ILMA Compoundings August 2017 - 24

for the 'one company, long-term employment' kind of thing,"
he said. "We get somebody in and train them, then they're
gone in a year or two. Students just don't see metalworking
in the same light as they do an IT job, say. It's hot and dirty
and loud and oily. They get disenchanted. Or they want to be
managers right away without putting in the time."
For Fanning, the best new hires tend to come from other
companies, not straight out of school. "When we bring in
new employees, almost exclusively those folks are chemists
coming from other industries," he said. They acquire the
knowledge and skills they need through time on the job
and, especially, time in the field.

"Finding employees willing to learn and grow with a
company is particularly critical for independents in
the lubrication industry."
"You have to make sure [new staff] get out in the field
and understand how their chemistry applies," Fanning said.
"Training on the job is huge."
Richards agrees. "We do look to our local universities for
managers, chemists and other talent. But, generally speaking,

word-of-mouth has probably been the most successful way to
find the best candidates," he said. "We talk to people in the
industry, and we talk to the people we already employ."
Finding employees willing to learn and grow with a
company is particularly critical for independents in the
lubrication industry, Richards believes. "We tend to be a
face-to-face business, service-intensive. We need to be in
the mills every day, and it's hard to find people who want
to travel. But the fact is that a lot of the mills are running
lean, and their knowledge base is being pushed to retire.
We become their knowledge base, in some cases knowing
more about their business than the less-experienced people
working there.
"For us, that's a sales tool," he said. "When we talk to a
customer, the message they're going to hear is that they're
going to see us more and that we will be more involved in
their mill than our competitor is. That's pretty much guaranteed. We aren't interested in making a sale and walking
away. Repeat business is our business."
That business requires a knowledgeable and engaged
workforce, which makes the current drought of upand-coming talent so significant.

Trump Determined to Expand
Apprenticeships in the U.S.
In June, President Donald Trump kicked off his apprenticeship initiative by signing an executive order titled
Expanding Apprenticeship in America. This push to
expand apprenticeships in the U.S. is something that
both Republicans and Democrats are eager to support.
There are 350,000 manufacturing jobs currently vacant
in the U.S., yet the youth unemployment rate continues to
rise, as does student loan debt. Expanding apprenticeships
seems like the obvious answer to these problems. The key to
success will be in the initiative's implementation.
Two countries lawmakers will look to when modeling the
programs are Switzerland and Germany, both of which are
known for their robust apprenticeship programs.
Fuchs Lubricants Co. is a global lubricant company with
German roots and a well-established apprenticeship program
in place.
Christian Bigelow, vice president, legal, at Fuchs, said
that each year their Illinois and Canadian facilities receive

AUGUST 2017

| COMPOUNDINGS | ILMA.ORG

students from Germany who come to the U.S. for four to
six weeks of on-the-job training. For these German students,
spending a specified amount of time in a true apprenticeship
is an integral part of their education.
These students are assigned a project related to their area
of study, and Bigelow says that not only do they complete
the project in an exceptional way, but they also often complete it early and take on additional work.
What makes an apprenticeship successful? "To me, the
keys will be a commitment to developing the individual and
growing them within their skill or trade," said Bigelow.
He stresses that these students are not interning just to earn
money. It is important that companies have a program that
exposes the students to different areas in their discipline. Even
though it is not about the money, Bigelow's opinion is that you
have to pay them a reasonable rate or you'll lose out on the best
ones. To do that, a company needs to build that money into the
budget, as it is an investment in the company's future.

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ILMA Compoundings August 2017

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