Greene Tweed's Buterbaugh: 3 tips to easing rubber industry's recruiting problems

LANSDALE, Pa.—In a tight labor market, the rubber industry often finds itself at a disadvantage when trying to recruit candidates into the business.

There's been the longtime "image problem," where rubber and tires are looked upon as a mature industry lacking in the challenges that newcomers may be looking for. It's a universal issue impacting the tire and non-tire parts of the rubber industry as well.

There is a growing movement within the rubber and tire sectors to tout the state-of-the art technology and R&D opportunities as a way to get younger people interested in considering the industry as a potential career path.

Magen Buterbaugh, who started her new post at the beginning of 2023 as president and CEO of Lansdale-based Greene Tweed & Co., is one who has some ideas on how to show the sector as the technological leader it is, and bring new people in.

Buterbaugh, mind you, always has been involved in materials and chemicals, so every time she was asked about a new opportunity, she wanted to make sure it was in that space because that was an area she truly loved working in.

"I think there is a challenge in bringing new people into this space," she told Rubber News. "In recent conversations about the whole chemical space—forget that it's not attracting women—it's just not attracting new talent. And I think people think there are cooler spaces, like consumer goods or software development."

But she thinks the obstacles to interesting new generations in the rubber and polymer goods space can be overcome. Here's three ideas she has toward that end.

Buterbaugh earned a bachelor's in chemical engineering from Penn State University, and then an MBA from Widener University. After serving an internship with DuPont, she worked 15 years for the firm, then another two at spinoff Chemours Co.

During that tenure, she was deeply involved in recruiting at colleges. For 10 years, she represented DuPont as the lead recruiter at Penn State's career fair. And one thing she impressed on the potential recruits is what types of work they would be doing.

"We would always just talk about how when you work for a company in this space, you have the ability to solve the world's most challenging issues," Buterbaugh said. "They could be part of that, whether it's in R&D, whether it's in operations or commercial aspects."

That certainly is true at Greene Tweed as well. The company has a more than 150-year history as a producer of seals, high-end elastomers, engineered components, composites and thermoplastics for market sectors such as aerospace/defense, energy, semiconductor, industrial, life sciences and chemical processing.

And Greene Tweed prides itself on offering the types of innovations that will make it indispensable to its customers.

"I personally like the engineering, problem solving," Buterbaugh said. "I find that truly fascinating, and it truly energizes me in that way."

One thing Buterbaugh knows is that potential new team members are looking to the future, and what may lie ahead in their careers.

"I think also in recruiting the next generation of talent, you have to be able to show them the opportunities for growth in a company," she said. "A lot of college kids these days, they want to see that they have opportunities. I get asked that a million times: How did you move from engineering to business?"

"I was provided that opportunity in a company that had a lot of roles like that, and were able to provide that."

She believes Greene Tweed brings that as well. It's a fairly large organization, with 2,000 employees and six manufacturing sites around the globe. That allows it to offer opportunities to potential staff members, which can be a key selling point for those who may not yet know what they are interested in.

It's also vital that those doing the recruiting show the passion and energy they have for the business.

"I think a lot of people are attracted to the leaders that they have interacted with," Buterbaugh said. "I have seen that personally throughout the years. And then I think of attracting them through the level of opportunities that they can be given. Maybe today you're a chemical engineer and you think you're interested in R&D.

"How can we provide that potential and opportunity to move into product development or operations as an engineer, and potentially move into technical service or sales. For me, being able to provide those type of opportunities is very attractive."

Going hand in hand with this, is offering a variety of potential avenues for new employees to pursue as they begin their careers. Plus, despite Greene Tweed's size, it's a privately held company that can follow long-term goals and maintain what the CEO sees as a family culture.

"As a chemical engineer, you could come into a company like Greene Tweed and you could be working in R&D, operations, engineering and design, sales. I think that's a huge selling point," Buterbaugh said.

She doesn't think the next generation of workers in this industry want to be locked into one thing.

"For me, in the places I've come from in the materials and chemicals space, there is a lot of opportunity for that at the right company," Buterbaugh said. "I can see that here at Greene Tweed. My view is how we attract people to Greene Tweed is (by) showing them what we do, and how interesting or how cool our products are, and how you can truly solve major issues in the most demanding applications. And being able to be part of that, for me, is very fulfilling."