Chris Hart would like to say otherwise, but the Central Moloney Inc. CEO stressed a dire need for dependable, marketable people to become part of his employee-owned transformer industry, let alone the Pine Bluff workforce.
Dire is not an exaggeration, apparently.
"It's worse than I think we even want to admit," he said. "I don't think things are going to get better until we just get down-and-dirty and talk about how things are, and call a problem what it is, and let's come together to figure out how to fix it."
For example, Hart is enduring a bad turnover rate at his 73-year-old company, which is maintaining headquarters in Pine Bluff despite plans to unveil a new manufacturing plant in Panama City Beach, Fla., that will provide 200 jobs and attract members of a large military community in the area.
Asked how that helps Pine Bluff, Hart answered: "It doesn't."
Addressing local educators during a panel engagement, Hart and three other industrial leaders shared what they're looking for in successful candidates Tuesday during a daylong seminar, "Connecting Educators to Industry." Economics Arkansas, an educational nonprofit firm, teamed with the Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County to host the event at the main Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Library that featured Hart, Jefferson Regional Medical Center COO Peter Austin, Pactiv Evergreen power and recovery business unit manager Joe Goss, and Wheeling Machine Products plant manager Ronnie Wilhite.
Marsha Masters, Economics Arkansas associate director, said the shared concerns of educators and industrial experts are common across the state.
"Teachers want students to be prepared all across the state, and industry leaders need those workers," Masters said. "So, our goal is just to connect the dots, to get them to shake hands and learn what both of them need to benefit for our future, for the citizens of Arkansas."
Wilhite stressed the need for employees good at math -- candidates able to convert fractions into decimals are wanted, he pointed out -- and chemistry, as well as those who present themselves ready to work.
Austin, who leads southeast Arkansas' largest hospital, detailed a number of medical positions available along with competitive wages, including nurses, cardiorespiratory therapists and doctors. Entry-level positions are available for those without a college degree, he said, but Jefferson Regional also offers a tuition reimbursement program.
"The sky's the limit," he said. "Where they start isn't necessarily where they will end."
Hart has gone on an all-out blitz with radio advertisements and a recent agreement with his alma mater Watson Chapel School District to try and recruit young people into learning about welding, which upon completion of a new program would give Watson Chapel High graduates hiring priority into Central Moloney. Hart often boasts of the company's $35 million payroll and sizable bonuses paid to every employee during Christmas, but there's just one problem he's endured:
"One out of five people hired at Central Moloney who are supposed to show up for work, don't," Hart said. "These are laborers who are 18 years old and can start to work and in their first year make more money than you guys will."
Goss, the son of a longtime Pine Bluff High School principal, said continuing education can help prospective candidates prepare for interviews and present themselves in a marketable manner to be hired into the workforce.
"Once you get there, most industries -- if you're willing to work and put forth the effort -- we'll be willing to train you and give you the skills you need and give you the equipment that you need to do the job," Goss said. "There are a lot of opportunities out there. It depends how far someone can go."
Formerly known as International Paper and Evergreen Packaging, Pactiv Evergreen shut down a machine last year, Goss said, leading to a reduction in force. Those who were laid off were brought back in the past six months, which Goss said has helped the company.
"We are struggling to find good qualified workers out there," he said. "By qualified, mainly people who are willing to show up and work.
Joyce Davis, a family and consumer sciences instructor at PBHS, asks her students each year to create a "career portfolio" of jobs that interest them and either contact a worker in their field of interest or post a picture of a person during related duties.
Family and consumer science students can receive ServSafe certification, which gives them training in food service safety.
"If they get a ServSafe certification, and they go to Tyson, they start off making a little more per hour because everyone working with the food, they have to be ServSafe-certified," Davis said. "ServSafe certification is about the safety and germs and microorganisms in food and all of that."
The more hands on deck, the better Pine Bluff industry can survive and the stronger the local economy can be, the industry leaders agree. But time to prepare students for the workforce is of the essence locally.
"When I first became president and CEO, I wanted to be the best president and CEO in Central Moloney's history," Hart said. "If I don't do something to alleviate the labor burden here, I'll be the last."
An educator asked: "Is that a warning for us?"
Hart responded: "We can't continue to operate with 130 or 140% turnover."