancement. Overall, the median manufacturing salary is 40 percent higher than in similar fields, he said.
“You've got to get to that point by demonstrating the ability to do the job,” Henshaw said. “It's not an overnight success story.”
Duval said it can be tough to convince new hires at his company to hang in for the long haul. Entry-level jobs at the factory pay better than at McDonald's, he said, but some young workers expect to make much more.
“They come here, think they're pros, and want the money of a guy who's been here 25 years,” he said.
Duval said he does see good resources locally for bringing young people into manufacturing. He said Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School in Fitchburg seems to have a good program for training students in the basics.
“Four guys I have here now all graduated from there, so I speak very highly of them,” he said.
Duval said that although it's taken a while, he now has a team of workers in their 30s, and one of his solutions to the tough hiring climate is to keep them around.
“I'm a firm believer in treating your help right, and it's a team effort that goes both ways,” he said. “To this point, I've found that that works.”
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