Podcast: Why manufacturers should embrace diversity to solve the skilled labor shortage

Erica Swinney Staley is executive director of Manufacturing Renaissance, where she developed and directed the Manufacturing Connect and the Young Manufacturers Association programs. These initiatives were designed to expose, inspire, prepare, and support Black and Latinx youth and young adults to pursue careers in manufacturing. Beth Dawson is director of the apprenticeship program at Manufacturing Works. Beth has experience in directing community-building efforts that support education and social justice. Jordan Hooser recently graduated from Cleveland’s Max S Hayes High School and is working as an apprentice at WLS Stamping & Fabricating Co. Ryan Joseph is the director of security and public safety technology recruiting at Recruit Group. Ryan is passionate about nurturing positive candidate experiences while quickly and effectively filling positions for her clients. These industry experts recently spoke with Jennifer Ramsey, editor at large at Endeavor Business Media, about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how manufacturers can utilize underserved, diverse communities to fill the worker shortage.

Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

IW: With labor shortages growing in many parts of the country, are you hearing more interest from manufacturers about your services?

ES: Definitely. I mean, we have been at this with the career pathways programming really for the last 15-16 years, and we've been aware of this as an issue much longer than that. We saw that companies, because of the advances in technology, robotics, now sort of talk about industry 4.0 and concurrently the sort of decline of training programs, vocational programs, in high schools, that there was a huge need. What we were finding, we did research and saw that a lot of companies had positions that were unfilled for weeks and months, high-paying jobs, high-quality jobs. And so that's where, especially in a place like Chicago where the need for jobs is so acute, especially in certain neighborhoods like the West and South side of Chicago, we ourselves weren't necessarily in education or even workforce development at the time, but we made the case to city leadership, to Chicago Public School leadership. Hey, there is a real opportunity here to get more employers involved at the high school level if we can create programming of a particular quality that, you know, really reintroduces or introduces young people to these great career paths that do not require a four-year degree to access. So yeah, so this is something we've been sort of chipping away at for a couple of decades now, and there's still so much more to be done. There is still an estimated over 58,000 jobs going unfilled in the Chicagoland area in the manufacturing sector alone, so that’s huge. The need is huge.

IW: And the same question for you, Beth. Are you seeing more opportunities for well-paying jobs for young people?

BD: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I started in this role with Manufacturing Works in 2020. In April of 2020. So COVID was, you know, on the scene, and manufacturers were really struggling to find talent, right? In my role, I'm the director of apprenticeship programs. So my organization is a group sponsor of apprenticeship. So when I started, we had 14 companies in our apprenticeship consortium, and I think we had 11 apprentices. We now have 45 companies in our apprenticeship program with 52 apprentices and growing. And so I think the apprenticeship pathway is a great opportunity both for apprentices like Jordan, whose company is paying for his education. It also helps the company build their own talent pipeline. And it's really important because it's, as far as skilled talent, you're either going to build it, borrow it or buy it. And from our perspective, we think that the apprenticeship pathway is a great workforce strategy to ensure that you have the workforce that you need.

IW: Then what can we as an industry sort of do to help young people in these underserved communities find the options that are available to them?

BD: Well, that's a great question. So as Jordan alluded to, he went to Max Hayes High School in Cleveland. It is this trade school within the city of Cleveland. And we've had a presence at Max Hayes for over 20 years. So the students at Max Hayes get exposed to different trades, they have job shadowing opportunities, plant tours, and then as they get older, they have work-based learning opportunities. So I think manufacturers can, first and foremost, be open to having these young people on the shop floor. Here in Ohio, there's Ohio Revised Code that students that are in a CTE program are waived from the kind of, you know, any companies that are not allowed to hire people under 18. The Ohio Revised Code changes that. I'm not sure that it's that way across the country. Being open to having the students, and not just being open to it, but really encouraging it. And when you have the opportunity to have young people in your plant, show them that you have a culture that is welcoming them. I think that, particularly in underserved communities, you also want to show that you are open and prepared to welcome a diverse workforce. And then when students start in a work based learning program, it's critical that they have a good experience, because if they don't, they're not going to stick around in manufacturing.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.