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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Manufacturing

They are talking about this topic: Occupation-Specific Skills

 

The quotes below are about this issue:
Employers say some new hires lack basic computer skills; these skills are necessary for both production and non-production positions.

Employer Quote Region
"We deal a lot with computers, and we see a large number of associates lacking in computer skills. Everything—even simple things like starting-up and signing-on as a user—and I'm talking about some of the longer-term people, the people who have 30-plus years. People who don't have the computer skills that someone's six-year-old kid has." Central
"Computer skills would be in our needs as well." Northwest
"You have somebody that has a good IQ, but they've never been exposed to basic computer skills. They get about four weeks into training, and they get extremely frustrated that they can't navigate the system. And that is one thing that we've talked about—how long do we continue to spend work time? We spend more work time just helping people navigate the computer systems than actually teaching them to fulfill the roles that they're in." Northwest
"We make sure our employees understand how to put the information into the system. And problem-solving, company-wide, is probably the largest single thing. The closer we can solve the problem to where the problem actually is, the better. And people need to understand how to do that. They also need to know when to bring it up to the next level. So, internally, that's our goal. And it's creating a culture that we can pass on to the next generation." Northwest
"Really quality people, even people in the area, maybe they've been a mail carrier for years, and they retire from that job, and they come over here and think, 'Well, I've been here for years. I've got a good personality. I can do this.' But they just can't get through the entry path, because they can't navigate on the computer, and they get very discouraged. That is just one profile of a maybe older-than-average candidate. I think we're seeing the computer savvy-ness from the Apple platform coming out of our schools—in the younger generation—and this is really good. But I think maybe the middle-aged folks, they've got the IQ, but they just can't navigate. And it just doesn't work well for our environment." Northwest
"We used to use manual books, but now we're all electronic, so everybody on the assembly line has to go on a computer. Crossing that bridge—making that change—was challenging, especially for the older people who didn't have a care in the world for a computer and never wanted one. And, all the sudden, they have to log into one and they have to sign things off, and they have to look things up. It was a challenge, and it took a little bit of getting used to. But once they got shown through it a few times, they were able to adapt and to feel more comfortable with it—instead of it being this unknown monster." Northwest
"We get a lot of relevant robot data day-to-day off our system; it's kind of like a data monitor. And we've really pushed responsibility on some positions to take ownership of that data. So, they need to understand how the data is trending. They need to understand how to process it, and react to it. And that learning curve has been a pretty big leap for some people that we've had internally in the group. They might have the basic—just the barebones like Word and Excel and stuff—but they start using PowerPoint and exporting data files so that they can compile it in Excel and things like that. It was tricky for some of the individuals. We spent a lot of time not only on how to get the data, but also how to use it, read it, and interact with it, so they can make sound decisions for the manufacturing environment." Northwest
"All of our employee resources are online and our applications are online. We have people that are talking to the mouse and tapping the screen, so—at that level—there are two groups. There are those new, young people that are experts at it because they've got a Smartphone, an iPad, and an iPod. But then there are the people that have been at the company for 30 years, and they don't even want to walk within 50 feet of the computer station." Northwest
"Excel is a huge thing for us. Once they're in the business, and they're involved in sales, and they want to move to another department, an obstacle can be that many of the other areas require macros, pivot tables, just basic Excel skills. So, we're bringing Northland in to do training on that in increments. The incumbent workforce—as they move into other positions that require business analysis, metrics analysis, and so forth—they're going to have to use Excel and possibly other tools, too. I know there are other tools, but Excel is the leading one." Northwest
"There are people that don't have the fundamental computer skills to be able to run the machines." Southwest