Who will run tomorrow's mills? New strategies are needed to attract and retain a skilled workforce.

Editor's note: This is the second in a continuing series of articles summarizing the results of sessions held at the Technology Summit in May 2001.

If you are young, technologically savvy, and looking for a career, will you even consider the forest products industry? For an industry that increasingly must rely on technology and a technically skilled workforce to maintain global competitiveness, the answer needs to be "yes." To make that happen, the paper industry must develop a strategy to attract and develop a technologically advanced workforce (TAW). That effort will require communications tools and programs to recruit technical graduates and operators and to provide continuing education for employees.

The role of the workforce is rapidly evolving at all levels, from equipment operators to those responsible for optimizing mill systems and keeping facilities productive and competitive. In this environment, where knowledge is the primary asset, a knowledgeable and enabled workforce is the key to success. It is critical for industry-in partnership with universities, community colleges, and labor unions--to provide the expectations, tools, and means to encourage this new workforce to continuously learn and grow with the demands of technology and business.

A specific focus on improving the knowledge and skill level of the North American forest and paper industry workforce is an important component of an Agenda 2020 program. The industry has identified the following goals and strategies to address some of the gaps and secure tomorrow's workforce.

GOAL 1

Increase the industry's profitability by 25%, as measured by return on capital employed (ROCE), by attracting, recruiting, and retaining people with strong science, engineering and technology knowledge and skills.

The U.S. forest products industry faces a serious challenge in attracting the human resources it needs to remain competitive. In the last few years, significantly fewer students have enrolled in the nation's undergraduate pulp and paper science and engineering programs. Mills are finding it difficult to recruit an adequate number of entry-level operator candidates with the required skill levels and commitment. Most K-12 science teachers have little or no positive information about our industry or, worse yet, have distinctly negative opinions. All of this is occurring despite the fact that the industry has a very positive story and an attractive message for students.

The industry needs a national message and a recruitment program to attract the best and brightest people. The current recruitment message, delivered in various forms by educational institutions that are members of the Pulp and Paper Education and Research Alliance (PPERA) and others, has several compelling elements, including our renewable raw material base, the recyclability of our products, energy self-sufficiency, our sustainability and advanced technology (see www.cnr.umn.edu/PPERA/). Our message also emphasizes our industry's national and regional economic impact.

In spite of that, our industry is still seen as "old economy," polluting and financially struggling. We need to upgrade our message, reemphasizing our strengths. We need to tell our new story in the context of a technology vision embracing the leading edge of biotechnology, nanotechnology, computer science, and materials science. The message must become more visionary and incorporate the lessons learned from the revitalization of other industries' images over the past decade.

Gap-filling solutions

Currently, each educational institution delivers its own version of the industry message to likely applicants. While this approach should be continued and intensified with an upgraded message and improved tools, the message must also focus on the prestige, diversity, and high quality of the entire set of industry programs and institutions. PPERA institutions should cooperatively develop and articulate opportunities for students.

As we re-tool our message, we should recognize that competition among institutions and industries for the best and brightest young people is white-hot. To back up our new image and message, we must be able to offer superior financial aid and employment packages, not just competitive ones.

The partnerships of PPERA institutions with pulp and paper foundations and member companies provide much more than the resources needed to underwrite scholarships and fellowships. This total system affords unparalleled networking and reentering opportunities for students and graduates. These opportunities extend to other countries through the increasingly global membership of the foundations and of the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST).

These university-industry partnerships require a new level of commitment on the part of corporate supporters if this recruitment strategy is to succeed. Each company should align itself with the content and purpose of the recruitment message and support the industry's technology strategy. Each company must have a "champion," a commitment to recruiting, and a plan to define the role for technology leaders and the career paths to these positions.

