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Employer Quotes
The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Manufacturing
They are talking about this topic: General Skills
The quotes below are about this issue:
Interpersonal communication and teamwork are frequently cited as crucial skills for new hires; these skills are often lacking.
| "What we're seeing, too, is that perhaps people may be technically very good on with the machines, but they are needier in the soft skills area." | Metro |
| "We're preparing machinists from a tech school program. They've got the basic technical skills, so we haven't really found a lot of gap there—other than maybe some lean manufacturing training—but we're looking for them to have other skills: analytical skills, being able to communicate, being able to work as a team member, being able to make decisions about the machine. We're not necessarily finding a lot of candidates with those skills coming from the programs." | Metro |
| "The soft skills are such a critical area, before you even get to the technical level. We need people who can do basic reading and writing. People who can understand and follow directions, who can demonstrate team-working skills, and who have an understanding of ethical practices. All of those things are so critical, and those are the areas where we spend time on constant training." | Northeast |
| "One thing that is lacking is the soft skills, the teamwork, the being on time, and the work ethic. And a big problem is the sense of entitlement. I see people that come in that think they're entitled to everything. Those are the concerns that I see most often. And the soft skills, I think they need to be developed more, whether it's in high school or in college." | Northeast |
| "It is kind of a balancing act. People may have the technological ability, but they also need interpersonal skills to have that teamwork piece and so forth." | Northwest |
| "The need for communication skills is growing, and it is countered by what is coming up the pipeline in terms of the way that kids—who are coming into the workforce—are used to dealing with social media and communication. I think it has put us in an even tougher spot in terms of certain types of communication, teamwork, and leadership. Communication still, at least for now, often has to take place face-to-face with real people. Also, the folks coming in seem to default more towards an impersonal attitude of, 'I'm going to take care of this right here,' without a broader perspective of being a team worker and without a leadership element." | Northwest |
| "You can be the best welder in the world. You can be the best wood worker in the world. But you have to be able to communicate. You have to be able to write. You have to be able to talk to other people. You have to be able to sell your ideas. I'm on a Project Lead the Way advisory board at [MnSCU college], and that is one of the things they talk about. You can be the best engineer, but if you can't sell your ideas, you're no good to us. So, those are some of the skills that need to be integrated into some of our technical programs." |
Northwest |
| "Communication for all leaders." | Northwest |
| "One interesting thing that we've learned is that our older workers tend to not want to email; they would rather pick up the phone. They developed that communication skill. But the new trend, coming out of high schools, is that people like to hide behind texting and emailing. They don't have the good verbal communication skills that they need. We're finding that sometimes we have the opposite problem, too, where the older workers just pick up the phone too much and can't really function on emails. But the younger ones hide behind their email. They'll send an email, and it'll be copied to the world, and it may be inappropriate. You know, it's about understanding communication etiquette—when do you email something? When do you call somebody? When do you schedule a meeting with somebody? So, that is just an interesting dynamic in our business." | Northwest |
| "Communication and facilitation and leadership—stuff like that is important. Because, as we get more global and move around the country, we need employees with those skills. If we open up a new distribution center somewhere, potentially we're taking people from our plant that are subject matter experts in a certain area and sending them to other places to help get a certain department or certain employees up-and-running. So, some of those things, those soft skills are a big thing as far as communicating and being able to get your message out. And, like I said, being able to facilitate and train—that is important to us, too, as we grow and send people to different locations to help build for the future. Those skills are big for us." | 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 because getting along with other people is very, very important. You can have the technical skills, but you may still lose your job if you lack the ability to get along with other people. And you need to show up on time." | Northwest |
| "A company sent out a short little survey to all these manufacturers and probably about 20 or 30 other people. The top three things that we want are good attendance, interpersonal skills, and the ability to follow directions." | Southeast |
| "And having conflict-resolution skills. It's those types of things that will help people." | Southeast |
| "You see students that text a lot. So, the language is changing. And the ability—and I'm thinking more beyond our four-year graduates—it's the ability to actually communicate and articulate." | Southeast |
| "I think you want a foundation of people who can learn to learn. There are a lot of people with those hard technical skills that we want, but a lot of it is back to the basics—they need to have the good STEM skills, good communication skills, the ability to work well with people, and teamwork skills." | Southeast |
| "When you think of this generation, it's all texting. They have no interaction. They don't know how to talk on the phone anymore. And to have them come into a team environment, it's going to be very interesting." | Southeast |
| "One of the things that we talk about is that you can disagree, but you don't have to be disagreeable." | Southeast |
| "Some of our hires are entry-level production assemblers, and they're working in a team. I've thought, 'When did we stop teaching reading?' You know, for work instructions? When did we stop teaching people those skills?" | Southwest |
| "I have to say, the two students that we have from the Right Skills Now program at [MnSCU college] were well-prepared and dressed appropriately versus machinists that I've interviewed that are more experienced. I mean, I'm not expecting machinists to show up in a suit. That's not the issue. It's more, again, communication skills. They may have technical skills, but maybe they can't explain to a production supervisor what the issues are with a machine." | Southwest |