ACC: Chemical companies are trying to recruit and retain people with appropriate technical skills

John Baker

19-Sep-2014

The drive to bring high quality recruits into the chemical industry has never been more urgent. Increased competition, growing emphasis on innovation and technical service, and the ageing demographics of the workforce mean that there is a premium on attracting people with an education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

It is an issue that runs across the chemical industry and many companies have been developing programmes to attract and nurture STEM talent, and once recruited to make sure they stay with the firm. At Bayer MaterialScience (BMS), with NAFTA headquarters in Pittsburgh, there is a systematic effort on talent management, STEM education and employee engagement.

Rebecca Lucore is the former director of the Bayer USA Foundation and now works as chief of staff to BMS president Jerry MacCleary. She stresses that the company needs people with a STEM background for both the commercial and technical sides of the business, even in sales and marketing, as there is great emphasis on technical expertise within the industry.

“We need more people with a STEM background. We are finding people and talent is not usually the problem – but rather this need runs across the industry and there is a lot of competition for people with the same background.”

The demographic imperative is a strong one in the sector. Over the next 10 years, the industry expects to see a lot of its workforce come up to retirement age and all companies are active in recruitment right now, she says.

HELPING STUDENTS

BMS has been approaching the issue on a number of fronts, aimed to attract, develop and retain employees. The company has spent a lot of time developing relationships with elementary schools, to excite children about science at an early age, and has followed this up through middle school and into university level.

“Bayer has undertaken 15 years of public opinion research on science and science literacy issues. One survey found a lot of students are thrown off track at college and discouraged from STEM education at the university level. That’s not a good return on our investment in earlier education. This specific survey was with women and other under-represented minorities who have succeeded in STEM and led Bayer to change course by investing more in robust scholar programmes at university level that include providing employees as mentors and internship experience.”

BMS has developed robust and well organised internship and trainee programmes, which feed directly into its full time recruitment effort. “We send some interns back to their final year of study with a job offer and keep in close contact during their senior year. We use a lot of innovative efforts to keep them interested,” says Lucore. This includes a unique rotational trainee programme and regional skills-based volunteer work that develops competences and leadership skills outside the Bayer walls.

BMS believes there is a lot to be said for working with regional colleges and recruiting people locally, as they have greater loyalty and family ties and are not so likely to move off after a few years to be closer to family. In Pittsburgh alone, Lucore says, Bayer needs to hire 40-60 new people a year due just to retirement risk.

The competitive element to recruitment has been getting fiercer in recent years in Pittsburgh as the shale gas and energy industry is booming here and is also looking for similar STEM educated people, she adds.

One issue Bayer is still looking to address is that of diversity in recruitment and employment. Women and other under-represented groups have been a focus in past years, but generational and cultural diversity are equally as important.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER VIVEK WADHWA
AGILE AND LATERAL APPROACH NEEDED FOR SURVIVAL

Chemical companies will need to employ some of the brightest and most creative people and think radically if they are to remain competitive and survive.

“Technology is moving so fast,” says Vivek Wadhwa, well-known academic, researcher and entrepreneur. So fast, that “industry has not yet understood just how fast things are moving.”

In the past, he explains, the threats to a company were from within the industry, but now they are coming from everywhere. Wadhwa, keynote speaker at this year’s CPI polyurethanes conference says he intends to challenge those attending the meeting by looking at the trends and asking how they can respond.

“My goal is to enlighten people – just hearing about the trends will be an experience. Companies need to take the lead and understand what is happening in different sectors, such as 3D printing, nanomaterials and graphene, medical devices, and advanced composites, etc….

“It is no longer possible for them just to think linearly. Producers will need to diversify in all areas and re-position themselves, first by understanding the new technologies and then developing new industries from them.”

To do this, he says, they will need to bring the youth of today on board and bring in experts from other sectors. To attract bright minds, it needs to make itself more attractive by the way it positions itself. “It’s a win-win situation, as a high-tech industry will attract more people.”

Much of innovation takes place at the intersections of technologies, which is why it is important to have cross-disciplinary teams and people with differing disciplines.

Often technology companies can bring in disruptive change when they turn to older industry sectors. Transport is one example Wadhwa gives, where there are major developments in propulsion and connectivity underway.

The change in industry has to be driven from the top down, he says, if it is to be truly disruptive and creative. But he is relatively optimistic overall for the US industry. “It is more agile now and innovation is happening here. But the workforce is going to be shaken up in a big way.” Within 10-15 years, he says, there will be far fewer manufacturing jobs.

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