SIEMENS Energy Addresses Skilled Labor Gap

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A recent Businessweek headline, “Employers Ready to Hire Can't Find Workers Among 9.1% Unemployed,” gives a snapshot of the nearing crisis in manufacturing. In the next decade, changing industrial technology and the retirement of millions of baby boomers will mean a severely depleted workforce – unless companies address this now.

One company that is meeting this challenge head on is Siemens Energy in Charlotte, NC, makers of turbines and generators (watch this recent NBC “Nightly News” segment). We visited Siemens recently and were impressed by the company’s approach to hiring, training and career development. If more companies follow their lead, manufacturing will be stronger than ever by the year 2021.

“This is a very exciting time for us here at Siemens as we are currently expanding our facility,” says Pamela Howze, Technical Training Manager for the company. “We have 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space, and we’re adding an additional 450,000 square feet, and relocating a product line to Charlotte that we've never built here before. We are hiring an enormous amount of people, and our jobs here in Charlotte require a lot of very highly technical skills.”

Since January 2011, Siemens has hired 450 people, and the company is working on nearly doubling that number. This need to hire is coupled with the challenge of an aging workforce nearing retirement.

“Twenty percent of our employees could retire today if they chose to do so and that number actually rises to 25% in two years,” said Ms. Howze. “We are trying to figure out how to retain the knowledge of our seasoned, senior employees and also train a brand-new workforce on a product line that we had never made here before.”

The company is doing some innovative things to address this while closing the skilled labor gap. For instance, Siemens started an apprenticeship program mirrored after the German school education system, with six rising high school seniors going into apprenticeship training this month. The company also has a close partnership with the Central Piedmont Community College and the company receives legislative dollars to help build and train a strong workforce.

Siemens is also investing in online training through Tooling U, an SME Company, the leading provider of online training for manufacturers.

“Tooling U helps Siemens in many, many ways,” said Ms. Howze. “First of all, as a diagnostic tool, it tells us where our existing workforce needs to develop their skills. Second, online training is really a good fit for us because we can use it any time of the day or any time of night -- we operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it gives our operators a chance to access training anytime.”

Ms. Howze stressed that if we don't solve this workforce skills gap, we are not going to have personnel who can work in a high-tech manufacturing facility. She says: “Companies have to think strategically – and start thinking now because 10 years from now, it's going to be too late.”