Manufacturing the Food & Beverage Workforce

Welcome to the Food For Thought Podcast, a podcast where we take you behind the headlines of the food and beverage manufacturing industry.

In today’s episode, I talk with Andy Drennan, senior vice president at the Food Processing Suppliers Association. Throughout the next half-hour, we talk about skills training, the skills gap, and how the food and beverage industry can attract new talent.

Enjoy the episode.

Transcript

Erin: Andy Drennan, thank you so much for being on The Food for Thought podcast with me today. How are you doing?

Andy: I'm doing great, Erin. Thank you so much for having me.

Erin: Yes. It is an absolute pleasure. You recently wrote something for the Food Processing website about the business value of workforce training, a topic that we definitely cover a lot with Food Processing. In your writing, you mentioned that some of your members couldn't see the importance of offering more training to their employees. Why do you think they responded that way?

Andy: You know, Erin, I was kind of playing devil's advocate there. Mind you, I don't think that people think that way in the association. I don't think that's the majority of companies out there at all. I think most companies are interested in the training and professional development of their employees. And, in fact, since announcing the 180 Skills training program and working with our SME groups, I've been impressed with what some companies are doing to train their employees. However, that said, there are some companies who are a little too focused on today's priorities to look ahead to see the value that today's training will bring to their companies. I totally get why that is. They're busy, but, honestly, looking at the statistics specifically pertaining to employees and their desire to have employers invest in them, you know, if the current employer doesn't see how important that is, I hate to say it, but they're gonna be losing employees.

Erin: I can definitely see where that would happen. What are your thoughts on the suggestion that offering additional professional development training is essentially paying people to eventually leave your company?

Andy: That's a really good question. But I would argue that by not training them, they are more likely to leave. Based on the LinkedIn survey that I based my article, you know, I have seen a couple of statistics, let me just quote them here, this LinkedIn survey, 40% of employees leave their job within the first year unless they receive training and education from their employer. Forty percent, having lost employees in the past for different reasons, that's a huge number. Another huge number, 74% of employees feel that they're not reaching their full potential unless they receive training from their employer. So, those statistics really tell you what employees want.

In the case where the employer is not training them, well, now, you know, according to those statistics, those employees are gonna leave. It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow, but at some point, they're gonna leave, and now you have a job vacancy, which is in this industry, that's a big challenge, and candidates, to fill the position, likely want professional development opportunities also, so you're back with the same problem.

Now, if you flip that around and the company is training them, you have an employee who is better prepared for their job and happier that your company invested in them to make that happen, making them a more productive employee. Might they leave in the future? Sure. That's a possibility, obviously. Nothing is forever, but from my point of view, investing in employees is more likely to keep them at your company longer, which is the true benefit there.

Erin: So, let's take a deeper dive kind of back into that lack of enthusiasm, for lack of a better word, to offer additional training. How is that impacting food and beverage manufacturers and their suppliers?

Andy: The COVID pandemic is a really good example. For these seven months, we've gotten a lot of feedback from our members who are typically suppliers to the industry of the need to increase automation to basically work with fewer employees, if you can, for the main reason that employees were getting sick, you needed social distancing, so you needed the equipment to run as quickly as it was with fewer employees, if possible.

Now, the members of the Food Processing Suppliers Association, that's what they want to hear. They're experts at improving production and speeding up processing lines. They can do that. That's not a problem, but the typical food manufacturer, can their staff provide maintenance on that equipment especially with the new technologies coming out? Can they keep up with that? I would argue it's really hard to keep up with that if you're not training your staff on, you know, technical skills. And that's why I think it's so important whether you are a manufacturer or an equipment manufacturer or a supplier to be training your staff so that they are ready for tomorrow's opportunities.

Erin: You just brought up a really good point that I want to pull out for the purposes of this next part of the conversation, and that's skills training. Do you have a breakdown of the industry by generation? That's the first part of the question. And how much of the industry are we going to need to replace in the next 10 to 15 years?

I'm really curious about that skills training aspect. We've come from the generations of folks who have known how to fix the machines and moving into, like you said, the automation, and we're going to lose a generation of people who've been doing this. So, if you could speak to...if you have that break down of the industry by generation and how much are we going to need to replace?

Andy: That's an excellent question, Erin. And honestly, I don't have the breakdown for the food and beverage industry. However, I just wrote an article for our newsletter yesterday, you know, talking about the baby boomer generation that is retiring. They started retiring for the most part in 2012, so we're 8 years into it. And according to, I think it was Forbes, it said 47% of the Baby Boomers have retired already. I look at it the other way. That means 53% of our workforce, or not our workforce, 53% of the Baby Boomers will be retiring over the next what? Eight to 10 years? That's a lot of people we're going to be losing.

