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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Manufacturing

They are talking about this topic: General Skills

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Employers feel professionalism is lacking in new hires, and they cite generational differences in work ethic. Many employers express concern about issues related to attendance, quality of work, and discipline. They also have difficulty finding employees who are willing to work second and third shifts.

Employer Quote Region
"It's helping the entry-level high school or college student understand that this is a career versus a job. So many of them are job-jumpers early on, and we spend a lot of our time just teaching them that it's a career and what they could do." Central
"Our company sees less skilled people coming in the door, so we have to do a lot more work on training. Some of that, I believe, should start when they're kids. People don't want to do this type of work anymore. And they lack work ethics. That's a lot of it, to me, just work ethics, period." Central
"Yes. I want workers to be on time and stay all day. And then, on the second day, do the same thing again." Central
"In our case, if you took five qualified people in terms of skills, two or three would be dropped for not being able to pass the drug test or not having the soft skills to get along with people. Or, as others have mentioned here, things like an ability to show up for work on time—that whole side of a person, which we can't control. We can't fix it, so these people head on down the road. And it's a real shame because they're someone who's gone to school and can demonstrate all of these other skills. But they're not the kind of person that you would want to hire." Central
"Employer 1: Most of the younger engineers still struggle with thinking this is an early retirement program.

Employer 2: And with the technicians and people like that, it's just a hit or miss thing. It's just a zoo."		 Central
"I believe, they're getting what they need at school, but the work ethic isn't there. They come in, they try it out, and they just don't want to do it. Maybe the managers and the people running these companies need to do a lot more in the way of making the jobs more lucrative for these children. You know, give them something to look forward to more. I think we've lost some of that." Central
"I would echo what the other respondent said. We're maybe on the south side of 50 percent in terms of attrition. I think people, during the interview process, understand it when we stress the importance of getting to work on time, the drug-free issue, and other issues. But it's really about the ability of that person to internalize that and to say, 'Okay, I need to behave in this way, and that will allow me to stay employed.' That's where the breakdown occurs. Some of the people, I'm assuming, that don't make the cut, if you ask them why they don't have a job anymore, some of them wouldn't be able to tell you, 'I wasn't able to get to work on time,' or 'I wasn't able to get to work at all.' There's always an excuse. And this is after you think you've hired talented people." Central
"One other thing that is also coming into play is the second and third shifts—the unwillingness in a competitive marketplace to work the second and third shift." Central
"It seems like there's a small population of people who really want to work the second shift, and those people are hard to find because they get snatched up by other places. You see a higher rate of loss on the second shift, too. Someone works for a week, and then figures out that the second shift isn't their favorite thing to do anymore." Central
"That's what we're seeing, too—that people may be technically very good on the machine, but they're a little bit needier in the soft skills area." Metro
"MnSCU's not going to be able to solve the issue of getting people to work on time. There are a lot of those issues—failing the drug test and things like that." Metro
"It's something you have to want to do. You have to want to do a good job. And you have to realize that you can't take as long as you want to take to complete a task. You're allocated a certain amount of time for tasks." Northeast
"One of the comments that we're hearing from them is about work ethic. It seems to be a different work ethic that's coming out of the colleges and schools more than it ever was before. Part of that's a generational gap. But how do you teach work ethic?" Northeast
"We definitely see the need for the project understanding and the teamwork, because these both go hand-in-hand. You're on a project. You're leading a project. You're a good team member. Understanding your role as a team member is important. The work ethic thing, we do struggle with that." Northeast
"Well, I'll talk a little bit about the production technology at our company. I hire—some of them are high school kids that I hire. One thing that is lacking is the soft skills, the teamwork, the being on time. They don't get how important that is—the work ethic—and a big issue is entitlement. I see people that come in and think they're entitled to everything. Those are the concerns that I see most often, and it's the soft skills. I think they need to be developed more, whether it's in high school or just the college aspect." Northeast
"The soft skills are such a critical area, before you even get to the technical level. We have to have somebody that can do the basic reading and writing. We need somebody that can understand and follow directions. Somebody that can work as a team member and understand ethical practices. All of those are so critical. And those are areas we spend time on constant training." Northeast
"We have to have somebody that's willing to learn, somebody who understands that our way has to be the way to do it, so there isn't this attitude of, 'Well, that isn't the way I was taught to do it.'" Northeast
"One of the things we're doing at our company—or that we're starting to do—is a mentorship program. We assign an experienced technician with a new technician or an intern. We're doing it in the professional jobs as well to really try to address what we're talking about here which is that—when they come in—the expectations are different than, well, I hate to talk about generational differences, but they seem to be different. Entitlement is a good word for a lot of the folks when they come in. So that's one way we're trying to address this issue as well—to assign someone more experienced to help them understand our expectations." Northeast
