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48 SMT Magazine • May 2017 able to bring in younger talent. We've also intro- duced a lot of incentives like tuition reimburse- ment and on the job training that can help us attract and retain that talent. The use of social media sounds cliché but in manufacturing it is critical to reach millennial talent. Recent statistics show that over 85% of millennials have smartphones and touch them more than 45 times per day. Five out of six mil- lennials connect with companies via social me- dia networks. If your company in not active and does not invest in social media today, you are simply not visible to this generation and miss- ing out on this talent pipeline. Another challenge facing many manufactur- ing companies today is finding candidates with the right skill sets to fill specific jobs. There is a real gap of skilled manufacturing talent, large- ly because many schools have not been teach- ing manufacturing skills for nearly two decades. About 20 years ago, many high schools just stopped teaching manufacturing-related skills. There was no more wood shop, no more auto- motive, no more welding or electronics classes. Students were convinced that they needed to go to college for advanced degrees and manufactur- ing was no longer seen as an option anymore. This all happened around the time of the dotcom boom. The new trend started to shift towards in- ternet and computer-related jobs and teaching. Today, we find ourselves with a serious skill gap; in some places, finding skilled soldering and SMT operators can present a real challenge. Overall, manufacturing finds some of the larg- MANUFACTURING THROUGH THE EYES OF HUMAN RESOURCES, RECRUITMENT AND NEW HIRE TRAINING Figure 1: Brian Kingston, Tina Berger and Ken Lawrence. Figure 2: Workforce diversity at MC Assembly.