Recruiting and Retention

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Recruiting and Retention

• Managing the Human Capital

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Team Members

• Steve Cutrufello - ExxonMobil
• Matthew Czuba WorleyParsons
• Santanu Das - Bentley
• Ron Dailey Eastman
• Bruce Lower Pathfinder Inc.
• Adnan Siddiqui Dow Chemical

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Panelist CV

• Matt Czuba
• Matts petrochemical experience includes both
  contractor and owner experience. As an owner, he
  has held positions ranging from development
  engineer in polymers to applications/ development
  manager to pilot plants manager. As a contractor,
  Matt has executed both upstream and downstream
  projects, both at home and abroad, functioning as
  a project engineer, project manager, and
  currently as Alliance Manager for the EPC capital
  projects alliance between WorleyParsons and
  ExxonMobil for all of ExxonMobils Beaumont,
  Texas facilities. Matt resides in the Lumberton,
  Texas with his wife Pamela and their family.

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Panelist CV

• Ron Dailey
• Ron Dailey currently serves as a capital project
  manager for Eastman Chemical Company's Polymer
  Business Group.  In his 12 years with Eastman,
  Ron has served in various roles including solids
  handling designer, group leader for the
  Mechanical, Materials Utilities process design
  group, and indirect procurement manager with
  supervisory responsibilities for capital and
  Latin America.  Ron has been involved in many
  high school and collegiate recruiting efforts for
  both Eastman and engineering in general. Ron
  received his B.M.E. from Georgia Tech in 1994 and
  is professionally licensed in TN, VA, PA and SC. 
  He and his wife Carrington reside in Johnson
  City, TN with their daughter Kensington.

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Panelist CV

• Adnan Siddiqui
• Adnan Siddiqui is a Senior Project Engineer on
  major capital projects with The Dow Chemical
  Company. Adnan previous roles have been plant
  project engineer and construction manager. Adnan
  has worked on projects in North America and
  China. Adnan has a Bachelors and Masters degree
  in Civil Engineering from The University of Texas
  at Austin. Adnan lives in Houston, TX.

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Why the Focus on Recruiting and Retention

• Estimates for this decade (2000-2010) for
  engineers indicate
• Employment rate expected to increase three times
  faster than the rate for all occupations
• Employment opportunities expected to increase by
  about 47 (2.2 million jobs)
• Demographics of the existing engineering
  workforce changing rapidly
• U.S. engineering labor force is aging
• Engineers reaching traditional retirement age are
  expected to triple

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Why the Focus on Recruiting and Retention

• Jobs requiring engineering skills (U.S.) are
  growing almost 5 per year
• Balance of the labour force growing at just over
  1
• Average age of the engineering workforce is
  rising
• The Boomers will retire in the near future
• Unemployment is relatively low
• National average approximately 4.5
• Engineering average under 3

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Recruiting and Retention Aspects

• Attracting freshmen to engineering
• Attracting engineers to E C careers
• Retaining employees in E C careers

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Attracting freshman to engineering (before and
after)

• High School interest support
• Engineering Week participation
• Mentoring from local engineering businesses
• Sponsorships of school programs/challenges
• A day in the life of an engineer at the E C
  office

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Attracting engineers to E C careers

• On campus presence
• Career fairs, presentations to student
  organizations, on-campus job interviews, etc.
• Co-op programs
• Recurring program
• Longer term commitment
• Generally seen as most effective
• Aggressive internship programs
• Allows the employer and intern to take a short
  "test drive"
• Often highly effective

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Attracting engineers to E C careers

• Social program of activities for co-ops/interns
• Tuition reimbursement
• Last year (or two) of undergraduate studies
• Advanced degree after hiring on full-time
• Use of twenty-somethings (
• Campus recruiters
• Hosts during interview visits
• Working with the university curricula
• Blend in real world problems or case studies
• Sponsor/assist design classes

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Attracting engineers to E C careers

• Extremely competitive salary and benefits package
  
• Must be based on real-time market research
• Educational initiatives
• Involvement with math science programs in the
  local schools
• Share what is going on at the company
• Idealistic

