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It's Only Common Sense: Finding the Right People

Editor's Note: To listen to Dan's weekly column, as you've always done in the past, click here. For the written transcript, keep reading...It’s all about people. The biggest challenge we face in our industry is not outsourcing. It's not the increasingly high costs of materials and chemicals; it's not the diminishing supply chain structure. Nor is it new government regulations. Sure, these are important challenges, but by far, the biggest challenge we face today is finding the right people.

As our workforce ages, we see a true shortage of young people coming into our industry. The PCB industry is no longer the new, glamorous, high-tech industry that it was in the '60s and '70s--young people are no longer attracted to the industry. When was the last time any young people told you they wanted to build circuit boards when they grew up?

When I talk to owners, presidents, and general managers, they usually tell me the same thing: They can't find good, qualified people anymore--young or old. The young ones want to do something else and many of the older ones have either retired or given up on the industry--moving on to other, more stable jobs. They also tell me those applying for open positions are completely unqualified for the job. Company leaders are forced to settle for second- or even third-best and hope things work out. This lack of experience threatens the future of U.S. PCB manufacturing.

What can be done? We can roll over and play dead. We can just unhook our life support system and let it happen, or we can choose to do something about it. I vote for doing something about it...and here's what we do:

1. Hire for attitude and train for skill. We can’t find skilled workers because they don’t exist anymore. When hiring, we should look for passion and a confidence--people who want to learn and have ambition. Such qualities come pre-programmed and a person with these qualities will succeed at whatever she sets her mind to. A person with these qualities will learn the business, will absorb and understand what we teach them, and will become more valuable as they advance in their career.
2. Offer a career. When you find the right person with the right attitude, don’t just offer him a job--offer him a career. Show him how by working with your company he will learn a skill; he will begin a career he can stick with for the rest of his life. Show him that by coming to work for you he can start to create a future. Make him understand that this is still a high-tech industry and that high-tech jobs are going to be around for a long time.
3. Train properly. No one is going walk into your lobby fully trained--that ship has sailed. Training is crucial. You must develop strong and effective training programs that will help employees with the right attitude learn and become valuable members of the team. There's no other way; no one is going to do it for you.
4. Teach the business. Show her how our business works. Teach her about your company’s history and about our industry’s history. Teach her about your product and the important role the PCB has played in this country’s space and defense programs, as well as the role the PCB has played in the development of all electronics from the MRI to the iPhone. Show her the products your boards are going into and make her understand that she is not just laying stone, but building a beautiful cathedral as the old story goes. Make her understand that her work is meaningful as well as vitally important Get her to the point where she wants to go home and tell her friends and family about the important things she's working on for your company. The results will be priceless.
5. Care about your employee. Talk to him; find out more about him; learn what gets him excited, what he's passionate about and then show him how that can apply to what he's doing in your company for eight hours a day.

I would urge you to think about these things, work on them; develop training programs so that when you hire for attitude you will be prepared to train for skill. It’s only common sense.

The ideas in this column were inspired by an excellent book by Greg Blencoe, The Supermanager: A Short Story About the Secrets of an Extremely Successful Manager. Find the book on amazon.com.