US businesses forced to be creative when staffing pool dries up

The tight US labour market is forcing small and mid-sized companies to work harder to recruit and retain employees.

The tight US labour market is forcing small and mid-sized companies to work harder to recruit and retain employees.

Some firms are partnering with local schools or unions, while others are paying holiday costs, beefing up internship programs or adding new locations where ­labour isn’t as scarce.

Mack Molding, which makes and moulds plastics, has been bolstering its internship program in an effort to woo college students who eventually may become full-time employees.

In­terns now handle specific projects, such as helping develop prototypes for new surgical instruments and ­creating training videos, instead of spending hours on routine tasks such as filing and data entry.

Mack sweetened the pot last year, offering interns and recent college graduates the choice of a summer membership at the local gym or golf club. It gives recruits “an opportunity to socialise” and see how they can build a life in Arlington, company president Jeff Somple says.

Mack Molding has 600 employees and is a unit of privately held Mack Group.

Nearly two-thirds of small business owners reported facing a shortage of skilled workers, ­according to a survey of 739 firms last month for The Wall Street Journal by Vistage Worldwide.

Eighty-seven per cent of firms have increased recruiting, while nearly 60 per cent have boosted wages. Many firms also are testing new strategies.

“Employers are getting more creative in attracting and retaining workers,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “They are going to have to get much more creative.”

Some firms are using benefits to gain an edge. True North, a two-year-old software services company in San Francisco, gives its 50 or so employees a $US1000 ($1280) annual bonus, to be used when they take leave. “It’s given our recruiting team an interesting story to tell,” True North co-founder Brian Samson says.

Other small businesses are turning to interns. Jill Vitiello, chief executive of Vitiello Communications Group in New Jersey, plans to hire her first intern, from Rutgers University, this northern autumn.

Vitiello, who has 20 employees, typically uses her network to locate new hires but has struggled to find recruits with the digital and programming skills she needs.

Sheila Burkett, chief executive of Spry Digital in St Louis, which builds digital platforms, has three interns instead of one. “Being small, it’s hard to compete with the big companies throwing lots of money at talent,” says Burkett, who has 17 employees.

Some companies are targeting high school students in an effort to build and strengthen their talent pipeline. GW Plastics brings students from two local high schools to its moulding plant, where they take for-credit classes in advanced manufacturing.

Students from one class helped design and manufacture a plastic mobile phone cradle, which they sold as a school fundraiser.

GW added a second high school to the program last autumn and hopes to bring on a third. Last year the company also expanded a scholarship program that covers the cost of tuition and provides a paid internship to students pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering technology at Vermont Technical College.

Three years ago APT Manufacturing Solutions, a robotics and automation company based in Hicksville, Ohio, created a training centre at its plant where high school students can receive up to 10 hours of college credit. Two years ago, the company added an apprenticeship program.

APT covers college costs for apprentices, who work 40 hours a week while in school and then stay for a fifth year once they graduate.

“My intention is to hire local farm kids because of their work ethic and then train them in what they need to stay around,” APT president Anthony Nighswander says. He had struggled to fill open slots when the 135-employee company began growing rapidly four years ago.