Hartford Business Journal

18 Hartford Business Journal • April 20, 2015 www.HartfordBusiness.com tsunami of retirees is state government. By 2025, nine out of 10 of the 15,401 employees currently in the state's executive branch will be eligible to retire, said state Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Commissioner Melody Currey. So, too, will thousands more working in the legisla- tive and judicial branches, as well as at state colleges and universities. DAS is helping other state agencies, Cur- rey said, tap its proprietary human-resources tracking system for workers' job classifications, ages and other demographic data to identify where their biggest staff losses to retirement will occur in coming years. With no mandatory retirement age for most of its workers, the state is spared from having so many who are eligible retire at the same time. "We have found that, roughly speaking, about 15 percent of people who are eligible to retire in a given year do so in that year …,'' Currey said. The last big exit of state workers occurred in 2011, she said, when the state changed its long-term health benefits for retirees, inducing a third of those who were eligible to muster out, she said. In 2009, half the eligible state workers accepted a "golden handshake'' to retire early. "You stay in the job for as long as you can do it,'' Currey said. Still, she said, the state is eager to stem the loss of decades of accumulated skill, experience and institutional memory about the state's opera- tions and infrastructure. To that end, it promotes work-partner initiatives that team an older work- er with a younger, less-seasoned hand. Currey cited one example involving the state's construction-services arm teaming with Central Connecticut State University's con- struction-management certification program to encourage pupils to consider state employment. Opportunities According to researchers, about 78 mil- lion Americans were born between 1946 and 1964. These Baby Boomers, relative youngsters among the cast of seniors age 55 and older, are now redefining the notion of living a post- career life. For many, that means continuing to work out of necessity. For others with financial freedom and flexibility, it means giving back to their communities through work as volunteers or hired hands. C o n n e c t i c u t , spurred by ongo- ing conversations dating back years among employers and thought-leaders in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors and state government, is among states taking a leading-edge approach to sating the vocational needs of its older popu- lation, observers say. Collectively, they, too, are finding ways to transfer older workers' wisdom and experience to younger generations. In the nonprofit sector, those conversa- tions started with Leadership Greater Hart- ford (LGH) some 15 years ago, and resulted in a pair of initiatives that have plowed sustainble ground in helping older citi- zens who wanted to retire from a career yet were eager to stay active and give back to the community. LGH's Encore- Hartford and Third Age initiatives are responsible for more than 100 former white- and blue-col- lar workers transitioning into full- and part- time and volunteer slots that nonprofits are more than eager to have them fill. n NEXT MONDAY: A closer look at inno- vations occurring in the nonprofit and for- profit communities that has allowed them to harness the brainpower and vitality of Connecticut's older workers. Aging Population Miscast, CT manufacturers seek fresh image, minds By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com M anufacturing by far is the oldest occupation in Connecticut, with workers whose average age is well into their 50s. That's very old news to Farm- ington aeroparts- m a nu f a c t u r i n g executive Paul Murphy. Yet Murphy was stunned to learn that the graying of the indus- try was partly the result of public apathy toward manufacturing, as well as the sector's own intransigence about embracing change. Murphy credits Frank Gulluni, who directs the advanced manufacturing tech- nology center at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, with opening his eyes to what was happening. "Manufacturers believed there wasn't a younger work force out there,'' Gulluni said. The pair realized as they spoke to scores of young prospects about the opportunities for manufacturing-skills training and career advancement, that their upbeat narrative was struggling to pierce many deeply ingrained public mispercep- tions about their industry. It was a myo- pic view, they say, planted by older gen- erations who related their worst recollec- tions of factory floors as hot, dirty, smelly, unsafe places where workers performed the same mind- numbing tasks over and over. Moreover, manu- facturers weren't much help, either, Gulluni and Mur- phy said, with their past insistence that unambitious graduates, or ones with "Cs" and "Ds'' made ideal hires because, once trained for a task, they were more likely to stay on and not leave. They saw both as a recipe for disaster for the industry's