I don't know where the food and beverage industry stands with regards to Baby Boomers, but I do have some personal experience, and I've been in the industry for 20 years now and I've watched how attendees at our trade shows have changed over the years. You know, back in 2000, I was one of the young ones on the floor. I had a lot more hair and none of it was gray, but now you do see, when you go to the Process Expo, you do see a lot of gray hair out there, and it's very common to have people that you've known all this time telling you goodbye because they're retiring.

So, I think our industry has been hit by the retirement of the Baby Boomers. I think it will continue to get hit, but I have to say it has been a pleasure to watch the new generation, the Millennials coming into this industry. We launched the FPSA Young Professionals Group three years ago, and I have to tell you, it's an impressive collection of professionals. They're very tech-savvy, and one thing that I really like about them, they're not constrained to the way things used to be. In this Young Professionals Group, you can already see who tomorrow's leaders are, and I assure you, we're going to be in good hands. It's just a matter of getting the critical mass in this next generation to take up the torch from the Baby Boomers.

Erin: That is exciting news, and it's good to hear. I agree. I don't know about you. I am that sandwiched forgotten generation. I'm a Gen X-er.

Andy: Yeah. Me too.

Erin: I will say, and covering the industry as I have, it is very exciting and promising to see the up and coming generations and how they have embraced things. And I agreed with the kind of abandoning the just because something was done this way before doesn't mean we need to do it this way going forward. And that attitude I think is going to help not only the company but the industry as a whole. So, let's...

Andy: Not to interrupt you, but I completely agree with what you just said. And one thing that I've learned is the food and beverage industry has been more conservative than most industries. In a lot of respects, they didn't want to change. However, those are not the times anymore. And I think, certainly, generation X and the Millennials, they are not phased by change to the degree that the Baby Boomers were, and so as we start to really see radical change within the industry, I think they're not going to be intimidated by it. So, like I said, I'm excited to see what they can do.

Erin: I want to move on and talk about from skills training to the skills gap. From what you've seen, what does the industry need the most training on?

Andy: This is really no doubt in my mind. And, in fact, this is what I wrote about yesterday for our newsletter. The skills gap, the biggest one is that we need more certified technicians. No question about that. As equipment gets more sophisticated, we need technicians that can keep up with technology and keep our lines running. When you look at line speeds in today's food industry, no one can afford to be down, so having trained technicians who can troubleshoot and solve problems quickly is critical for us.

Now, one factor that is complicating the issue for us is that I would say for the last 40 years in the United States, we've really focused on getting university education, and we have downplayed vocational and technical education. I just...let's see. I pulled some data from Department of Education yesterday about this, and over the last, I want to say 12 years, Department of Education has appropriated a certain amount of money for vocational-technical education. In the last 12 years, that allocation, that appropriation has only increased by less than 1% in real dollars, less than 1%. I've been.

I've worked with a lot of Germans in my career, and to see where their vocational education is so professional. It really is impressive, and I think that's what we need to get to, and actually the Food Processing Suppliers Association. You know, we introduced our...Let's see, the Food Industry Technician Certification program, which works with the Lincoln Tech in Indianapolis. And so, we are training tomorrow's technicians, and we're now in our third class that we're graduating, and we can't graduate enough students at a time because the food manufacturers that work with us, they are snapping up those students. The suppliers that are members of the association, they snap up those students. We need to scale it up, but it takes time because our members donate the equipment to the FIT program.

This program has been active for, I would say now, we're in our second year. So, we're moving pretty quickly. We're moving as fast as we can, but the need in the food and beverage industry is so great both for food manufacturers and food suppliers that...We've actually had a prominent food manufacturer that told us they would hire every one of our technicians coming out of the graduating class last year if we would allow them, which obviously, we can't. They're limited. So, we're trying to work with all of the companies that are involved, but that, by far, is the biggest skills gap that we as an industry need to address. The association is doing what it can, but the industry...I'm sure any food processor or supplier that's hearing this is probably shaking their head, yes, that's my biggest concern.

Erin: It definitely seems from almost say external to the industry perspective marketing that aspect of, hey, you know, post high school. You know, if you're in your 20s, mid-20s, 30s, you know, you're looking for a job. Maybe you got laid off from something else because of COVID. This seems like, yes, you get the training. It is almost a guaranteed job if not a guaranteed job, and my hope and, you know, definitely plan to market and promote this sort of thing on our own site and our own social media, but it definitely seems like something I wish more people...I lived on the outskirts of Chicago. Even though we kind of grew up in a manufacturing town and even people...you know, but the kids of my former classmates I hear, "Oh, no, they don't know what to do." So, just hearing that, like, I want to take this and put it in front of them is basically what I'm saying.