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Attracting engineers to E C careers

• Proactive campus recruiting strategy is critical
• Timeline equally important
• Career fairs and presentations to engineering
  departments in early fall semester
• Campus interviews follow (September / October)
• Site interviews follow campus interviews within
  two weeks
• Spot offers made during the site interviews
• Continual and regular follow-up
• Should include contact from senior management

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Attracting engineers to E C careers

• Mastering the hiring process is crucial
• Continuously sell the company and the opportunity
• Focus areas for engineers
• Technical complexity of the position or challenge
• Stability of the company
• Growth opportunity
• In todays aggressive market, even small mistakes
  hurt
• Dwelling on the potential negatives without
  highlighting the positives
• Poor communication
• Slow Process
• A slow hiring process can be especially hard to
  overcome

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Retaining employees in EC careers
SOURCE Chemical Processing 2006 Salary Survey
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Retaining employees in EC careers
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Retaining employees in E C careers

• What matters most?
• Out of 736 respondents1, almost 60 percent claim
  its what the job entails
• Only 19 percent were most concerned with pay

1Survey by EPCglobal, an international
recruitment and staffing-solutions firm focused
solely on the engineering and construction
industries
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Retaining employees in E C careers

• Other concerns
• Company culture/livelihood
• Benefits, such as health insurance, company car,
  etc.
• Travel
• Location
• Supervisor
• The opportunity to do what they do best
• Stability
• Challenge
• Potential to gain work experience
• The right fit

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Retaining employees in E C careers
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Retaining employees in E C careers
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Retaining employees in EC careers
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Two-Edged Swords

• High-Potential Development Programs
• Minority Cultural Networks
• Education reimbursement
• Flex Time

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Recruiting and Retention of Women Engineers

• Flexibility is important (this is true for all
  employees)
• Schedule / job-sharing
• Leverage latest communication technology
• Provide job satisfaction and challenge.
• Provide effective career development
  opportunities.
• Assume that women are equally capable and
  eliminate the prove yourself challenges
• Treat women engineers as professional and not as
  relatives
• Accept the tension between family and work for
  employees instead of insisting that one is always
  more important!
• Improve listening skills of colleagues as well as
  managers
• Use inclusive terms (craftspeople vs. craftsmen)

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Recruiting and Retention of Women Engineers

• Out-of-the-Box Ideas
• Encourage societys acceptance of stay-at-home
  dads so the engineering spouses can focus more
  on the career.
• Have ECC spouse programs that appeal to men
  (fishing / running)

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Diversity Employees Recruiting and Retention

• Diversity networks work well if implemented
  properly as a source of coaching, support, and
  learning.
• In addition to diversity networks, provide access
  to a network of experts and mentors across the
  board.
• People skills of direct supervisor are very
  important.

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Breakthrough Ideas

• Provide scholarships tied to internships --
  Improve company name recognition while building
  relationships with a quality candidate
• Develop on-line "day-in-the-life" interactive
  tours for students to see what different roles in
  the EPC world do

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Breakthrough Ideas

• Allow employees to manage their risk/reward
  profile by defining their preferences formally
  with HR. 
• Are you a "have bags, will travel" type, a "will
  travel over being laid-off" type or a "no travel,
  no way" type? 
• Do you value developing your technical skills
  over developing managerial skills?
• Do you value continuing education as a way to
  improve marketability in the event of a lay-off?

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Breakthrough Ideas

• Undo Re-engineering to create more
  opportunities for younger workers
• Benchmark practices from other industries on
  recruiting and retaining e.g. nursing.
• The ECC industry needs to explore work place
  flexibility if we are truly committed to
  retaining generation Y and beyond employees.

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Acknowledgements

• Additional feedback and content for this
  presentation was obtained from EC employees at
• Shaw Group
• BP
• Dow Chemical
• Eastman
• ExxonMobil
• Bentley Systems
• KBR

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Conclusion

• Money is important but so is !
• Company culture
• Quality of middle management and leaders
• Challenging assignments
• Are you offering a job or a career?

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Thank You