IPEX combats labor shortage with diversified hiring

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—When Cheryl Stargratt and her acquisition team approached plant managers across IPEX with the mission to revamp the company's hiring and to change the operational culture, "they basically said there's the door."

"It was a rough go at the beginning," she said, noting it took 12 months to get all 27 manufacturing plants on board with the changes.

"What we did is we went to plant managers that wanted our support, and we hung our shingles up there, and the rest of them didn't matter to me," said Stargratt, IPEX's chief human resources officer for North America.

She and her team prioritized plants that were most important to IPEX's customers, the most profitable and where they could make the biggest impact.

And as soon as the talent acquisition team could show progression at three or four of the plants, "then the door just opened wide."

IPEX is a manufacturer of thermoplastic piping systems that services customers throughout North America, operating in mechanical and plumbing, industrial, municipal infrastructure and electrical telecommunications.

Across the continent, the company employs 3,400 at 27 manufacturing plants, 25 distribution centers and 20 office locations.

"And that number is only growing," Stargratt said.

But it wasn't always like this.

During Rubber News' and Plastics News' recent Women Breaking the Mold Forum, Stargratt shared the company's story of creating an expanded and diverse work force in a "very challenging environment."

In 2021, she said, the company embarked on a strategy "of growth with purpose."

This meant attracting top talent; supporting employees in their leadership and growth; fostering diversity, equity and inclusion; and building the company's culture, rooted in collaboration, caring and "unwavering commitment" to the company's customers, communities and itself.

"In order for HR to be able to contribute to this strategy, we really needed to challenge ourselves and rethink some of the assumptions that we had about ourselves," she said.

At the time, the human resources department of IPEX was in what she called "a transactional state."

"We did tasks that managers came and asked us to do," Stargratt said, adding the talent acquisition team, which was made up of only four people and supported only salary hiring, was "largely reactive."

And for hourly hiring, she added, the HR team didn't even participate and outsourced the task to third party agencies.

On top of this, the company's technology for the HR department was inefficient, lacked integration and was unable to provide measurable, key data to the business, she said.

"And like many in our industry, the beginning of 2021 presented many, many challenges to us that we weren't prepared for."

This included a "hyper-growth" strategy, which meant acquisitions, expansions and heightened need for talent that the company "just couldn't provide."

At the same time, IPEX faced increased demand for products and an aging work force amid a labor shortage.

In manufacturing, she said, the industry is projected to face a mass retirement of more than 700,000 skilled trade workers by 2028.

"Recruitment of talent was not treated as a business priority," Stargratt said. "And there was absolutely no strategy.

"It became very clear to us—and quickly— that we needed to undergo a transformation to enhance and refine how we recruit talent in order to support the company's growth strategy. Otherwise, we weren't growing."

So before IPEX's talent acquisition team could make changes to operational hiring, it needed to make changes to its own role in the company.

IPEX devised a plan to take the talent acquisition team where it needed to go, Stargratt said, based on three key pillars: aligning the talent staff model and technology; aligning staff to production volumes; and developing a compelling and differentiated employment branding proposition.

For the first pillar, Stargratt said the goal was to "deliver effective, enterprise-wide recruiting."

This involved converting HR to a "center-of-excellence" model to build a strong talent acquisition team that was scalable, efficient and had the expertise to deliver the necessary talent to the company.

"Once we felt that we had set ourselves up for success, we built the talent acquisition further from the small group of four into a diversified team that covers two countries and speaks multiple languages," she said.

IPEX created additional roles in the team to expand its offerings and revamped its recruitment events and outreach with sponsorships, graduate programs and a network with schools.

The company also leveraged new technology to increase its inclusive language in job postings, using a tool called Textio, and an enhanced applicant tracking system for improved talent acquisition and candidate experiences.

For the second pillar, she said, the company had to know just what talent it needed.

"This goal was based on implementing a work force planning process that aligns our staffing to production volumes and enables a more proactive talent pipeline and sourcing," she said.

At the time of the transition, IPEX had about 2,200 hourly employees.

"We had no work force plan, had no idea when we needed them."

This not only cost the company millions of dollars, but it impacted its delivery to customers, she said. To get a plan in place, IPEX needed to expand its reach.

It did this through social media, increasing its relationships with schools five-fold, implementing an employee referral program for both salaried and hourly workers, and forming partnerships with over 100 diversified, community-focused organizations across North America.

IPEX also revamped the interview process, she said, by making it consistent across the organization, implementing talent acquisition productivity measures, and streamlining the application and interview process. And to remove unconscious bias, IPEX implemented behavior-based assessments.

"So, it wasn't just, 'Let's go have a coffee and I'll see if I like you.' "

For the third pillar, Stargratt said the company needed to develop a "compelling and differentiated" brand to strengthen IPEX's reputation as "an employer of choice."

This involved updating the company's website with informative and engaging content and employee testimonials to tell "the IPEX story," increasing use of social media to appeal to passive candidates and the launch of a DEI and workplace strategy and advisory council with the primary focus on recruitment.

"After two years, I think we've made significant progress in transitioning the organization," Stargratt said.

By increasing the capabilities of the company's talent acquisition team through these three pillars, IPEX has reduced its reliance on third-party recruitment agencies by up to 75 percent.

This, Stargratt said, also has saved the company more than $1.5 million.

In 2021, IPEX partnered with just six schools and 34 associations for recruitment initiatives. Today, those numbers have grown dramatically to more than 100 schools and 116 associations.

And the company's website has seen a nearly 100-percent jump in traffic, having 28,000 views in 2021 and just over 56,500 as of November 2022.

"The reach has been tremendous," Stargratt said, noting IPEX has filled more than 2,600 roles since the beginning of 2021.

In 2020, IPEX's salaried hires were 154 and hourly hires were 586. By November 2022, the company already had hired nearly 400 salaried employees and more than 1,000 hourly year-to-date.

She said the company reduced its average hiring time from 100 days to 34 and 38 for salaried and hourly employees, respectively.

"But we didn't stop there," she said, noting the company also has increased the number of women at IPEX in corporate roles, manufacturing and in internal promotions, a key goal of the manufacturer from a diversity perspective.

In short, IPEX's talent acquisition has grown from a team of four based at the company's head office, to a diverse, multinational and multilingual team spread across North America, Stargratt said. And this, of course, has allowed the company to hire the employees it needs to support its growth strategy.

"We've come a long way in a short time," Stargratt said. "(We have gone) from a strategy that I like to call 'posting and praying,' to an efficient, informed and data-driven decision-making talent acquisition team."