Andy: Yeah. I completely agree. And I think the situation is that generation is just not aware of these job opportunities. They're not aware of the benefit of a career in the food and beverage industry, which frankly is better than average. We have a saying here in the office, in our food and beverage industry, we're just not sexy. And I don't know what to do about that, but you're right. This is more of a marketing issue than anything because we need to make young people aware of the opportunities that are here.

Erin: The article that we had you on food processing, you mentioned the...and correct me if I'm saying this wrong, the 180 Skills online training program. Can you tell me more about that? And most importantly, is it 180 Skills or 180...I'm such a stickler when it comes for proper pronunciation. So, please tell me.

Andy: Sure. Yeah, 180 Skills is a program that we're launching. It's going to launch in January for FPSA members. And frankly, it's an amazing online training platform that was initially designed for the aeronautics industry. Since then, it has expanded to include all types of manufacturing and includes over 700 courses in technical and soft skills training. Over 700 courses. That's a bit much for the average HR person, so we have broken it down with the help of our SME groups into 26 different learning paths that encompass on average about seven online classes each that cover critical topics for our industry. These include topics like lean manufacturing, quality systems and safety, automation. We've got six different learning paths for electricity. We've got pneumatics, robotics, hydraulics, and then we've also got soft skills such as team building, customer service, communication, and time management.

Now, employees can take one of these learning paths, or they can take a single course a la carte from the 180 Skills library if they want based on what the employer is hoping to achieve. Like I said, we'll be launching this program in January, but already we've gotten great feedback from our members that have looked at this that say that 180 Skills is a great cost-effective alternative to what they've been doing up until now.

You know, a little bit more about the program itself. Typically, it takes about an hour to complete each course, and then you're given a test. You have to get all the answers correct, which proves to the employer that their worker truly has mastered the topic. In the case that the employee has an incorrect answer, the system goes back and provides guidance on the lesson and then allows the person to answer another question and gives them the opportunities to show that they've mastered it. When the course is done, the employee receives a certificate of achievement that they get to present to their employer, and the employer can keep track of that. In short, member companies that utilize the 180 Skills program are assured that not only are their people taking the training but because they mastered it, they understand it and can apply those lessons on the job, which is so critical.

Erin: I'm excited to see what happens with the program. And we'll definitely...In the show notes for this particular episode, we'll include a link to it for anyone who wants to learn more.

Do you have any words of wisdom to those listening who are considering a career in the food and beverage? I'm going to say food and beverage manufacturing, but I mean kind of the whole group, supplier, manufacturer, what have you. Any words of wisdom? What advice would you give them?

Andy: Yeah. For the younger people...you know. This reminds me, I had a talk recently with my son who's a senior in college and he's studying marketing. And I told him that, you know, there's lots of great opportunities for young people when you consider that 10,000 Baby Boomers retire every day. And he had never thought about that. You know, he wanted a job in the video gaming industry. But last October, he attended our Process Expo and he was just floored at all of the technology out on the floor. He just had no concept of how this huge industry stocks their shelves every day. And that walk on the show floor really opens his eyes. So, on the one hand, I'm seeing it from the eyes of my son who's seeing it for the first time. On the other hand, you know, from my perspective, I can tell you it's a great industry. It's far more stable than most industries. I hate to say it, but during COVID, the food industry has actually done better in a lot of respects because we have to continue eating.

In addition to that, I tell you, there's a lot of really good people in this industry. It's been a pleasure to get to know them. It's a very different type of industry than what I had in the past, you know. I came from selling commodity plastics to the food industry, which was rather cutthroat. Compare that to my work with the association, and it's just...you know. When people tell you something, you can believe it. I can't speak highly enough about the people in this industry. In addition to that, it is a truly diverse industry in terms of the different segments, the horizontal spectrum of the food industry. There's just so much to learn. There's so much opportunity that you could be working in meat, prepared foods, beverages, you name it. There's so many new things coming on that really is exciting. It's an exciting time for the industry. When I go shopping, I love seeing the new products on the shelves, and in some cases, knowing the challenges that went into delivering it to the consumer. So, I think for young people, considering this as an industry, it really is a great opportunity where you really can set yourself up for quite a career.

