HOMA Pumps on the Skills Gap and Attracting Employees

John Lord, national sales and business development manager of HOMA Pumps comments on a few issues facing the pumps industry. For extensive state of the industry coverage, click here. What kinds of technology are on the horizon for wastewater to fight the “flushable” wipe epidemic? Existing technology is evolving with new series of pumps from several manufacturers that chop/slice the stringy material found in wipes, or new impeller types using CFD (computational fluid dynamics) in design to eliminate dead zones that could lead to clogging and also improve efficiency. In the end operators are looking for the most reliable and trouble free pump station. What is your company (or the ones you serve) doing to address the skills gap? We offer new and existing employees that have the potential and desire to improve, training, either on-site or externally. To work toward and maintain a skilled workforce requires a continued investment in employees, which in turn is also an investment in the future of the company. Is your company (or the ones you serve) putting programs in place to attract young employees? To hold on to retirement-age employees? This question somewhat ties into the previous question. With younger employees whether in production, engineering or sales, it’s important to keep them engaged and part of the daily process from first hired and throughout their career. We offer training/courses for any department that will help them in any way improve their performance on the job. Retirement-age employees are looked at as knowledge resource centers and are the go-to people for any of the less experienced. For any age level, part of the attract-and-retain equation, is always to offer competitive wages and benefits.