Promote Your Problems (and how you solve them every day)

I recently had a conversation with John Holland, head of IT for Clearspan Components, and he pointed out that if there’s one thing the component industry has a lot of, it’s problems.

John insists this is one of the most positive aspects of the industry because, “No matter whether you’re working with industry software, designing components or assembling trusses, your job is to solve problems.” That can be a particularly valuable quality to promote when it comes to attracting employees from the millennial generation (of which John is a part).

If you Google “millennials and problem-solving,” you’ll find several articles outlining the many ways in which problem-solving fits into the desires and general psyche of this generation. They like to collaborate, they like to think beyond traditional approaches, and they find it highly satisfying to find a solution that solves multiple problems at once.

If this sounds like something that occurs in your truss plant on a daily basis, you’re in luck. You just might be offering exactly the types of jobs a bunch of millennials in your community long to have. When I asked John what young people should consider most when evaluating careers in component manufacturing he said, “There are so many opportunities in our industry to try new things, create something unique and make your mark at your company.”

For members of Generation X, seeing the results of one’s labor has always been a strong career motivator. The component manufacturing industry is well suited for Gen Xers because every day the production facility is churning out a tangible product that many employees had a hand in. Millennials have a slightly different take on the same process. Every component that leaves the building represents multiple problems that several employees needed to solve.

So John’s advice? The next time you find yourself talking to a group of tech school students, standing behind a table at a job fair or visiting a local high school, proudly share your company’s multitude of problems and the many ways you challenge your employees to solve them every day.

That subtle change in how you talk about your company and how current and prospective employees perceive the work you do may not only help solidify job satisfaction amongst your current millennial employees, but also inspire more job applications from members of this generation.