TECT Aerospace: Succession Planning And Recruitment Strategies

Whereas once there was reluctance on the part of veteran staffers to work with potential new recruits, today most managers jump at the chance. Slocum describes how this come about through TECT’s co-op program, which brings in college students for a few months of practical, hands-on experience. Many of the co-op participants even end up working at the company after graduation.

With so many of the company’s hourly employees nearing retirement age, Slocum recognises the challenge of preparing for succession planning “before all that knowledge walks out the door.” Several leadership and mentoring programs are paving the way for the next generation to step into the roles soon to be vacated by their older peers.

On the positive side, the wide spectrum of ages has made for an inclusive work environment, with engaged employees who go the extra mile to be helpful. Slocum notes that, although in most companies’ new employees tend to band together, that’s not common at TECT, where bonds are formed more on the basis of personalities rather than company tenure or age group. The diver staff also makes for a more interesting workplace, he says.

When an employee complains about another leaving before the five o’clock whistle blows, Slocum advises them to talk it out. This has helped improve overall communication and allowed employees to understand that different work styles do not necessarily mean a worker is less productive than one who adheres to more traditional working hours.

Although the new onboarding process wasn’t wholly driven by studying Millennials, it was one factor. “One thing we learned about this generation is that they’re looking for connections right away,” Slocum explains. “They really value those relationships, and they’re looking for them immediately.

Introduction to TECT Aerospace

TECT Aerospace is an Aerospace manufacturing company based in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. It has a total population of 1300 employees where 75% are hourly and 25% salaried all within the United States. The company is facing a serious challenge since the majority of hourly employees are approaching retirement age. There is a big concern since most of these employees have a great experience and therefore there no need to nurture the next generation for a succession.

Tech co-op program is one of the strategies which company uses for employee recruitment. The program focuses on young students at colleges. They offer an opportunity to gain on-job experience while still pursuing their studies. Managers did not welcome the TECT co-op program, but it has grown, and its popularity has made it possible for many companies to embrace it. However, the program has its strengths and weaknesses on how it impacts the company (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2001).

The recruitment strategy has various strengths. Some of them include an introduction to a New perspective on organizational issues. The co-op students challenge the traditional way the company has always been doing things. They come with fresh new ideas to the organization which they learn in school making the company to adapt to the latest trends hence being more competitive in the industry. These students are good at questioning the poor process in the organizations, and this can offer a better way of doing things that may not be done by employees in the workplace (Patterson, Ferguson, & Knight, 2010).

Ease use with technology. The young are very conversant with computer programs, social media, and iPads among other new technology. This enables young professionals to be very flexible and conversant with new technology as compared to older employees. This means that the co-op team will embrace new technology introduced to the company and adapt quickly.

It's a trial time that could lead to something more. Though the TECT co-op program, the organization can evaluate the potential these students have in the field. The managers can see the work ethics and skills a student has and may choose to retain the student in the company after completing his/her studies. The company also has an opportunity to identify individuals who are not serious and make informed decisions when these students request for the job opportunity. They can eliminate jokers and retain the serious students who are ready to make a positive impact on the organization (Choi & Jacobs, 2011).

 Students can provide relief of workload during peak seasons, projects or research. With the help of the co-op students, the company will be able to carry out its work smoothly without much pressure during the peak seasons. In case they need to carry out research, these students will be of much benefit since they will help the organization to carry out the analysis using the knowledge they learn from school. They also provide labor that allows the organization to complete tasks or projects they are struggling to achieve. This doesn't not only benefit the business but also the students since they will be gaining experience (Campbell, 2011).

Succession Planning Challenge

The co-op program is an effective recruitment strategy.  The company reduces the additional cost associated with the traditional ways of recruitment such as media advertisement. It is also cost effective and low-risk venture as it's a way of training future potential hires. The lucky students who will get an opportunity to get hired by the organization, will not need to undergo extra training hence saving the organization time and cost for training new employees (Cascio & Aguinis, 2011).

The co-op program helps to nature leadership qualities such as accountability, time management, problem- solving, and team building among others that can help them become leaders of the company in the future. Since the students can interact with leaders and top managers, they can learn from them about good qualities of leadership. This will be of good help in the future when the company is in need of leaders. They can be able to recommend them since they already have the skills.

