DREW GROSS, president and COO at Gary, Indiana-based Alliance Steel, talks with FFJournal about the importance of promoting youth in an aging industry
September, 2023- FACE TIME: DREW GROSS, president and COO at Gary, Indiana-based Alliance Steel, talks with FFJournal about the importance of promoting youth in an aging industry
Q: What potential benefits can a more diverse and youthful workforce bring to the steel and manufacturing sector?
A: In steel and manufacturing, in particular, it’s crucial that we continue to drive innovation to be successful, and talented youth are driving this innovation. Smart groups of people who are passionate figure out better ways to complete tasks We will see a continued need for more programmers in steel processing, fabricating and manufacturing. This is both a short-term and long-term need due to the advancements in automation and robotics that everyone will want to be using in the future. Individuals who can leverage their passion for programming with an understanding of manufacturing will have a tremendous amount of opportunity. We’re looking for young folks who are willing to learn and excited about learning—but not just learning the individual skill of programming or the individual skill of manufacturing. The magic happens where those two intersect and employees understand both and how they work together.
Q: How can the industry bridge the knowledge gap between experienced older workers and incoming young professionals?
A: This is a really important aspect of promoting youth in the industry because there is an incredible amount of tribal knowledge that exists in steel plants and manufacturing facilities around the country. That transition of knowledge is going to be crucial for the next generation. We need to be proactive about getting younger people into our facilities now before the last generation exits the workforce. They’ll set the baseline of understanding, and the next generation can innovate from that baseline. Letting these employees overlap and work together, however, is interesting because they work very differently. It’s important to strive to break down the generational barriers. Interfacing outside of work and team building is a crucial part of that. We do a lot of off-site events and family picnics so people can interact with each other on a human level.
Q: What strategies can the industry adopt to make its work environment more appealing to younger workers?
A: So many steel distribution facilities are older and antiquated. At Alliance Steel, we’ve invested in making our office comfortable, creating an environment that promotes to our employees that this is where they want to be. We have added many amenities to the facilities and office to make certain our employees are coming to a safe and easy place to work. We have learned a lot over the past few years, and we have adapted to being more flexible with our employees without sacrificing the high expectations of our staff. Another really big part of making the working environment more appealing to younger people is articulating career paths, showcasing the growth potential and how many years or months they can expect to spend in each position. They relate to these visuals more than just saying ‘hey, come in and just keep working hard. We’ll figure it out.’ They all want progression, and work-life balance is very important.
Q: Can you share success stories of young people who have made significant contributions to the industry?
A: We have had a bunch of young individuals with a passion for manufacturing who have come through our company. One young man attended a couple semesters of college and decided to take another path; he had a programming mindset. We gave him an opportunity in our plant, starting on a press brake and, after about six months, we realized that he had a lot of talent and got him into programming—lasers, robots, etc., and he eventually earned his way into a supervisory role. He’s currently our fabrication and manufacturing supervisor. Another young man came in who didn’t really have any technical skills to speak of. He was working in our receiving bay, entering coils and we quickly discovered he was very smart. He moved into a crane operator position and eventually became the systems administrator for our entire ERP system. People are so anxious to look to the outside to bring in new talent, but what everyone needs to be doing is looking to extract the talent they already have that’s underutilized.
Alliance Steel LLC, 219/427-5400, http://alliancesteel.net/
