August - 20219MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSour people. Our best and brightest ideas--including the conversion of our food packaging lines to mass produce PPE early in the pandemic--often come from facility employees. That's why we make a point to provide a range of on-the-job training programs. Through initiatives like our Pay for Skills program, which offers skills-based pay incentives for employees looking to increase their knowledge and improve their technical expertise, we have successfully supported employees interested in innovation and sustainability, effectively increasing our retention of talented people and preparing our company for the future. But our industry needs to not only retain and cultivate the workers who built this industry, we also need to attract fresh talent, especially as the manufacturing industry faces a potential shortage of 2.4 million workers in the coming decade. Many of the advances in recycling technologies and both recyclable and compostable materials that are being made every day are often led by the plastics industry itself, which is why the emerging, innovation-driven next generation of talent in the U.S. is a critical pool that can, and should, be drawn into plastics manufacturing--an industry ripe for continuous pioneering. The manufacturing industry is sometimes viewed as antiquated and dull, yet we know that this is far from true. At Novolex, the continuous technological investments we've made have not only bolstered our operational practices but attracted a younger, tech-savvy talent pool which also recognizes the importance of diverse talent. As we've grown the business, we've also increased the percentage of women and people of color in mid-to-senior leadership positions to 40 percent, and we expect that number to grow.Partnerships focused on education can also provide a valuable channel between the industry and the next generation of talent, connecting skilled workers to high-paying jobs that are critical to our industry while providing our plants with a continuous stream of innovative and eager employees. For example, in our Richwood, Ky. facility, we've partnered with the Life Learning Center, which is focused on helping people considered at-risk for a variety of reasons secure and sustain a better way of living through gainful employment. By working with this nonprofit, not only are our team members helping coach and counsel participants to find well-paying, stable jobs in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky community, but we are also cultivating a greater pool of talented individuals who are finding a career pathway in the manufacturing industry. The solution for a greener tomorrow isn't one solution at all--it's many. As we look forward to a better tomorrow, it'll be the people in our industry, from the front office to the production floor, who will develop those solutions and make that future a reality. Our ability as manufacturers to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic products in increasingly innovative ways relies critically on a solution under our very noses: our employee talent pool
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