Baking & Snack - August 2016 - 26

WORKFORCE GAP STUDY

skills shortage. Of those bakery executives surveyed,
87% indicated that a lack of formal skills/job training
programs for new and existing employees is contributing to the skills shortage with slightly more than a quarter labeling it a "significant challenge."
One thing to consider, Ms. Hellmer suggested, is that
while training is an industry-wide issue, execution must
happen at a local level. "These efforts to train must happen where the facilities are located," she said, noting
that many baking companies with enough resources
are partnering with local colleges, technical schools and
even high schools to develop their talent pipelines.
Flowers Foods, Thomasville, GA, partners with community colleges and technical schools to initiate recruitment efforts and sometimes even professional development programs. Partnerships like these happen locally
for many Flowers plant locations. Flowers also taps talent at Kansas State University's bakery science program
for internships that often lead to full-time positions.
In Twin Falls, ID, Clif Bar Baking Company partnered
with the College of Southern Idaho for training programs as it built up its workforce while also building its
new facility.
"ASB is already hard at work developing programs to
address the current and future workforce gap in our industry," said Mario Somoza, chairman of ASB. "We are
revamping our scholarship program to target students

For the bakers, by the bakers
The scope of research for "The Workforce Gap in US
Commercial Baking: Trends, Challenges & Solutions" was
put forth by the American Bakers' Association (ABA) and the
American Society of Baking and led by a task force comprising members from both associations.
The bulk of the task force came from ABA's HR
Committee, which included executives from Flowers Foods,
ARYZTA, Bimbo Bakeries USA, Hearthside Food Solutions,
Kroger and Safeway. "Cypress Research didn't come in
and dictate the scope," said Marjorie Hellmer, president,
Cypress Research Associates. "The study scope was determined by top manufacturers in the industry in collaboration with Cypress Research. It's for the manufacturers
benefit, from the manufacturers."
The results of the industry survey portion of the study
reflected completed surveys from 90 bakery executives at 62
companies. According to ABA, participating companies in this
survey represent 73% of the US commercial baking industry.
Of the respondents, 40% were from small to mid-size manufacturers, and 60% represented large companies with $100
million or more in sales. "Of those large companies, 25%
were the biggest in the industry," Ms. Hellmer said.

26 Baking & Snack August 2016 / www.bakingandsnack.com

pursuing education in areas such as food science and engineering/manufacturing, as well as our traditional support of bakery science programs."
Higher education and industry-related external resources present big opportunities for companies to increase and/or improve training programs. According
to the study, many bakeries still rely on formal internal
training. For example, just 69% of respondents offered
training to hourly skilled production employees for baking industry-specific technical skills, and of those, 53%
relied on formal internal programs, while a mere 16%
take advantage of a third-party resource.
For machine operators, however, the companies surveyed said they rely on more informal internal training
methods. In fact, 100% of the businesses cited on-thejob experience as a training strategy, closely followed by
shadowing/observing others at 91%. Similarly, hourly
maintenance and engineering positions received the
same kind of training: on-the-job experience at 96% and
shadowing/observing at 93%.
Part of the problem is that management struggles
with creating training programs for positions that reach
into multiple shifts and schedules, as well as finding time
to initially create programs and have sufficient staff to
implement them.
Rather than tossing those employees into the metaphorical deep end of the pool, industry groups such as
ABA, AIB International, BEMA, ASB and the Biscuit &
Cracker Manufacturers' Association (B&CMA) can help.
For example, ABA started a frontline training program
that launched in June and is planned for November and
again next March.
Additionally, BEMA has recently revamped its
BEMA-U education program with programs such as
Learn to Train that are available to companies at their
own locations.
AIB International offers training courses at its headquarters in Manhattan, KS, as well as online and in locations across the country, and B&CMA offers a wealth of
education online through its comprehensive correspondence course and at its annual technical conference held
in the spring.
Ms. Hellmer sees it as a spider-web approach, and it
starts with corporate leadership to support, fund and
sustain internal and external company-driven training programs. Next is the regional support through
partnerships in education, and from there comes the
industry-wide standardization of training.
"It's a complicated issue but one that we see
having the greatest potential for the industry to come
together," Ms. Hellmer observed. "The industry needs
to standardize - then customize - elements for
company-specific needs."

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Baking & Snack - August 2016

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