Companies struggle to find qualified, willing applicants

What is the state of hiring and recruitment in the rubber industry?

It depends on whom you ask.

Some sources are very upbeat, saying they are having little trouble placing young polymer science graduates or finding qualified personnel.

Others, however, say it is very difficult to find applicants who are either qualified or willing to fill a specific position.

Such is the case with Prochimie International Inc., which has been seeking to fill a sales position for more than a year.

The main problem is the expectations of applicants versus the needs of the company, according to Lloyd Willey, a consultant for Prochimie and the company's retired director of intermediates and industrial chemicals.

"Qualifications are difficult," Willey said. "We have a rather limited set of things we need from an applicant for this position. Also, it's a matter of finding people who are interested in sales."

Young applicants trained in polymer science are more interested in research positions than in sales, according to Willey. And even with experienced personnel, the specific requirements of the job might not be acceptable.

"Sales is a difficult career," Willey said. "You've got to have a certain type of personality for the job. You could be rejected on an ongoing basis, and you have to learn to live with that."

Also, Prochimie requires the successful applicant to work out of the company headquarters in Connecticut, which is an expensive place to live, Willey said.

"Even with today's remote access, with visiting clients via Skype, the company still requires a presence at headquarters," he said. "Someone with experience will also have a family, and picking up and moving is something people don't want to do."

For Akron-based Integrity Technical Services Inc., which provides engineering, IT and technical staffing services to a long list of industries including rubber and plastics, it's more a case of meeting constant demand.

"Things have gotten even crazier when it comes to high-tech," Integrity Vice President John O'Neil said.

"There is a shortage of qualified mechanical and electrical engineers, which puts a lot of pressure on companies to offer more and more ways to attract and retain talent."

The shortage goes back to the recession of 2007-10, according to O'Neil.

"During that time, you as a parent wouldn't push your son or daughter toward engineering," he said. "A ton of people in engineering were out of work, and students elected not to go into those fields. They chose software and business degrees instead."

Plenty of jobs

Within the rubber industry, Integrity specializes in the chemical engineering side, and young chemical engineers have no trouble finding a job in that sector, according to O'Neil.

"If you've got the knowledge, you shall have the job," he said. "We're definitely seeing continuing growth. I don't know what the percentage is, but opportunities are all over the place."

Marc Guske, an assistant professor in the School of Design and Manufacturing at Ferris State University, agreed with O'Neil that graduates in rubber and plastics disciplines have no trouble finding jobs today.

"Our plastics and rubber program can boast a 100 percent placement rate," Guske said.

Ferris State's plastics and rubber program provides students with practical training in plastics and rubber compounding, extrusion, injection molding, product development and project management, according to Guske.

"We have a very low attrition rate—we don't lose a lot of students," he said. Ferris State has a wait list for its plastics and rubber program, he said.

Ferris State's annual Career Day, in which students and counselors from local high schools come to the university, is a major focus of its recruitment efforts, according to Guske.

The university also holds two Career Fairs every year, one each semester, he said. At the last Career Fair, representatives from more than 40 rubber and plastics companies participated, he said.

Luke Schroeder—a mechanical project engineer at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.'s Findlay, Ohio, plant—had a job offer from the firm in 2010, the year he graduated from the University of Toledo. The fact that the company was so quick to hire him during the recession definitely left an impression.

"Even in the downturn, the rubber industry saw some swells and peaks and valleys, but everybody still needs tires," Schroeder said. "At that time I had a lot of buddies who were graduating and they were struggling to find jobs. I had an offer letter secured from Cooper Tire months in advance before I graduated."

For some companies, bringing students into the workplace is an effective recruitment strategy. Such is the case with French Oil Mill Machinery Co., a family owned manufacturer of hydraulic presses and custom machinery based in Piqua, Ohio, and the apprenticeship program it began in May 2016.

Companies such as French Oil Mill have an urgent need to attract and train young workers, according to the company.

"Eighty percent of manufacturers report a moderate or serious shortage of qualified applicants for skilled production positions," the firm said in a statement. "Over the next decade, nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will likely be needed, and 2 million are expected to go unfilled due to the skills gap."