The recruitment strategy provides cost-effective succession plan whereby the company has an opportunity to shape these young recruits to the acceptable standards. This strategy will help the company to mitigate the risk of losing knowledge from experienced employee since these recruits are in the best position to acquire the necessary skills within a short duration (Patterson, 1997).

The company will also improve its reputation — students who get the opportunity to learn from the company normally act as good ambassadors of the company. They can spread to the community what the company does and its services. Companies that offer this program has a good reputation in the eyes of the general public as they are viewed to be giving back to the community.

The program encourages job rotation. During training, the students can move from one department to another. This enables them to learn and gain experience in different departments. This helps them to make informed decisions when choosing their specialization as they know what they are good at. Job rotation can also benefit the company in that the trained student can be posted in any job position he/she is good at (Kainer, 2006). 

Weakness

Since these students in the co-op program come from different backgrounds, in most cases it's difficult to adapt to the company culture easily. TECT program requires the company to dedicate time to train and direct the students; this reduces the productivity of the company. Some of these students are not absorbed at the end of the training due to their bad attitude towards the overall objective. While TECT is busy training the students in the co-op program, their competitors may be busy preparing their employee. In the future, the competitors will have a skilled employee thus acquiring a competitive advantage (Villeneuve & Grubb, 1996).

Young recruits tend to be more unstable because of high expectation regarding payments and career development. Co-op program requires the company to invest substantial resources in term of capital and training to the young recruits with an expectation of returns on its investment. Young recruits are very unstable in term of career development, and they tend to apply elsewhere thus reducing full dedication of assigned tasks (Anderson, 1997).

Recruitment Strategies: TECT Co-op Program

Co-op program presents companies with the inexperienced employees which have a direct impact on the company’s productivity. The main aim of TECT is to deliver quality services and products to its clients and therefore having unskilled workers sometimes compromise this objective. Competitor sometimes takes this opportunity to penetrate to the market easily (Hough & Oswald, 2000).

The co-op program prepares students to stand-out in a competitive market by providing them with work experience (Leeper, Rennie, & Palecki, 2015). The students are monitored and trained throughout the program to ensure they are equipped with the required skills to prepare them for future leadership roles.

The company should identify the knowledge, skills, and passion of each trainee at the start of the program — this act as a benchmark to assess training needs and an action plan designed to nurture skill (Hameed & Waheed, 2011). The managers should formulate a standardized form outlining the required skills for different roles. The co-op program students should be required to sign upon achieving those skills. This will enable the trainers to assess the performance of each student towards overall company objective (Wieler, & Bailey, 1997).

At the end of the program, the supervisors should be able to develop performance appraisal based on skills acquired. This enables the company to only retain students with the best performance regarding skills and attitude towards the company objective. The company reduces the cost associated with hiring and training new employees if it's able to retain the best students (Russell, 2005).

During the evaluation, the company can identify areas where the student is good at. This will help them when assigning duties. They will be able to place the best candidate for a specific role to the position/ department they are good at. This will improve their overall productivity (Tannenbaum, Weschler, & Massarik, 2013).

The evaluation also enables the company to assess the impact of the co-op program investment. Since the primary objective of this program is to bridge the looming gap caused by retiring employee, the company is very interested in return on investment by making sure students with best skills and knowledge are trained and retained (Vedung, 2017). Therefore, supervisors and trainers should closely monitor the performance of each student to ensure the company achieve the desired objective.

Generally, the performance evaluation helps the company to measure the resources needed and also to ascertain the success of the action plan. Since most scholars are fresh and energetic, there is an opportunity for the company to nurture their skills and groom them to be expert in their areas.

In conclusion, TECT co-op program has various strengths and weaknesses as highlighted above. However, it is essential for the company to carry out an evaluation analysis to examine if the program is a viable strategy for recruitment. From the evaluation above, the program can be appropriate as its strengths outdo its weaknesses. The program does benefit not only the organization but also the student. Hence it's a good strategy that the company can continue using to recruit employee. Special thanks to the co-op program.

Reference

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