The Answer Is

Q: I am a new quality control manager for a large manufacturing company. I’m a Certified Welding Inspector (CWI), and I supervise a team of CWIs responsible for ensuring our manufacturing process consistently meets quality objectives. While I am proud of the skill and workmanship of our workforce, our department faces a significant challenge: We need to add inspectors. Many candidates we interview have little to no practical experience, and placing them directly on the production floor poses a risk to quality and safety. Simply put, we are struggling to find individuals who can step into these roles and be immediately effective. What is the best way to address this challenge?

A: Welcome to the world of manufacturing. It is an uncomfortable fact that there is a shortage of skilled workers at all levels. The short answer is that we have to learn to do more with fewer people. We can mechanize, we can automate, and we can take advantage of artificial intelligence, but those solutions are unlikely to help you in the near term.

What can you do? Mentor. It is unlikely that your human resources department will have experienced designers, machinists, welders, or inspectors walking in off the street asking for employment. You need to train and mentor the people that you can hire. And even that can be a challenge. I have clients who have been visiting their local community colleges and offering jobs to people who are about to graduate, and yet they still aren’t getting applicants. The pay they offer is above that of their competitors; they have a matching 401(k), health benefits, vacation time, and still, they are getting few applicants. While the companies are in a position to grow, they can’t because of manpower shortages.

Back to mentoring. If you find an applicant who is willing to learn, consider yourself fortunate. None of us are born knowing it all. Schools at any level teach the basic skills, and very few are specialized enough to graduate people who can hit the floor running. As one of my professors told me, “Al, I have you in my class for 40 hours. I cover the basics. You will learn more during your first week on the job than I can teach you in a semester[-long] class.”

Your employer needs to develop in-house training to help the new hire develop the skills needed to meet the company’s needs. The training can consist of classroom training, on-the-job experience, or better yet, team the new hire with an experienced worker who can share their knowledge and experience.

It is unfortunate that many employers wait until a Baby Boomer has retired before hiring a replacement. Our employer expects the new hire to know what to do on their first day on the job. It isn’t going to happen. The new hire needs to adjust to the new environment, learn how the system works, and learn how to perform their new job assignment. The process can be made smoother and more efficient by teaming the new employee with a willing mentor. That can be easier said than done, because not everyone is a good mentor. Some experienced workers are going to view the new hire as competition, someone who is there to replace them. If that’s the case, that individual is probably a poor choice to be a mentor.

I worked in the trades for more than 20 years. I learned the trade by serving an apprenticeship as an ironworker. I attended evening classes and worked with experienced journeymen during the day. Some journeymen were willing to teach me what I didn’t know (and that was a lot), but a few had no interest in sharing their knowledge. I appreciated the journeymen instructors who taught the classes at night and the journeymen who shared their knowledge on the job site. They were my mentors, and I still maintain friendships with many of those people, even though I’ve been out of the trades for a good number of years. The apprenticeship programs are a tried-and-true system of bringing new people into the trades. The system is effective and efficient at putting people to work as soon as practical.

When I graduated from college and went to work, I was fortunate to be paired with an older engineer who served as my mentor. As my professor predicted years earlier, I learned more during my first week on the job under my mentor’s tutelage than I did in the college classroom.

When I taught the AWS CWI seminars, we covered a lot of material, but it was just enough so that a person who studied before and during the seminar could pass the examinations. While many newly minted CWIs think they are welding experts, they quickly find out there is a lifetime of learning ahead of them. I was fortunate to team up with a welding engineer who taught me so much more than what the CWI examinations covered. He was my mentor for much of my early career. When we first joined forces, he taught me how to develop a welding procedure, how to properly document the qualification of the welding procedure specification (WPS), and how to administer a welder qualification test. Over the years, I leaned on him more than I probably should have, but I felt comfortable asking him questions, knowing that he was a reliable source of information and a friend.

I wouldn’t be where I am today without the time and patience of my mentors. I try to follow in their footsteps and share what I know with younger people who are interested in learning more about welding and nondestructive examination.

The bottom line is that you, as the department head, can institute a mentoring program in your department. Recognize that new hires are unlikely to have the exact experience you would like them to have, and they aren’t going to know everything (even if they think they do). It can be a win-win for both you and the new hire if you invest some time with them and provide the training they need to be proficient at their new job. Training should not be a one-time event where you overwhelm them with information; instead, it can be regularly scheduled training sessions over a period of time. This allows the new hire to absorb the information presented and put it to use. It also helps you build a relationship with the new hire so they feel comfortable going to you with questions.

Pair the new hire with a more experienced individual who is willing to share their knowledge and experience. Give the new hire assignments that allow them to excel in short order. It will build their competence and confidence as they successfully complete their assigned tasks. Don’t throw them into the deep end of the pool and expect them to swim like a dolphin. That approach results in too many candidates sinking and drowning. Everyone likes to feel like they’re winning, and everyone likes to succeed. As a manager, your task is to give them the tools they need to succeed and feel like they are winning. Mistakes are going to happen; expect them, but have a recovery plan in place and turn them into a learning experience. Take a long view; this is a long game, so treat it as such. While short-term results are needed, it is more productive to keep long-term success in mind.

In conclusion, you need people to meet your immediate needs, but recognize that experienced people are in short supply. Determine your department’s long-term goals and equip new hires with the tools needed to achieve them. Hire people who are willing to learn. Use a combination of supplemental training, pairing the new hire with a willing mentor, and give them tasks they can successfully complete to enhance their skills. As they gain experience and knowledge, challenge them with more complex job assignments. Everyone wins; everyone succeeds.

ALBERT J. MOORE JR. (amoore999@comcast.net) is president and owner of NAVSEA Solutions/Marion Testing & Inspection, Burlington, Conn. He is an AWS Senior Certified Welding Inspector and an ASNT NDT Level III. He is also a member of the AWS Qualification & Certification Committee on Methods of Inspection.

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