Once Again, It's Called Money

Once again, we have someone writing about a skills shortage, and suggesting that the solution is to sex it up:

Because hiring manager Jim McKeown was talking to an audience, he wasn't sitting at a desk, his head in hands, but he may as well have been.

"I don't know where we are heading with manufacturing," he said, clearly discouraged. "The last 10 years have been difficult."

McKeown wasn't talking about sales, or business, or the supply chain, or the cost of raw materials - all important to such companies as Kingsbury Inc., which manufactures bearings in Philadelphia and Hatboro.

For him, and about 30 area manufacturers attending Tuesday's meeting of the Manufacturing Alliance of Bucks and Montgomery Counties, the issue is manpower.

There's not enough of it - and what there is is not young.

………

But, he said, manufacturers need to romance them - to show them how their work on a product makes a difference, maybe keeping a jetliner aloft or a heart beating.

………

When interviewing millennials, make sure there is someone close to their age on the interviewing panel, suggested audience member John Trainor, staffing manager at Javan Engineering Inc. in Fort Washington

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For a quick fix, update a stodgy website so its text and photos tell a compelling story about the company, its products and people, said audience member Clara Console, a human-resources consultant.

………

"Millennials want to see their future," which does not include working on tools "their grandfathers might have used."

(emphasis mine)

The word for this self absorbed delusional cluelessness is "bullsh%$".

One only need look at history:  Until auto workers pay was essentially doubled in 1914, they had trouble recruiting and keeping workers:

At the time, workers could count on about $2.25 per day, for which they worked nine-hour shifts. It was pretty good money in those days, but the toll was too much for many to bear. Ford’s turnover rate was very high. In 1913, Ford hired more than 52,000 men to keep a workforce of only 14,000. New workers required a costly break-in period, making matters worse for the company. Also, some men simply walked away from the line to quit and look for a job elsewhere. Then the line stopped and production of cars halted. The increased cost and delayed production kept Ford from selling his cars at the low price he wanted. Drastic measures were necessary if he was to keep up this production.

Henry Ford had a 371% turn over rate.

He solved it with money.

If you cannot find skilled machinists, or tool makers, or bull semen collectors, Econ 101 gives you the answer: pay them more.

If the author of this article were a journalist, instead of a stenographer, they would have known that.

H/t Atrios.