"I do agree that there seems to be a work ethic issue. And I don't necessarily want to classify different generations, but I think this is as much us—as an industry—needing to adapt to the workforce and what they need in order to be motivated. We've evolved at our company to collaborative work groups. They work very differently than perhaps what the other employer was referring to. I mean, the other respondent may not have the luxury to do what we've done—he's got a labor-intensive business. But if you're able to move to this collaborating group, this teamwork, and you focus on those soft skills, then that's where we're finding some success in allowing them to define their work and accomplish it." Northeast
"I don't know how MnSCU can really help. I think it starts down at the high school level, and maybe even lower than that. It's just those soft skills. It's the ability to get to work. For most jobs, we train while on-the-job, so they need to do basic things like show up on time." Northwest
"Some new hires need a reality check of what it's like when you get out of class and start working." Northwest
"It's about getting up, getting to work, ethical behavior, and understanding teamwork." Northwest
"Some new hires lack the softer skills." Northwest
"I think what the other respondent is saying is accurate—it's a matter of the attendance and being at work on time. That social understanding isn't there. It's generational to some degree, we get that." Northwest
"I've worked with lots of folks over the years on different types of training, including some of those soft skills and team-building skills. And some of the non-technical skills are critical. Getting along with people is very, very important. Even if they have the technical skills, some people are losing their jobs because of the inability to get along with others and to show up on time." Northwest
"There are still some social issues when they come out of the program. We have one person that, for some reason, just stopped coming to work and may have even stopped going to class—I'm not sure. So, those are still issues." Northwest
"A company sent out a short little survey to all these manufacturers and probably 20 or 30 other people. The top three things that we need are good attendance, interpersonal skills, and the ability to follow directions." Southeast
"I actually think that we have to find a way to teach them to be accountable and responsible." Southeast
"We hired somebody recently who had completed a program out of [MnSCU college], and it's left a bad taste in our mouth. He has no drive. He doesn't apply himself. You know, it's the generational thing. He comes when he wants to. He wants time off. It's just really difficult. And we have the older generation that has a very good work ethic. So, the younger attitude is discouraging." Southeast
"They might have experience, but they lack the work ethic. The willingness, the drive, and the desire are not there. And I don't know that MnSCU can teach that. I think that goes back to parents raising their kids with a work ethic and that kind of thing, but we can't solve that either." Southeast
"I need somebody to come in and say, 'You know, I've jumped through the right hoops for the right people to be able to get my little degree. And now I understand that I don't know what I don't know. So, please teach me what I don't know, and then teach me how to do it.' But they don't have that attitude—very few that have higher education have that attitude. A lot of technical school kids come in and think, 'Well, so-and-so, who has worked on the line for 26 years, doesn't have a degree, so I must be smarter than him.' No. Not so much. The person who's been on the line for 26 years knows how to fix every piece of machinery in this place. He's learned how to use computers and he's learned how to use the CNC machine on his own. So, what I'm looking for is more people in your system who understand the fact that you have to have—what my dad used to call common sense—I call it logic. You need to be able to think to yourself, 'If I stick my hand in here, it's probably not going to come back.' A lot of people don't have that anymore. They just think, 'Oh, well, the machine will stop itself before I ever get hurt.' No. Machines aren't that smart." Southwest
"What I look for is, how enthusiastic are they? Are they motivated? I can't teach motivation. I can't teach smart. And I can't teach trainability. Somebody comes in thinking, 'I have a four-year degree, so I know everything. And you can't train me because I know everything.' Well, they're useless to me. I just interviewed three engineers two days ago, and I've turned them all down. They came out of really good engineering schools, but they apparently know everything, and they were more than willing to tell me how they know everything. Which means they're not trainable." Southwest
"There are things that we can teach on the line as far as food handling, food safety, knife handling, and knife safety. But it's the basic skills they need to have coming in, like the math and some of the soft skills. Like showing up on time. The line starts at a certain time; they need to understand the importance of that. And that's where the frustration comes in." Southwest
"On the assembly line, we do expect to have to train them. But sometimes it's just the soft skills like getting there on time. 'I have to work five days a week? I have to be here all day?' You know, those types of things. But, in more sincerity, we do have trouble finding somebody that is trainable as well. Someone that wants to be there." Southwest
"I've got a lot of young people that are really creative, but it's getting them to the critical thinking skills, you know? They're smart enough, they're just not disciplined." Southwest
"Employer 1: That whole reporting to work at 7:00 a.m. thing? I think that's going to have to be an industry adjustment and change. As we have older workers leaving and younger workers coming in, that mentality of how we do a job is going to have to change.

