The Mheda Journal

As I mentioned a few days ago, we are doing a feature on mentoring in the next issue of The MHEDA Journal.

I had an interesting conversation earlier this week with Stephen Raymond, president of Raymond Handling Concepts Corp. (Fremont, CA), who told me about the development of the Raymond Academy, a management development program he and his staff came up with in 2008 and implemented in 2009. It’s a pretty involved process, as about a dozen employees from across the different branch locations spend an entire year reading books, taking personality and leadership tests, and talking with a mentor on the RHS management team—in general, learning how to be a leader.

Prior to the Raymond Academy, Steve Raymond said he had a “Poof, Now You’re A Manager” program. “We chose them based on experience and a sense that we had that this person had leadership potential. But we didn’t have any development training that we put them through. It was just ‘Poof, you’re a manager and we’ll try to help you any way we can.’ They would either figure it out or they wouldn’t,” he says. 

It strikes me that the “Poof!” methodology is probably more common than a formalized training program. Training is important for employee development, but how much training do you actually give your employees? Do you just throw them to the wolves? Give them a handbook of what to do? Product training is part of it, but there’s more to it than that. How do you teach people how to fit in at your company? Look for the Third Quarter issue of The MHEDA Journal for some suggestions, or leave your own in the comments section below.

In doing some research for the Third Quarter 2011 issue of The MHEDA Journal, which is themed around young talent, I came across a recent article in The New York Times titled “Many With New College Degree Find The Job Market Humbling.” 

“Employment rates for new college graduates have fallen sharply in the last two years, as have average starting salaries for those who can find work,” the article states. Only 56 percent of new graduates even have jobs. The median starting salary for students graduating from four-year colleges in 2009-10 was $27,000, a $3,000 decline from 2006-08.

This probably doesn’t exactly come as breaking news to you out there; the job market has been depressed for the last couple of years and will remain so for a while. But it did strike me that one of the common laments from MHEDA members, even now, is the difficulty in finding quality help. It would seem that with the proliferation of new graduates, that “young talent” that employers are seeking should be there in abundance. Clearly, however, it is not.

So why the disconnect? I understand that it’s an economy-related issue, but what else is at play? What is it about the material handling industry that makes so many young people “unqualified”? Maybe I should ask it the other way—what is it about the young people that make them “unqualified” for the material handling industry? It’s an interesting conundrum, don’t you think? We’re going to try to answer it in the July 2011 issue of The MHEDA Journal, but feel free to let me know your thoughts in the meantime. Leave a comment below to discuss.

For the Third Quarter issue of The MHEDA Journal, we’re doing a feature we’re calling “Mentoring Success Stories,” so I’m talking to some MHEDA members about their training practices and mentoring processes. When I typically think of mentoring, I think of how it’s a good way to help a inexperienced person get to know the industry and the benefits that that person can gain from being exposed to a more experienced person who’s seen everything there is to see in the industry. The new person learns how to handle certain situations and all the different elements of the job.

But I think there’s another aspect of mentoring that too often gets overlooked. And that is, how the experienced person can find just as much value from the relationship. I spoke with Pam Jones at Flight Systems Industrial Products, who has developed a couple of different mentoring programs at her company. She’s in the process of completing a one-on-one mentoring program with a young employee, and the mentee has learned the industry and Jones has gotten something from it too. “The industry is starting to get to know her, and every time I hear them call to talk to her, I know they trust her. They’re comfortable talking to her. It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something,” she said.

That’s a great point. The experience and knowledge transfer can be just as important to the mentor as they are to the mentee. And that doesn’t even touch on the new skills and procedures that an outside person can bring to the company and can teach to the mentor. So the benefits of mentoring are clearly a two-way street.

Obviously, it’s a huge time commitment, but I think it can be a mutually beneficial relationship and a good way to engage young employees. What do you think? How can a mentoring program work in material handling?

It’s back to school time, so now seems like an appropriate time to congratulate the winner of MHEDA’s annual scholarship, LaDarius McEachin.

McEachin is a senior studying for a B.A. in Industrial Distribution Logistics at East Carolina University.  He says that working in a factory in his hometown “opened my eyes to many different concepts of how one should value their education and how to plan out the proper steps in securing a successful role in the working world.” He is active in several campus programs, including the Professional Association of Industrial Distribution, the Institute of Supply Management, the American Society of Operations Management, and more. Congrats to LaDarius.

