Global Corporate Xpansion

AUTOMOTIVE
CONQUERING THE AUTO
INDUSTRY’S WORKFORCE WOES
Visionaries in the automotive industry are
working to plug the coming talent gap.

There is nothing like being on the ground floor and creating plans for the future. For those involved with the talent side of the auto industry, the major changes the industry has gone through have put an even greater emphasis on the retention and attraction of talent, particularly as the industry enters the next generation of automotive development and production.

“Large numbers [of workers] left the industry voluntarily,
and not, during the most recent downturn,” says Kristin
Dziczek, the director of the labor and industry group for
the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor,
Mich. “Quite frankly, there is a lot of work to be done.
The auto industry has for many years just cut workers so
it will take real work to rebuild the image that this is an
industry people want to go to.”
Dziczek, who is also the director of the center’s
Program for Automotive Labor and Education (PALE)
initiative, discusses two studies that are being conducted
with companies to ascertain the state of the workforce
today and the skills needed for tomorrow, as well as what
the green revolution will mean to the industry’s workforce
requirements.

Global Corporate Xpansion: What is the biggest issue in the auto industry in regard to talent?

Kristin Dziczek: There are two: retention and attraction. We want cars to be at the forefront of the green revolution. We need to solve how to place batteries into cars so that they are safe and affordable. The entire battery challenge brings in new groups of people we didn’t have in the industry before.

And, the workforce also needs to attract degreed employees such as engineers. There is a much higher perceived risk in the auto industry than even five years ago. So we need to answer: How do companies make themselves attractive to top talent? Or how do they work without the talent?

GCX: How is CAR helping?

Dziczek: Through PALE’s research endeavors. We are on two parallel tracks right now.

One study characterizes what the green jobs in auto will look like. What are the skill needs? What are the additive skills for the incumbent workforce? What are the new skills that will need to come into those companies? And how are we going to get there?