Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/921113
Brett Cole PRESIDENT Cole Pallet Services Corporation Dekalb, Illinois 2018 will continue to be a tight labor market in the Midwest. We have fewer people who actually want to do physical labor. Cole Pallet Services will continue to automate and hire higher level employees to offset the labor shortages. We've also increased our starting wage and use temp services to do our initial hiring. This puts some of the burden of drug screening, background checks, and e-verification on the staffing agency. In the next 5-10 years we expect our industry to consolidate and to open room for growth by hiring people with experience in our industry. We also expect automation to continue causing the need for physical labor to decrease. Overall, physical labor will continue to be hard to find and skilled labor for automation will be required. Regarding pay and benefits, we're working on increasing wages and offering more benefits to employees. As we grow, we want our employees to grow with us. In our small town, we have several big businesses, Nestle, Target, 3M (5+ plants), etc, therefore we compete against some top tier employers for our labor. Right now, the biggest competition is for labor. We'll continue to automate and train our key employees to use the new equipment. This will allow us to keep our most valuable staff while producing more pallets and cut-stock on a daily basis. Katie Sutter CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Excelsior Marking Akron, Ohio In my business, we see an aging workforce. This will cause a need for skilled labor in the next 5-10 years, mainly for programmers, machinists and general laborers. It's going to be even more competitive as more "Baby Boomers" retire. Finding the right person takes time. In our area, we have a good public job agency, and the state of Ohio also offers training reimbursement. Entry-level is the toughest. We can't "afford" or need college graduates for all job openings. At the same time, we need experience. Our community recognizes the upcoming labor problem and has begun to address it with various solutions. One solution is to engage educators and employers in the conversation. Our public school system is creating Career Academies where grade schools and high schools introduce students to career paths. Some involve advanced education, some do not. This is in its early stages, but it's a start! palletcentral.com PalletCentral • November-December 2017 13 "Putting in robotics will help if per fected, but putting people to work is the real key." James Kesting, Madison County Products