Changing the image

One problem the rubber industry faces is the outdated image of a rubber shop, and manufacturing in general being dirty. But with modern technology, today's rubber factories are not what those who worked during the 1960s and '70s remember.

"I think in some cases there are (misconceptions)," said Larry Ott, Cooper Standard Automotive Inc.'s chief human resources officer. "I think some people still consider it to be a smokestack industry. What we try to impress upon people is the importance of manufacturing in our economy. People need to understand that it's critically important to the success of our economy. From there, we try to talk about the broad array of opportunities and in a couple of our regions we've built specific development programs targeting certain schools. We bring in a handful of people each year and put them on a very specific fast track developmental program to become plant managers.

"People have to understand where this fits in the economy. It's not a smokestack industry anymore. It's a very high-tech industry filled with opportunities."

Travis Fiebernitz—who was just hired as a chemical process engineer four months ago at Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies' Cleveland, Ga., facility—said that when he first heard "rubber," the first thing that came to his mind was either tires or that it was a dirty job.

But that changed after spending two summers interning at the firm's lab in Plymouth, Mich.

"One of the big things was being up in Plymouth I was able to work in the various labs that they had up in there," Fiebernitz said. "I could see all of the testing, how rubber was made, and the thought behind it. The technical details of it. I was near it every day and when I had questions it was explained to me. There's definitely a lot more to it than first thought. The technical part of rubber is very detailed. And the dirty part of rubber, if you can control it, it doesn't get so dirty. It's not as dirty of a field as people think it is."

Companies have been proactive in breaking that image, mainly by reaching out to local schools and offering co-op and university relations programs. A Goodyear spokesman said that more than half of its hires in research and development each year comes from its campus program, which it developed through long relationships with many universities. The firm offers various rotational and developmental programs for recent graduates that prepare them for long careers with Goodyear.

The spokesman added that Goodyear also has various employee resource groups that allow associates to become involved with activities and programs within the company and the community.

"Candidates sometimes don't realize how their education and experience applies to a role in the tire industry," the spokesman said. "For example, civil engineers are good candidates for plant support positions, and data scientists are in high demand for advanced modeling and simulation. However, once a candidate learns about our business, meets our team and visits our state of the art facilities, it's an easy sell."

Trouble recruiting

Joseph Walker, global director of advanced materials development for Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies, estimated the average rubber company size at about $20 million in revenue with about 50 employees. For those companies, trying to attract the best chemists and engineers is more of a challenge, especially when competing with large firms in the rubber, pharmaceutical and chemical industries.

But it's not impossible. He said companies that attract young talent successfully need to be competitive with the total package, not just salary, but also vacation time, flex hours, time off, travel opportunities and career development.

"In general (millennials) have a different perspective of their job, their career, than folks like me who started 38 years ago," Walker said. "They want a little more flexibility and tend to have more outside interests that play a very key role in their overall life plan. Certainly salary is one thing because rubber competes for people with chemistry degrees."

French Oil Mill faces more challenges than usual in trying to attract young hires, according to Tayte French Lutz, the company's director of marketing. She said that part of it is the firm's geographical location, not being close to a big city.

To attack the problem, the firm joined with the Upper Valley Career Center in Piqua to create the company's apprenticeship program, with both entities working within the aegis of the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Apprenticeship. The Bureau of Apprenticeship sets strict occupational and academic standards for the program, French Oil Mill said.

Chandler Sampson, a student at Covington High School and at the career center, joined French Oil Mill as an apprentice right after his junior year in high school, the company said.

"The opportunity to learn hands-on, while making money and getting a diploma at the same time, means Chandler will graduate high school with real work experience and the necessary manufacturing skills to start his career," French Oil Mill said.

Having an apprentice on-site gives the firm's more experienced workers a chance to concentrate on tasks requiring high skills while giving an inexperienced machinist the opportunity to learn valuable skills. The apprenticeship program gives Sampson a rotating schedule, with two weeks at French Oil Mill and two in the classroom, according to Lutz.

"Chandler is our first apprentice, but we think we will be following this program for a long time," she said.

Chris Sweeney, Rubber & Plastics News staff, contributed to this report.