"How to handle produce and deli, skills in the bakery departments, cake decorating. Some of these supercenters have tire and lube centers," said Morris, who formerly handled human resources for Genuardi's Family Markets Inc. and now works out of Wal-Mart's divisional headquarters in Ewing, N.J. "Those are skill sets we don't have in this area" among current employees.
With so many retailers, Morris said, it was an ongoing battle for all of them to keep their best workers.
Or maybe it's war.
"The word 'war on talent' is way overused," said Kimberly Wipf, executive director of human resource shared services at AstraZeneca in Wilmington. "But there is a war on talent."
Particularly troubling for the pharmaceutical and other science-based industries, she said, is that "the research shows there are less and less students going into the biological sciences, less going into chemistry and other sciences."
There are some shortages in key medical fields, even as the nursing shortage has eased.
"There are already fewer physical therapists than we have needs for," said Eileen Bove, vice president of human resources at Jefferson Health System, which employs nearly 30,000 at more than a dozen hospitals in the region. "Occupational therapists are hard to find."
With the competition so intense, pay becomes an issue, and that is what worries Hartnett at Temple, which must rely on appropriations from the state and tuition to fund its payroll.
"There's only so much money, and it can only go around so many ways," she said. That is where, she said, concerns about health insurance come in. "It's not just an HR issue, it's a financial issue."
But, nearly all the human resources executives said, being in the college-rich Philadelphia area gives them a leg up in recruiting.
"I think Philadelphia is a remarkable place for college talent," said Kathy Gubanich, managing director of human resources, in her office at Vanguard's campus in Malvern. "We have some of the finest colleges here, and there are so many."
Local companies are not confining their efforts to four-year college campuses and universities. Some are plumbing trade schools, community colleges and high schools. (See related story.)
And AstraZeneca milks another source of local talent: hiring experienced manufacturing workers from among the ranks of employees laid off from the nearby Chrysler plant.
What area companies cannot find in the local labor market, they grow in-house.
Jefferson, for example, is pursuing a grant to help some of its least-skilled employees move into more skilled jobs.
"We're going to take a certain number of employees and train them with in-house schooling," Bove said. "To go into the lab, or to go into technician jobs, they are going to need some help with basic skills."
Eighteen months ago, Acme reinstituted a long-defunct union-management two-year apprentice program to train store associates to become butchers and meat managers. The idea was to give younger associates an opportunity, while beefing up skills and building bench strength behind the meat counter as the baby boomers retired.
While the rising cost of health insurance was never the top concern of the human resources executives interviewed last month, it often did crop up in the top three.
"Health care is an enormous issue. It's huge. But it is a cost of doing business," said Gubanich at Vanguard, and, she said, good benefits are key to attracting and retaining talent.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Philly.com Promotions
BUSINESS