PPERA institutions serve a central role in attracting the best young people to our industry through strong, focused BS-level programs in pulp and paper science and engineering. This role must be extended to the operator training level. In some cases this is being done through partnerships involving individual PPERA universities, local community colleges, industry, and labor. We can coordinate and extend these efforts to form a national network linking the regional operator training programs.

The industry's message should highlight the role for future leaders in the industry's technology strategy and fast-track career paths, with case histories. It should call attention to our excellent, diverse academic programs in outstanding institutions featuring unique industry partnerships. It also should promote a strong labor-management alliance committed to world-leading training and education.

An initial step in promoting this new message should be a comprehensive survey of PPERA institutions to determine current best practices and to develop recommendations for the production of new promotional material, including CDs, web content, and printed material. The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), TAPPI, the Paper Industry Management Association (PIMA), and industry members have the potential to play a strong role in helping develop and deploy the necessary recruitment tools. The message delivery agents include PPERA member institutions, their foundations and member companies, and association such as TAPPI, PIMA and AF&PA. The base-level expectation is that the paper schools, the foundations, and IPST will continue their current recruitment activities with a major boost from the new message, improved formats, and a new emphasis on admissions into operator training programs.

Coordinated or joint recruitment efforts extolling the benefits of the connections and relationships among PPERA institutions also need more emphasis. For example, we should emphasize the role of the paper schools as potential feeders into the graduate programs of IPST (or other PPERA graduate programs). PPERA members should undertake more cooperative research programs with the potential for graduate students to move among the institutions to conduct their MS and PhD research. The network of regional operator training programs should be included in the overall effort.

The industry needs to adopt a more highly coordinated recruitment model Fig. 1. This model would focus the PPERA institutions' recruitment efforts into an integrated strategy linked directly to the industry technology strategy and directed toward the goal of a technologically advanced workforce. This model would include a management function for budget control, task coordination, linkage among institutions and their foundations, linkage with the technology strategy, and continuous improvement.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

GOAL 2

To increase the industry's profitability by 25% as measured by ROCE by creating an educational system focused on the development of the basic, technical, business and leadership skills required for positions in the industry.

As competitive pressures have forced the North American forest products industry to continually reduce costs, related factors have diminished the level and breadth of technical skill and understanding. It is difficult today to match changing requirements for labor and skills with the changing workforce. It is becoming increasingly difficult to attract people with an appropriate level of technical training for operating positions. Industries in a growth mode appear more attractive to young people starting their careers.

The rapid advancement and adoption of automation technology is, in many cases, surpassing the knowledge and skill level of those asked to operate and maintain the equipment. More employees than ever need an in-depth understanding of automation fundamentals. While individual companies must ensure the proper level of training for operating and supervising manufacturing processes, there is a gap in their ability to attract and train the best employees. A number of institutions continually introduce curricula in an attempt to fill this gap. Despite some excellent regional efforts, the industry-wide results have been ineffective since they are fragmented and lack coordination and uniformity.

Gap-filling solutions

A virtual center of excellence consisting of companies, associations, educational providers, and union leaders will provide gap-filling solutions and will serve the TAW initiative. It will include industry research and academic institutions such as IPST, PPERA, Paprican, and the Center for Paper Business and Industry Studies (CPIBS); supporting academic institutions such as trade schools and community colleges; associations such as TAPPI, PIMA, and PAPTAC; and pulp and paper manufacturers, suppliers, unions (PACE), and trade associations (AF&PA) that can contribute to or benefit from the TAW strategy.

The main challenge facing the educational community will be assisting with knowledge and skills development for existing and new employees. The members will provide specific guidelines for developing, cataloging and delivering industry skill development programs and short courses offered by community colleges, vocational schools, and other educational providers.

The development of flexible North American benchmarks for knowledge and skills development practices should be a priority. The initiative should be national in scope, but with implementation at the regional level. CPBIS will take the lead in developing the benchmarks, with input from PACE and academic and industry representatives (AF&PA, TAPPI). This first challenge may well be the opportunity to create or cement the labor-management strategic alliance.