Erin: I would completely agree. I'm the creator of the Influential Women in Manufacturing program, and throughout the course of our program, we've done numerous presentations, webinars, events, whatnot. And I know in one of the presentations talking or speaking to the fact of the food and beverage manufacturing and all of that, if you look on your pantry shelf, everything...or your refrigerator to pantry, everything in there was made by someone who manufactured something, and whether that's the ingredient, whether it's the label on the packaging. And in speaking to the...all of that had to come from somewhere and all of that somewhere had to be done by people, and to give people who were listening to that particular event a real broad stroke of we don't think of manufacturing, food and beverage manufacturing younger...I'm going to say kids, but, like, younger adults may not think of it, like, "Yes, but look..." you know.

I love what you say and I think covering this industry as we...if I have that, yeah, this is one of the few, very few industries that has been constant and even grown during the pandemic. Because, as you say, everyone needs food. Very familiar. Yeah. I like walking down the grocery store aisle the correct way, so I follow the arrows. But no, and I look...and I've been doing my job with Food Processing for nearly 13 years, and so I've been covering the new product introductions and the innovations for over a decade now, and I still, you know. There's a bit of giddiness when I see like, oh, yeah, I remember when so-and-so was innovating that or the technology behind like HPP or something, like, oh, yeah, I remember when that was just a blip on the radar and now.

Andy: Sure.

Erin: The science and technology behind food I think is exciting and just all the innovations to manufacture and keep things safe and distributed even more so. So, I have one last question because it sounds like we might be fairly close in age and generation. So, we're going to leave on this note, maybe presuming that people listening to this podcast might be close to our age. So, what advice do you have for those who may be more seasoned, have been in the food and beverage or some realm of its supplier or otherwise for 10 to 20 years? Maybe they're getting a little tired. Maybe they're not quite sure. Should I invest in more training? What should I do? I'm not quite sure. My final question to you, what advice would you give that group of people?

Andy: You know, that's a really good question. What I would say to people with that type of experience, I think there are great opportunities happening for, Erin, let's say our generation. This industry really needs Gen X and the employees that have been there for 10 to 15 years. As the boomer generation retires, that's a lot of institutional knowledge that we need to replace, but with a caveat, you know. The way we produced food 20 years ago, that's in the past. And today we need to focus on assuring food safety with all products. Twenty years ago, you might have heard that in the meat industry and the dairy industry, but you didn't hear it in other places so much.

Something like record-keeping, that's changing thanks to the internet of things. And now, you know, obviously, we've got the pandemic. Some of the changes that we've made in the last seven months on the production floor, they're going to stay with us even after a vaccine is produced because, on one hand, some of these changes just make sense for production, and on the other, COVID is not the only virus out there.

We don't want to be shutting down again in a few years. Some logical modification to plant design and production setup can prevent that. But going back to your question, you know, employees with 10 to 15 years experience, you are the production experts. You are the leaders who will take your company to the next level. By keeping up with technological advances, you can stay at this level to better address tomorrow's challenges. At the same time...I recently told someone, "For the employee, it's kind of a seller's market and they're selling their services." So, they get the opportunity knowing with all these retirements, they are in demand, but you have to keep up with your training. And so, you do that, it strengthens your hands within the company you work for because they want to keep you, and at the same time, maybe I shouldn't say this, but there are other companies also looking to replace their people, so they're looking at people with good experience in the industry. So, with that in mind, just keep plowing forward, keep up on technology, and the opportunities are going to be there.

Erin: I think that's great. So, it's always be training, always be developing too.

Andy: Exactly.

Erin: Even me sort of the industry within and I'm within the media. Same thing, always be training or learning. And I know there's an adage that I have heard often, and I think I've even referenced it in things I've written or talked about that the Generation X is often known as the bridge generation because we're young enough to have learned the technology and we are adaptable with the technology, you know, but we also are old enough to know analog. So, we have this beautiful...We're in this very beautiful position to understand both realms of...We lived through something older and had to learn as part of our coming into our own in careers or in jobs, and then had to also be able to explain it. So, whether it's, yes, my kids taught me how to do X, Y, Z with a certain technology, or I learned it to keep up with my kids. I also explained it to my parents why it was important and why everyone wants to be on a Zoom call with...I don't know, but I've heard that reference that Gen X is the bridge generation, and that, even for a lot of companies, is very helpful because we are that group that can explain, has the skills to say, "Okay, well, I've experienced both, so I can walk you through. I have that institutional knowledge. I also have that newer technology, newer opportunity, knowledge too."

I think it's great what you're saying, and it's definitely an instance where the 180 Skills online training program can come in handy, no matter if you are a younger generation just starting out, or you are still within that, you know, generation X, middle generation, not really ready to retire generation.

Andy: Yeah.

Erin: Andy, it has been absolutely wonderful talking to you today. Thank you so much for joining me. And we'll definitely be including information about the 180 Skills online training program in our show notes and on the website. And thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for listening everyone.

Andy: Thank you, Erin.