Employer 2: I hear what you're saying, but when you have a factory with all this equipment that you have to run 24 hours a day, I can't picture how you'd ever do that."		 Southwest
"You'd be amazed, when you go through the interview process, how many people aren't aware of the concept that 7:00 a.m. means that you actually arrive at work at 7:00 a.m. and that you get to work at that time." Southwest
"Employer 1: Growing up, I remember my father telling stories about what he had to do for some of his students. He'd have to teach them how to open a bank account because they didn't know how to do that. These were kids from a farm in a little town, and they didn't know a lot of these things. But they knew how to get to work on time because dad or mom used to kick them out of bed. You'd get up, and do your work. But, later, his biggest problem was getting the students to show up on time. Back then—I graduated in 1986—I knew that my attendance was a third of my grade. You punched a time clock when you went into school or when you went into work. You had to be there. It was required that you show up on time.

Employer 2: [MnSCU college] used to do that.

Employer 1: You don't see that anymore. They don't keep time clocks. I mean, I have employees that I ask, 'What time did you go to school this morning?' And they'll say, 'Oh, I can show up between this time and this time.' So, at work, they're like, 'Do I have to be here at 3:00 every day?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, you do.' I'll say, for the flexibility of a group, 'When do you want your work day to start, and when do you want it to stop?' But then, after that, you do have to show up when you say you're going to be there. We can be flexible, but we can't say, 'Oh, you can start at 3:00, or you can start 3:15, or you can start at 4:00.' We can offer flexibility to a point, but then we need employees to be accountable. If that accountability was being stressed more when they're in school, I think it'd be an easier adaptation when they get into the workforce. It's important that you show up on time."		 Southwest
"I think part of it is that they just haven't been taught. You walk on a college campus like [non-MnSCU college], and the kids look like I did 30 years ago—they haven't shaved in a number of days, they have long hair, and raggedy clothes. And these are the guys that are going to be your engineers of the future. We went up to Alexandria on a trip. I took two of my supervisors there a year ago to look at the program and meet with the head of the program. And they have about 24 kids there. We show up there, and all of these kids are working in a lab and they've all got clean jeans on. They've got a shirt that's issued to them from that program. They're all clean-shaven and ready to go to work. And it's the same thing you see when you go to that other program over at [MnSCU college]. We can't believe that they get kids that automatically dress that way. I mean, these guys are being like their dads who are teaching them, 'This is what you have to do when you have a job.' So, you walk in there, and you think, 'I want to hire all these guys.'" Southwest
"None of us are self-contained in our own little shop. We're dealing with customers, with vendors, with all kinds of people that are in different time zones. I mean, just all kinds of things. And I think you're right, I think the issue of life skills is huge in all of these areas. Getting up for work, getting there on time. And if you're traveling today, then you have your suitcase ready." Southwest