I don’t know how many of you are aware that MHEDA sponsors a scholarship each year. The Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association Honors Scholarship is awarded through the Material Handling Education Foundation Inc. (MHEFI). According to MHEDA’s website, “MHEDA’s Industry Advocacy Committee has established a scholarship fund to further the awareness and recognition of the material handling industry within the academic community. Each year, it is awarded to a worthy student enrolled in an industrial distribution curriculum.”

It’s certainly a worthy cause. I know in my days as a college student, any help I could get was appreciated, particularly if it came from the industry I planned to work in. Not that I was worthy of any such things, but that’s another discussion for another time.

This is just another way that your MHEDA membership dues are helping support your company and your industry. It’s a good reminder as we send kids back to school.

Whether you know about it or not, the 2010 Winter Olympics get underway from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, this week. The Opening Ceremonies take place Friday, Feb. 12. It seems like the Olympics have been flying a bit under the radar this year, but I just wanted to point out that MHEDA has done its best to illuminate what’s going on with its latest issue of MHEDA Edge.

The February issue is full of stories about MHEDA’s gold medal performers, young up-and-comers in the industry who were nominated by colleagues to be recognized. The issue also features a story from an Olympic luge competitor about why “there’s no such thing as luck.” It’s a fun issue and I urge you to check it out.

According to a recent article on Reuters.com, small businesses are not jumping on the social media bandwagon. The article says that nearly 75% of small businesses do not find sites such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn helpful for generating business leads. 

I tend to disagree. More and more people are popping up on these sites everyday, and if not used improperly, can be a gateway to a whole new audience of people. (On a self-serving note, the growing audience of this blog and another MHEDA offering, wikiMHEDA, can be traced almost exactly by their promotion on such social media sites. ) 

On that note, to those of you who are using Twitter, you can follow me! I post updates about what I’m hearing going on out there in the industry several times a week. Click here to see what’s going on and stay informed!

Our company is looking to recruit an intern from a local college and today I had the chance to attend an internship fair at Syracuse University. We met many brilliant young aspiring writers, graphic designers, editors and programmers. It reminded me that there is a lot of young talent all around us.

The same is true in the material handling industry. Colleges (and even high schools) are developing the material handling industry skills of young people with courses in industrial distribution, transportation and logistics, supply chain management, and many others.

Don’t forget that MHEDA can help connect you with such young talent through its Gateway site. Gateway is a place where students can post resumes and employers can find qualified applicants for open positions at their companies. It’s a great way to find qualified help! The MHEDA Journal also publishes profiles of one or more deserving students in every issue. We’ve also published articles on the importance of getting the word out about our great industry and the difference between a co-op and an internship to help distributors set up a program that works best for their business.

A common complaint is that there is no qualified talent in the material handling industry. Well, it’s out there…it’s up to us to go find it!

My colleague Dan Vest, editor of MHEDA Edge, the association’s online magazine for young material handling professionals, turned me on to something pretty cool. As he said, “Who says video games can’t teach you anything?”

Click here to read Dan’s blog entry. I’ve been contemplating buying a Wii for the house…would this make it a work expense? Just kidding, but it is a pretty cool application.�

I received my monthly installment of E-MHOVE, the monthly newsletter from MHIA. The lead story was about a new high school program to encourage students to get involved in material handling and logistics careers. Of course, this is an important initiative, and I applaud this school and MHIA for making this happen. MHEDA has been highly involved in such industry awareness programs for the last several years.

It reminds me of some information that our own MHEDA President, Duncan Murphy, president of Riekes Equipment Company (Omaha, NE), sent me last fall. His wife, Rozanne, is a guidance counselor atOmaha’s William Jennings Bryan High School, and she led a committee that developed the “Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics Learning Hub” at that school. Around that same time, Rozanne’s program was voted the #1 industrial technology department in the United States.

First, congrats to Rozanne for being rewarded for all her hard work putting that program together. Second, let this be a reminder and a call to action for all MHEDA members that there is young talent out there, but it’s up to you to go find it.