OT. Hiring, keeping and being and emplyee.

kalabdel said:

What keeps you for 10 years or more in your job?

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You have to be in a position to grow. I've stayed with companies for more than ten years. I haven't stayed in a job for more than a few years. I've left companies when, I determined there was likely no advancement, either in position and responsibility or salary.

kalabdel said:

How do you hire new recruits?

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Keep HR out of it as much as possible. Seriously don't let HR help you hire workers. They don't know enough about the technical aspects to screen candidates effectively.

Look for workers that have the basic knowledge and a desire to learn. That is much more important than knowing your particular equipment. Don't use arbitrary requirements. (A degree, a specific training course, or specific years of experience, or overly specific requirement can weed out potentially good candidates). Take the holistic view, you are hiring a complete person.

kalabdel said:

Do you have a formula that works for you? If yes please share.

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Trust them. Treat employees fairly. Set realistic goals. Don't ask them to do something you wouldn't do. Recognize and reward the work they do. Invest in them; both time and money. Spend your political capital to fight for them. If they feel you got their backs, they will have yours. You should be training them to take your job.

Thanks everyone for sharing. I am reading and re-reading and hope more would contribute to the mix of views.

Timbert said:

Look for workers that have the basic knowledge and a desire to learn. That is much more important than knowing your particular equipment. Don't use arbitrary requirements. (A degree, a specific training course, or specific years of experience, or overly specific requirement can weed out potentially good candidates). Take the holistic view, you are hiring a complete person.

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To build on this, don't just look at what someone is right now, look at what you think they could be in several months, and several years. Just like sales guys always need to have a pipeline of new leads that turn into sales down the road, a good company should have a talent pipeline. Hire interns/and apprentices and mold them into the employees you want. Hire a guy who meets 80% of your qualifications, but you think could be 120% of what you want with a month or two of training. Have senior guys mentor junior guys; sometimes this happens naturally, sometimes you need to kickstart it. With luck the junior guy you hire now will be a senior guy in 5-10 years. A manager should get a bonus if he develops a guy enough that he gets promoted out of his group.

If you're hiring a new guy because you're short for a job next week, you've been digging that hole for a while.

And, of course, as you develop employees, pay them what they are worth. If you hire a new guy at say 50k, then give him $10k in training, you shouldn't be surprised if he's worth 60k in a year.

James Mcquade said:

kalabdel,
this is my opinion, so no offence meant to anyone.
it's hard to find good help, you hire people now days and they work for a few days / weeks and quit. the work is to hard.
we start people out here is basic jobs at 20/hr and they still leave.
my oldest just graduated and I have to admit it, but he's looking for his dream job and not wanting to start at the bottom of the pile like I did and work your way up.

james

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The funny thing about supply and demand is that when supply goes down, you get shortages until prices increase. This is basic economics. Yay capitalism!

Most folks who have the brains to handle the troubleshooting in this industry could do a white collar trade like IT or PC programming. If a guy can go another path, and find something that doesn't involve getting dirty for the same money, what would keep him in your job?

I don't mean offense either. There are absolutely some people out there that bounce between minimum wage jobs because they don't put forward enough effort to show up on time, or try, or do anything. You're right, it's true. But I think people in this industry forget is that things aren't the same as they were 20 years ago. It's not necessarily reasonable for a kid to expect to jump straight to a dream job, but I often see older people expecting younger workers to start at the bottom on general principle, as compared to starting at the bottom to learn.

A lot of the kids who would have grown up tinkering with mechanical things grew up tinkering with electrical things instead. I've talked to a lot of kids on school robotics teams. Most of them don't walk away from the experience thinking "that was so cool, I wonder what else I can do with a robot" or "let's build something else", they think "I wonder what else I can program".

kalabdel said:

Hello guys and gals,

I listen to a writer ( i think) on the radio advocating for hiring on basis of experience, education, references and assessments and disregard one on one interviews to avoid making an emotional and possibly the wrong decision.


What keeps you for 10 years or more in your job?
How do you hire new recruits?
Do you have a formula that works for you? If yes please share.


Thanks

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I guess I think too simply on this topic. When labor is a commodity, and when the employer treats labor like a commodity, labor ends up acting like a commodity - and goes where its treated best. Just that simple.

I'm in my 30's and been in this field for about 10 years. I haven't seen too many people start at the bottom and then get promoted. On the other hand, it seems commonplace for people to get laid off after many years of service when business gets slow.

