Michael Levin / Inquirer
Bert Griffin works on a bulkhead on the Osprey assembly line at the Boeing plant in Ridley Park.
Top challenge: Hiring and keeping the very best
Finding talented, reliable workers in a competitive market is a pressing concern, human resources people say.
All of the headlines on the rising costs of health care and the cutting of jobs would lead you to believe that those are the priorities for human resources executives.
And you would be wrong.
"The top thing on my mind is how we continually look for the best talent," said Carol Price, senior vice president for organization and leadership development at Aramark Corp. "We have to get that right."
Price, of course, was talking about Aramark. But interviews with a dozen HR executives at the region's largest employers brought the same concerns. Each cited recruitment and retainment as their most important priorities.
"Hiring the very best people, training them, elevating them and retaining them - it's a big issue," said Charisse Lillie, vice president of human resources at Comcast Corp., of Philadelphia. "We know we're in the middle of a talent crunch."
The challenges to finding top talent are many, human resources executives said.
The local labor market is competitive: Fewer students choose science majors, the work is increasingly complex, and to compound the issue, the executives worry that the pending retirement of baby boomers may lead to a major talent shortage, especially a paucity of younger workers with enough experience to fill leadership roles.
The talent issue crosses business sector lines.
Recruitment and retainment were the top concerns for executives at large retailing companies such as Acme Markets Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Wawa Inc., who need clerks, managers, hoagie-makers and butchers, and for Comcast, which must hire a wide range of employees from on-air talent for its television shows to technicians who can install Internet and cable television.
And it was equally a concern for the human resources executives at the Vanguard Group Inc., one of the region's largest financial institutions, and at area science and manufacturing companies, such as Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and AstraZeneca P.L.C.
Talent shortages are already a headache for hospital employers such as Catholic Health East, which employs 13,200 at nine hospitals in the region, and Jefferson Health System Inc., in Radnor, which has nearly 28,000 at more than 20 hospitals and health-care facilities in the area.
Even at Temple University in North Philadelphia, which graduates more than 8,000 students and potential employees a year, Deborah Hartnett, human resources vice president, worries about finding the right people - and then keeping them flexible enough to change as times change.
All types of talent are important.
"It's not just the engineering talent, it's the business minds, it's the manufacturing talent, it's the skilled craftspeople," said Richard S. Hendin, director of human resources at Boeing's Philadelphia-area facility.
First, "it's a competitive area for labor," said Harry Johnson, vice president of human resources for the Eastern Division of Supervalu Inc., Acme's corporate parent.
"This is not an area where there is a tremendous amount of growth," he said in his Malvern office. "So we're all competing for a not-expanding labor pool."
Among his competitors is Wawa, based in Wawa, near Chadds Ford. "We have as much competition on the people side as we do on the retail side," said Ed Iames, Wawa's director of people development.
"Real top of my mind is, it's about finding enough great leaders to support our expansion. Our business model has gotten more complex over the years," Iames said.
In the early 1980s, a Wawa could open with five associates and a manager, he said.
"Now we can't run a shift with five associates. We have stores with upward of 60 or 65 people, and the competencies that it takes to lead this team have ramped way up," he said.
