Hiring and Retaining Engineers - The Supplier Approach
Open house invites recruits
The first public showing of a new facility typically draws community leaders, the media, and others who bestow best wishes. When Germany-based Continental Teves recently unveiled its 23,225-m2 (250,000-ft2) North American headquarters and technical center, an open invitation also was extended to job seekers.
 Continental's business orders are driving the demand for additional engineers. New hires will undoubtedly do a great deal of their work on computers. |
A ribbon cutting celebration and lab tours dominated daytime open-house activities, but in the evening hours Continental's open house became a job fair, drawing about 500 people - half of whom were seeking engineering positions.
"We knew that some people would come to the new facility out of curiosity," said Rainer Hetzer, Director of Human Resources for Continental Teves in Auburn Hills, MI. Curiosity or not, the open house/career fair attracted twice the number of job candidates as was expected initially. "This was our first job fair, and we'll definitely have another," promised Hetzer.
Favorable business forecasts - tied to transforming the company's tire, brake, and suspension systems into total chassis systems offerings - are driving the need for more engineers. In 1998, the company employed 200 engineers. The 2001 target is employment of 350 engineers. While the job fair netted new hires, Continental also relies on referrals and campus recruiting to find job candidates.
Shadows may become engineers someday
A chance to be an engineer without a degree; that's the opportunity afforded from a high school program that literally puts students in an engineer's shadow.
"Senior Project really helps students get a view of how the professional world works. After finishing the project, students have a better idea of their career path in terms of what they want or may not want to do," said Mitch Crawford, a faculty advisor for Senior Project at St. John's Jesuit High School in Toledo, OH.
For 20 years, every high school senior (usually 190 to 220 students) must shadow a professional for three weeks. The pass/fail, college prep-school requirement requires that each student keep a daily work journal, write a five-page paper on the experience, and give an oral presentation reflecting their personal opinions to three faculty members.
 Spicer Driveshaft Division of Dana Corp. offers programs for students in an effort to recruit talented engineers upon graduation. |
Toledo, OH-based Dana Corp. is one of about 200 sponsoring companies. For students who do their Senior Project at Dana, the free opportunity provides shadow time with engineers.
"My first week was the least interesting. I sat in on meetings for people to learn Dana's techniques because that group was from a company that had just merged with Dana. However, I did have the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. These people had just graduated from college and were gaining some more background for their current careers as engineers. During these meetings, I learned a lot about driveshafts, and I think this may have helped me during the other two weeks where I worked in the lab," a "shadow" wrote.
The same student also addressed his remaining shadow time, "When week two started, I was in the lab not really doing a whole lot. By the end of that week I was walking around talking with other employees and doing work on my own. During my third week, I was putting together driveshafts for customers who would later use them in their own machines. I also collected data from the test that I performed for the engineers to study."
A student shadowing a Dana engineer not only assembles driveshafts, but also does a host of other work duties as part of the experience. "On any given day, the student may be calculating a stress equation, test driving vehicles, or working on a CAD station. A student sees what an engineer does," said Jim Duggan, Senior Engineer with the Spicer Driveshaft Division of Dana Corp.
The program provides an overview of the many tasks done daily by an automotive engineer. As such, the industry gains a few more future recruits. "It's these types of endeavors that industry needs to cultivate in order to raise the caliber of the people being employed," said Duggan.
