Generating career interest in the submarine industrial base
Educational efforts should target not only adults but also younger generations, parents, retiring members of the military and veterans, as well as schoolteachers, superintendents and counselors. The goal is to reinvigorate community connection with the mission of the military: to be part of securing our nation’s future. Working with the military directly connects to keeping the US in a dominant global role, whether you serve in the submarine or are the one who helped put it together — potentially more fulfilling than working on a car or in another advanced manufacturing line.
It’s critical to start the dialogue early on how people from all walks of life can provide value with different skill sets and grow in a job. “What do you need to talk about with them in elementary school so that when you’re working with them in middle school, the excitement has already started?” asked Erica Ford, EY US Government and Public Sector People Advisory Services Leader.
Ford stresses that this dialogue must be strengthened through the lens of generations and different communication styles — the lingo and slang that resonates with one age group but that can seem mysterious to another. Are you speaking the language of Gen Z and those who are younger? And is your workplace accommodating toward those who are identifying as transgender, for example? TV ads during football games are effective in a splashy way, but that is just one channel to meet people where they are. Getting the word out on social media and knowing how and when to communicate with those who are receptive to your message are just as important.
Lastly, it’s vital to connect with schools to help bridge the gap between talent needs and educational opportunities. One such effort, driven by local, state and federal government cooperation, has taken shape in Michigan: a $50 million partnership called The Michigan Maritime Manufacturing Initiative, through which welding, computer numerical controlled machining and other crucial skills will be taught at local community colleges. Some of that money is being put toward hands-on career and technical education for K-12 students to stir interest in these careers.4
Getting applicants through the process
Each applicant likely has other opportunities in other manufacturing fields to pursue, often in the more advanced tech sector, which typically has a more seamless hiring and onboarding process. It pays to sit down and examine the systems and processes that support the hiring ecosystem and determine what is necessary and what isn’t — and where you can subtract fear and add empathy. Leaders should make the effort to standardize processes and pursue automation to smooth out and ultimately accelerate hiring. For instance, after candidates input their information in job applications, can the background checks begin before the formal quals process?
And can recruiters and hiring managers understand the whole life experience of a welder (or any other role) well enough to explain it to an applicant? Sometimes recruiters and hiring managers rarely communicate — a handing-off point in the process where applicants may encounter dissonance about what they are expected to do and whom they report to, instead of clarity.
In general, the more varieties of positive interaction with candidates, the more likely they’ll come to your organization. For example, taking them out to lunch and introducing them to people in the same role — maybe someone who’s been there for 20 years and has worked their way up — and then having that person follow up later.
And onboarding is another opportunity to create a close bond with new hires — or to alienate them by just meeting the boss briefly, receiving a laptop and then fending for themselves. Consider onboarding as an experience, developed over time horizons of 30, 60 and 90 days. Could new hires meet a senior executive over coffee, go on group lunches and immediately learn what they need to know?
Retaining them
What does a career as a welder, a pipe fitter or machinist look like over 20 or 30 years in an organization — or is there no clearly defined track for advancement? If not, candidates will surely find it elsewhere in the private sector. Viable career pathways are necessary for these trades, and as manufacturing technology evolves, so too does the work itself and the skills required, opening up new avenues for workers to pursue new dimensions of learning for self-starters.
In this environment, it’s imperative to accelerate training and broaden it to encompass new manufacturing and Industry 4.0 technologies, which are crucial for meeting this global imperative of submarine production on schedule. These “blue collar” jobs can be enriched with more skills and more value, through training and certifications in areas such as advanced welding techniques, precision machining and industrial automation. Over time, some trades may see a shift from performing manual labor to overseeing and maintaining automated processes. Workers may need to learn how to program, operate and troubleshoot robotic systems and automated machinery.
Separately, employers must keep their employees engaged by figuring out what motivates them. Deploy pulse surveys and town halls for real insights and then structure employee initiatives around them. It’s not always compensation or certain benefits. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people have basic needs (such as money and shelter) but also more aspirational ones pertaining to growth: purpose, mission and value.
Manufacturers can find potent motivation through the combination of several needs facing our nation today: fulfilling the security efforts of the US and our allies in a geopolitically challenging world, equipping the military to deliver upon that mission, and accelerating the new technologies that are crucial for productivity. What’s good for the nation can be what’s good for a new cohort of workers in a new industrial age.