Employee knowledge and skills needs and gaps must be identified. This can only be accomplished effectively through a collaborative labor-management effort and a needs assessment guided by members of the virtual center of excellence, with TAPPI and CPBIS taking the lead.

With benchmarks and needs established, it will be possible to establish accredited academic programs in community colleges and vocational schools and to establish hard- and soft-skill development programs and appropriate delivery systems using the joint resources and skills of the educational community. Once again, coordination between labor and management will be critical to success.

There are already a number of industry-academic partnerships within the center of excellence-including some with labor participation and leadership-focused on operator training and centered in community colleges. Some of these partnerships include PPERA institutions with a long history of partnering with industry at the BS level of technical education. The next step is to study the feasibility and benefits of forming a national network of such programs to leverage resources, foster cooperation, encourage standardization and promote the industry's commitment to advanced technical education. PPERA should undertake the task with Auburn University taking the lead in the context of its partnership with Alabama Southern Community College.

GOAL 3

To increase the industry's profitability by 25% as measured by ROCE by creating an environment for life-long learning that enables and motivates the industry's people to continuously perform at world-leading levels of safety, productivity and innovation.

The paper industry faces continuous demands for new workforce skills and competencies. The ability of a company's workforce to understand how to operate and optimize new technologies is critical to that company's survival. The workforce must be able to optimize systems, anticipate and prevent problems, and renew aging facilities. In this environment, knowledge is a primary asset--or more precisely, new information, new knowledge, and new understanding. The industry must provide the education, tools and processes needed to support and reinforce lifetime learning and growth.

Gap-filling solutions

At the entry level, the virtual center of excellence described earlier will again play a key role. The first step is to conduct a needs assessment of knowledge and skills required by the industry to meet emerging changes in process technology, products, business and international markets. CPBIS will take the lead in this study. Once the needs are well understood, academic institutions should modify existing curricula accordingly. PPERA is the appropriate organization to take the lead in driving these changes.

TAPPI and North Carolina State University (NCSU) will take the lead to guide and coordinate the overall continuing education (CE) program. The first step is to develop a benchmark assessment of CE best practices in our industry and others. We will also need to catalog existing CE and other learning programs, establish coordinated CE curricula for the industry, and develop hard and soft-skill CE programs available to all industry employees. These programs must be based on employee skill levels, locations, time zones, and delivery and reception systems.

Organizational structures to lead industry CE efforts should be established once the other tasks are completed and "key performance indicators" developed for the CE programs. These will be particularly important to measure the progress of the CE efforts for reporting to industry CEOs and other senior leaders. As we develop a comprehensive CE system for the industry, the involvement and support of industry CEOs will be critical. A detailed communication and approval program must be part of this effort.

As new, breakthrough technologies are identified and developed within the framework of the technology strategy, programs will need to be adapted and developed to educate students and train workers.

THE TAW TASK GROUP

The group responsible for the Technologically Advanced Workforce sessions at the Technology Summit, whose hard work this paper summarizes, consisted of the following:

* Gerard P. Closset, management consultant (formerly, vice president of technology, Champion International)

* Harry T. Cullinan, director, Auburn University

* Steven Brady, international representative, PACE International Union

* Harald Finne, director of human resources, UPM-Kymmene Corporation

* Gil Gillespie, senior vice president, human resources, Westvaco Corporation

* Michael Kocurek, head, Department of Wood & Paper Science, North Carolina State University

* Joe McNeel, director, Division of Forestry, West Virginia University 

* Bob Patterson, director, information services, Institute of Paper Science & Technology

* Carnie Wall, group director, planning & education, TAPPI

* Robert E. Watson, director (retired), National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education.

Gerard P. Closset, formerly vice president of technology with Champion International, is now a management consultant based in Pomona, New York, USA; email [e-mail]. Harry T. Cullinan is director, pulp and paper research, at Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA; email [e-mail].