long-term viability. Murphy, hired nearly two years ago as chief operat- ing officer of fam- ily-owned Mallory Industries, admits having the most trou- ble filling vacancies with journeymen machinists and others who have seven to 10 years' experience. "If we don't change, we're going to be out of business,'' said Murphy, who regularly recruits young graduates from Asnuntuck to work for his company. He has since brought in at least six interns from area commu- nity colleges and vocational-technical high schools to learn first-hand on the clean, quiet floor of his shop. Murphy and Gulluni have been on a mis- sion to replace that narrative with one that portrays today's shop floors as not the Dick- insian horrors of yesteryear. Both are regulars at career-day sessions with pupils and parents at Asnuntuck and area high and vocational-technical schools, and in meetings with guidance counsel- ors, pitching that a manufacturing cer- tification and related training like those Asnuntuck offers can be tickets to a long, fruitful career. "It used to be we hired people for their hands,'' Mur- phy said. "Now we hire people for their innovation. We want people today who want to be CEOs.'' The sector got an assist from Gov. Dan- nel P. Malloy, who after visiting Asnun- tuck's hands-on manufacturing-training program and talk- ing with instructors and pupils, pressed for legislation appropriating $500 million to beef up similar training throughout the rest of the state's college and vo-tech school system. According to the governor's latest state economic report, Connecticut's manufactur- ing headcount has steadily fallen from 196,700 in 2005 to 162,790 in 2014. At its post-World War II peak, manufacturers in the state employed more than 290,000 workers — many of those now in, or heading into, retirement. But Gulluni says Connecticut's manu- facturing sector is projected to add 38,000 more jobs, cresting back above 200,000 positions over the next decade amid Pratt & Whitney's commitment to retain and grow jet-engine production and jobs in this state. He also sees more hiring from returning manufacturers who fled South in search of cheaper land and labor. Finally, innovative products such as fuel and solar cells and medical devices and instruments and the processes for making them continues to blossom, he said. Con- necticut is home to a growing number of producers churning out biomedical and industrial components using additive tech- nology, also known as 3D printing. Clusters of bio-products makers are spring- ing up around the state's bioscience centers in Farmington, Branford and New Haven. In addition, European manufacturers still view the Northeast as an American bastion for education and will be drawn to Connecticut and other regional states to harvest talent, Murphy and Gulluni say. All that adds up to a greater challenge for Connecticut manufacturers to recruit a new-generation workforce, particularly as the industry's increasingly aging hands head toward retirement. Asnuntuck's "Fifth Year'' manufacturing- instruction program churns out between 120 and 150 graduates annually, Gulluni said. In that time, the state's six community colleges have produced more than 600 graduates. Here are three things Gulluni and Mur- phy say the manufacturing industry should embrace to develop a more engaged and innovative, if not younger, cohort of workers: • Upgrade incumbent employees' skills by emphasizing that, like other industries, manufacturing is constantly innovating and evolving and benefits from workers being able to keep up and contribute. • Retrain displaced workers for manu- facturing and related jobs, including in mar- keting, finance, accounting and law. • Encourage more students, particularly in junior high and high school, with course- work, internships and other development programs to consider manufacturing, or a related focus in engineering, marketing, finance, accounting and law, as a career path. Murphy said staffing has been manufac- turers' perpetual Achilles' heel, and time has come to change that. "We've never had a problem buying a building or buying a piece of equipment,'' he said. "It was, 'What are we going to do about our people?'" n UNAMI SILVER S Connecticut's Mallory Industries' Chief Operating Officer Paul Murphy chats with machinist Gladys Lagace. P H O T O | P A B L O R O B L E S CT Manufacturing Employment S O U R C E : O F F I C E O F P O L I C Y & M A N A G E M E N T 0 50 100 150 200 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 196.7 194.12 192.4 189.22 180.42 166.28 166.23 166.04 164.38 162.79 Quick Facts While CT's total population grew by 4.9% from 2000 to 2010, its population of older adults grew more quickly: • CT's population of Baby Boomers grew by 29%; • CT's population of people aged 65+ grew by 7.7%; • CT's population of people over age 85 grew by 32% — the fastest growing segment of our population. S O U R C E : C O N N E C T I C U T ' S L E G I S L A T I V E C O M M I S S I O N O N A G I N G ( F R O M T H E 2 0 1 0 U S C E N S U S )

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