Big companies, big paychecks lure skilled workers

By MATTHEW FRENCH
Staff Writer

People with manufacturing skills are some of the most highly sought after workers in the region, and large operations like Robert Bosch and the upcoming Vought-Alenia aircraft plant could create an even larger void for smaller companies.

“I hear from my clients all the time that there is a fear they will have an even harder time finding skilled employees,” says Jan Cappellini, vice president of operations at Alternative Staffing Inc., a staffing and temporary agency located in Charleston that focuses on the manufacturing sector. “It’s been a big problem with some of the small companies.”

While small companies realize its always been this way where good people leave for better paying jobs at larger companies, it is becoming more difficult for the small business to find the replacement workers with the skills needed.

Cappellini says large companies, such as Robert Bosch, typically get their pick of employees, particularly those with experience in computer numerical controls, maintenance and mechanics. A lot of skilled employees are initially hired by small firms, who invest the money on training, and then the employees leave for bigger companies.

And large companies don’t have to use recruiting or staffing firms to find out-of-work employees. Rather, they can announce that they’re holding an open house or an active recruiting drive, and qualified employees will seek them out.

“There was a lot of concern when the Vought deal was announced,” Cappellini says. “And there remains concern on the part of the smaller businesses.”

Ron Jones, general manager for distribution at Icon Health and Fitness, which leases 200,000 square feet of warehouse space off of Clements Ferry Road, says the state wants to attract more companies to lower unemployment, but will eventually have to face the reality that it can’t attract more companies without at least part of a workforce in place.

“When a bigger company comes into the area, everybody is going to lose somebody,” says Jones. “But most of the time, those are employees you can’t hold on to anyway.”

Jones says that when a company like Vought comes into an area, the qualified people are going to get jobs, and the unqualified won’t.

“What you have to remember is that those who aren’t qualified for the good, high-paying jobs now aren’t suddenly going to be just because Vought gets here,” he says. “Probably half of the people who want to go work for Vought will be unqualified, so they’ll end up staying where they are.”

But the qualified people who do leave will leave a void behind that will either be filled by workers who are already present in the area, or companies are going to have to recruit outside of the area and the state to lure qualified people here.

“What it will mean is a lot of manufacturers, such as Bosch, will have to start over again and train some people from the beginning,” Jones says. “Companies like Vought are looking for very specific skills, so employees of a Robert Bosch might look more appealing than a small manufacturer or distributor elsewhere.”

Jones says South Carolina already has a dramatic worker shortage and the state knows it, but officials won’t admit that there is a lack of trained people or the education necessary to train them.

Jones and Icon are shortly going to be leaving Charleston for what he calls a friendlier climate in Savannah, Ga. He says the state’s lack of attention to the port and distribution-focused businesses are going to cost South Carolina more as time goes on.

Mike Leatherwood, owner of Leatherwood Electronics and Manufacturing on Dorchester Road, says South Carolina offers myriad incentives to larger companies looking to relocate here—from tax incentives to employee training incentives—while simultaneously leaving small businesses to fend for themselves.

“The fact is these big companies come into an area and rob the small businesses of their people,” Leatherwood says. “Then the small business has to go through the cycle of finding employees to replace those taken and training all over again.”

He says the labor pool in Charleston is not nearly as good as local and state politicians would have outside companies believe. His company, which performs precision metal fabrication, machining and electro-mechanical assembly for many different markets, is often forced to look far outside South Carolina to the upper Midwest to find skilled people, particularly in machining, fabrication, welding and electronics assembly work.

“The state will pay for the training of employees for the new company coming in, but they don’t take a step back and look at the companies that have been paying the taxes all along and will continue to in the future,” he says. “We don’t get a reduction in taxes and we don’t get state assistance to find and train new employees, but all the state officials claim it’s the small business that supports the state.”

But, concedes Leatherwood, business, particularly manufacturing, has always operated that way.

“Back when we had the Charleston Naval shipyard, we would train people and then, as soon as positions over there came open, we’d lose our people to them,” he says. “It’s always been this way and it will always be this way. We just do what we can to survive and try to grow our small businesses.”

Matthew French covers manufacturing for the Business Journal. E-mail him at mfrench@crbj.com.

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