If you start at the bottom it seems there is no real guarantee that you will opportunity for advancement. So it doesn't surprise me when people working jobs with no opportunity for advancement just do the bare minimum and then quit and move on.

A few years ago I applied for a calibration technician job with a large company (1st shift job). The HR manager said my resume looked great, but she wanted me to start on 2nd shift, which I didn't want. She said that after a few months on 2nd shift, I could then reapply for 1st shift. My opinion on this, how can I be sure that I will get the chance to move to 1st shift? No real guarantees that I won't be stuck on 2nd shift forever. (I ended up not pursuing the job)

So I guess as a younger person, I'm suspicious of what seems like empty promises from employers. Show me the money and a clear path for advancement and I will take the job seriously.

Do not ever expect any guarantees. They do not exist and, in my opinion, should not exist. The only thing that goes for you is your value for the current or a potential employer: you skills, your knowledge, your experience, your work ethic and attitude. That is the closest thing to a guarantee anyone will ever have. No one owes you a job and an income; the only reason you are hired and get paid is because someone needs you, your hands and brain, to make himself a profit. You will have to find a way to sell yourself to those people at a highest price. There are certain things where the law protects your interest vs. the interest of the employer but the overall picture is just that.

With all the economics' ups and downs of the recent decades, controls professionals seem to be in pretty high demand all the time. Not at every location at any given time of course, but in general.

Each generation has there own means to understand and motivate. I recently listened to Dr. Karyn Gordon who had some interesting comments as it related to understanding what drives each generation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHEXsFz46e4
I hope you find this interesting and see how this would apply to your situation.
Regards,

A_G said:

A few years ago I applied for a calibration technician job with a large company (1st shift job). The HR manager said my resume looked great, but she wanted me to start on 2nd shift, which I didn't want. She said that after a few months on 2nd shift, I could then reapply for 1st shift. My opinion on this, how can I be sure that I will get the chance to move to 1st shift? No real guarantees that I won't be stuck on 2nd shift forever. (I ended up not pursuing the job)

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Do apply the same behavior when someone promises a salary increase or upgrade in title.

A_G said:

I'm in my 30's and been in this field for about 10 years. I haven't seen too many people start at the bottom and then get promoted. On the other hand, it seems commonplace for people to get laid off after many years of service when business gets slow.

If you start at the bottom it seems there is no real guarantee that you will opportunity for advancement. So it doesn't surprise me when people working jobs with no opportunity for advancement just do the bare minimum and then quit and move on.

A few years ago I applied for a calibration technician job with a large company (1st shift job). The HR manager said my resume looked great, but she wanted me to start on 2nd shift, which I didn't want. She said that after a few months on 2nd shift, I could then reapply for 1st shift. My opinion on this, how can I be sure that I will get the chance to move to 1st shift? No real guarantees that I won't be stuck on 2nd shift forever. (I ended up not pursuing the job)

So I guess as a younger person, I'm suspicious of what seems like empty promises from employers. Show me the money and a clear path for advancement and I will take the job seriously.

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LadderLogic said:

Do not ever expect any guarantees. They do not exist and, in my opinion, should not exist. The only thing that goes for you is your value for the current or a potential employer: you skills, your knowledge, your experience, your work ethic and attitude. That is the closest thing to a guarantee anyone will ever have. No one owes you a job and an income; the only reason you are hired and get paid is because someone needs you, your hands and brain, to make himself a profit. You will have to find a way to sell yourself to those people at a highest price. There are certain things where the law protects your interest vs. the interest of the employer but the overall picture is just that.

With all the economics' ups and downs of the recent decades, controls professionals seem to be in pretty high demand all the time. Not at every location at any given time of course, but in general.

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Or , make your own future. Read "Acres of Diamonds".

Anyone has experience with women as control technicians?

kalabdel said:

Anyone has experience with women as control technicians?

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Not being s*xist - but I have never seen a woman controls technician in 35 years of controls work in hundreds of shops and other controls companies.

I know a couple maintenance tech's taking PLC classes to advance and neither of them have any ladies in their classes either.

kalabdel said:

Anyone has experience with women as control technicians?

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The few I knew were pretty darn good. Unfortunately, very few women go into this field.

kalabdel said:

Anyone has experience with women as control technicians?

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Its hard enough keeping my mind on the work as it is.... LOL...