growing your own technicians

1. Equipment Breakout: Growing
Your Own Technicians
Kenneth Calhoun
Truck Centers of Arkansas
November 6, 2014

2. The Technician Crisis
Critical Mass

3. What are the
factors?
• First and scariest
is available
manpower.

4. USA Worker Gap Projections
4
2010 2020
SkilledWorker Gap 5.3 million 14 million
Unskilled Worker
Gap
1.7 million 7 million
Total Workforce
Gap
7 million 21 million
Source: Anthony Carnevale, National Association of Manufacturers

5. Expected U.S. Labor Force vs. Labor Demand
Source: Employment Policy Foundation analysis and projections of Census / BLS and BEA data

6. Vertical
Integration
• Skills are no longer
necessarily
portable.

7. Engine Electronics
Explosive Growth Over Time
Sensors
Actuators
Pressure
Temperature
Position
Chemical
Actuators
1991
6
7
1998
10
7
2002
18
10
2007
Exhaust
Aftertreatment
22
11
2010
28
15
Vehicle Complexity

8. Relevance of
Education
• How do we stay
current in what we
teach?

9. Availability of
Education

10. Industry Image
• What are we
saying about who
we are?

11. The Technician Crisis
Our Approach to Survival

12. Apprentice
Program
• We made the
decision to grow
our own.

13. Apprentice
Program
• So we crafted a
curriculum…

14. Apprentice
Program
A mixture of
classroom and
hands on…

15. Apprentice
Program
• On the shop floor…

16. The Technician Crisis
Lessons Learned

17. Apprentice
Program
• How do you help employees
get acclimated?
• Does your business welcome
them?
• Do your team members
embrace them?
• Who takes the time to take
employees under their
wing…and help them grow?

18. Mentoring
• Supports/develops new
technicians
• Helps acclimation to
workplace and culture
• Builds professionalism
and morale
• Mentors grow as well

19. The Technician Crisis
Lessons Learned

20. Well…
…Maybe not so much.

21. Apprentice
Program
• Initially our entry
requirements were
basically; Attend Vo-Tech
and have a pulse.

22. Plan B
• Our objective is to
create a pipeline of
students to keep the
class stocked with
high quality
candidates.

23. High Gear
Performance Team
• We wanted clear
branding that
identified the
graduates as part
of something
significant.

24. High Gear
Performance Team
• Identify the
hooks…

25. High Gear
Performance Team
• We wanted a
theme that would
fit who we are…

26. High Gear
Performance Team
• Looking around
What do we truly
have to offer?

27. High Gear
Performance Team
• What do their
lives look like
when not
working?

28. High Gear
Performance Team
• Specifically What
kind of lifestyle
does this career
afford?

29. High Gear
Performance Team
• We found some
pretty varied and
interesting things.

30. High Gear
Performance Team
• Our
deliverables

31. Community
Outreach
• Arkansas alone
has 37 separate
Technical
Schools to work
with.

32. Community
Outreach
• Arkansas State University - All Major Fair
• Arkansas State University - Educator Fair
• University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff - All Major and
Educator Fair
• University of the Ozarks Spring Career Fair
• Maumelle Job Fair sponsored by the City of Maumelle
and the Maumelle Area Chamber of Commerce
• Arkansas State University - Mountain Home Job Fair
• Henderson State University - Educator Fair
• Arkansas Tech University - All Major Fair
• Arkansas Tech University Career Fair
• Arkansas Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM) Human Resource Conference Expo
• Conway Adult Education Center's 2014 Job Fair
• 2014 Career & Community Resource Expo
• Bald Knob High School College and Career Fair
• Veteran’s Benefit Fair/Boots on the Ground Job Fair
• Residence Inn by Marriott Hourly Associate Job Fair
• Fayetteville 5th Annual Job Fair / Expo
• Sykes Job Fair
• Randolph County Business Expo / Job Fair
• Arkansas Democrat-Gazette / Central Arkansas Human
Resource Association (CAHRA) Spring Job Fair
• Paragould Regional Chamber of Commerce Career and
Job Fair
• This list is just the
first six months of
2014

33. Community
Outreach
• Going forward, our
next step…

34. The Technician Crisis
Lessons Learned

35. Guess what
happened next?
• 30 odd weeks and
several thousand
dollars later…

36. Career Path
Development
• And Retention

37. Employee
Retention
• Now that you have
them…

39. Career Path
Development
• So we started
formalizing our
Job Descriptions

40. Employee
Retention
• Posting our
positions on our
web site.

41. Career Path
Development
• Communicating
Growth
Opportunities

42. Employee
Retention
• Recognizing their
achievements.

43. Employee
Retention
• Mapping out their
career paths.

44. The Technician Crisis
Lessons Learned

45. Employee
Retention
It is one thing to have
a form…

46. Career Path
Development
• Clear paths
identified…

47. Career Path
Development
• We also have to
develop the soft
skills

48. Career Path
Development
• So we have opted
to make it a
component of
each of our
positions…

49. Employee
Retention
• Develop A Strong
Bench

50. The Technician Crisis
Lessons Learned