Mike Baker, Chris Wahl, and president Craig Longstreth staff the Warner Truck Bodies and Accessories booth at the 2018 Work Truck Show in Indianapolis this past March.File photo: Keith Norbury
Five years ago, when Warner Bodies was looking for a place to expand into a larger facility and grow its operation, the company came upon the perfect site — and an unexpected partnership that’s helping it build a pipeline of young workers.
The manufacturer of service, rescue and hauler bodies had spent decades in Noblesville, Indiana, but needed more space — and a solution to the industry-wide shortage of qualified workers.
In Elwood, Indiana, about 20 miles away, it found a 250,000-square foot facility and an offer from the Hinds Career Center, a technical education center where high school students get hands-on
Student practices welding at the Hinds Career Center in Elwood, Indiana.Photo: Hinds Career Center
experience in teamwork and job skills.
Local economic development officials hoping to woo Warner Bodies to the small community offered up the Career Center as a major perk. Warner, they said, could work with the school to help teach welding, fabricating, painting and other skills needed at their facility, and the school would provide interns to come to Warner to improve their skills, and potentially stick around as long-term employees after graduation.
“We saw the advantage in having the ability to work with them to develop a program, bring high school kids in to teach them skill sets, and tailoring a program that fit our operations,” said Warner’s president, Craig Longstreth.
Not your grandparents’ factory
Like many manufacturers, Warner often struggles to find enough skilled workers. Liz Manasek, who works in human resources and special projects for Warner, said many young people imagine that manufacturing is something very different than the industry looks like today.
“I do think that it is a lack of understanding about how manufacturing has changed, especially in the last 20 years,” she said. “The factories of today are not what many of these young students’ grandparents grew up in.”
To erase those misconceptions, Warner offers tours for students and sends employees to job fairs to invite people to come and see the facility themselves.
“It’s being able to invite folks in firsthand to see that it’s a clean environment, it’s a bright environment,” she said. “And in general, our workforce is fairly young; the average age is around 40.”
And for some students at the Hinds Career Center, Warner’s efforts to highlight manufacturing go far beyond a single visit.
Company helps design student projects
Students work in the classroom on projects that Warner helps design. Recently, students tackled a project that helped outfit Warner’s paint booth. They set up the work as though they were on the manufacturing floor, rotating through duties as operations managers, engineers and welders so they could get a taste of each type of responsibility.
“They needed racks to hang their parts on to put in the paint booth, so they provided the materials and we built the racks,” said Jim Pearson, the center’s director. “With those type of projects, they look to us first and it’s a great experience for us.”
Some sign up to work with Warner for anywhere from six weeks to a full academic semester, spending part of their day in the classroom and the rest of it at work.
Pearson said the students who go to work at Warner already have some training under their belts. To be an intern, students must be in their senior year of high school, and most are in their second semester, nearing graduation. The internship is unpaid, but the students gain invaluable experience, and a shot at a job offer before they finish school.
As they work, it’s a time for Warner to show the students why they might want to work in manufacturing – and for the students to prove to Warner that they have the stuff it takes to become a full-time employee.
Job offers abound
Pearson said the program is a way to demonstrate to both students and their parents that promising opportunities exist for young people who might not be interested in — or a good fit for — a four-year college or university.
“A lot of people are realizing that we’re coming into a crisis shortage of skilled employees … and that the four-year degree is maybe not the best path for everyone,” he said.
Usually, somewhere between two and four interns work at Warner at one time. Welders are in particular demand, and sometimes the career center has to limit its assignments to the company because other employers are also asking for interns.
The demand for that skill and others is so acute that students who perform well are virtually guaranteed a job, Pearson said.
“Everyone one of our graduating seniors were all fully employed and had job offers — many of them multiple offers right away,” he said.
Many of those offers offer solid compensation packages, especially for workers coming directly from high school with little else on their resumes.
“They’re starting out at one employer at $18 per hour with benefits and tuition assistance, so that’s just incredible for an 18-year-old,” Pearson said.
Those possibilities are drawing more students to the program — and quickly. Pearson said enrollment in all of the career center’s programs went up by 70 percent in 2018, and enrollment in the welding program is up by 300 percent.
Career center looks to expand
Those numbers have the Hinds Career Center looking to expand its own facility. Pearson said the center is working with the city to help fund an expansion for the welding program so it can accept all interested students this fall.
“(The program) has just exploded, which is great for employers because now we can better meet their needs,” Pearson said.
There will be some delay, since many of the students will be entering for their first year and need more classroom experience before they can take on an internship. But within a few years, Pearson expects he’ll be able to turn out 35 or 40 interns a year for an even broader range of employers — and potentially that many new workers.
“We get calls weekly: ‘Do you have any recent graduates that might want to be employed?’” Pearson said.
Not every student who completes and internship is ready to move on to full-time employment. Of the dozen who have worked at Warner, about half have become employees.
Manasek said some of that retention gap is to be expected.
More internships also expected
“These are 18-year-old students coming into the workforce,” she said. “The world is a big place and we’re in a small town.”
But those that want to stay at Warner have proven to be strong additions to the workforce, she said.
“The folks that have stuck around, we’ve watched them improve month over month, gain confidence and become good workers and good employees,” she said.
Manasek and Longstreth said they expect to see their internship program grow along with the Hinds Career Centers’ expansion. More resumes trickle in each year, with more interns turning into workers.
“It requires us to think out of the box a little when we’re thinking of ways to attract new employees, and especially the younger generation of employees who might have a negative mindset toward the trade or the type of job,” Longstreth said. “They’re in demand and kids can come out and make a good living and do very well for themselves.”
— Erin Golden
Erin Golden is a writer based in Minnesota.