Engineering Inc. - November/December 2007 - 23

P eople with work they’re passionate about tend to stay. dIane lenIuS PaRameTRIx, InC. Exodus of Aging Engineers that there will not be enough professionals available with necessary project experience to seamlessly take over senior-level jobs. To head off the pending storm, firms are training young employees sooner and bringing them up to speed faster than usual, as well as actively courting more mid-level employees with six to 10 years of experience. “The younger end is seeing this as an opportunity,” explains Adams. “They’re taking as many courses as they can, getting licenses and doing everything they can to fill those shoes soon.” Once hired, work-life balance becomes a big issue with employees who don’t want to work 60-hour weeks or every weekend. “We struggle with work-life balance issues as much as anybody else,” says Polychronis of David Evans. “We monitor for excessive overtime, and then it’s a phone call to their manager to find out whether this is just a blip or whether we are low on staff.” The firm also holds brown-bag lunches to discuss work-life balance with employees. “It’s the balance of showing you care, but acknowledging you have a business to run,” she says. Congested Career Intersections n Twenty-nine percent of all science and engineering (S&e) degree holders in the labor force are age 50 or older. among S&e doctorate holders in the labor force, 44 percent are age 50 or older. n By age 62, half of S&e bachelor’s degree holders had left full-time employment. doctorate degree holders work slightly longer, with half leaving full-time employment by age 66. Source: Science and Engineering Labor Force 2006 by American engineering colleges remained flat in 2006 at 255 degrees per million U.S. residents, according to Engineering Trends, a consulting firm in Houghton, Mich. Such numbers are troubling to engineering firms, especially considering the relatively high starting salaries offered to recent graduates. According to a 2007 salary survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, starting salaries for mechanical engineering grads rose 4.6 percent during 2006 to $54,128. Electrical engineering grads’ offers increased by 3.2 percent to $55,292 and starting civil engineers earned $48,509, up 5.4 percent. But it isn’t just a lack of young engineers that is cause for concern. “We’re experiencing the dip with those in their middle 30s and early 40s,” notes Melissa Adams, recruitment manager at Haley & Aldrich, Inc., a Boston-based engineering firm. Adams says the high cost of living in and around Boston has forced some employees to move away from the firm’s headquarters. Others have decided to raise their children full time or have decided to pursue other professions. “They’re just leaving the industry. It could be the hours or the pay—we really don’t know,” she says. “At a certain time in their lives, the engineering profession just isn’t what they want to do anymore.” The loss of mid-level employees represents a serious dilemma for engineering firms. As the first wave of baby boomer retirement begins to unfold, experts fret our long-term objectives and our strategic plan. It’s not just an HR effort.” Generation Melting Pot Though lingering senior employees at first might seem like a silver lining to firms having trouble attracting new college grads, an aging staff also creates new challenges for employers. “Firms haven’t come to peace with how they’re going to actually accommodate older employees once they decide to stay,” Davy says. “Senior leaders that had expected to retire suddenly stay another five years. The person behind them who expected to move up suddenly doesn’t have that opportunity in the same timeframe that they had imagined. So career paths up and down the firm have to be reviewed.” Though the industry already is dealing with the generational divide, she says, its efforts represent the tip of an iceberg that will span decades. “The feeling is that for the next 20 years we’ll be working on this,” adds Lenius. “It’s here, and it’s here to stay. It fits with Many firms are quite adept at recruiting from colleges and universities, and assuring a seamless transition into the work environment. The overwhelming factor to success, according to experts— communication. “Gen Y folks are going to be more idealistic,” says Kyle Davy, the consulting firm president. “So it’s important in the recruiting effort to be up front and thoughtful about communicating the company’s mission and purpose. As you’re recruiting, emphasize how they’ll be working, as opposed to plugging them in on a CAD machine.” In the interview process, firms also should connect candidates with young staff—people they might relate to—“so it doesn’t appear that there’s such a generational difference,” Davy says. Once inside, Parametrix gives its interns 40 work hours during the summer to spend as they please—such as job-shadowing senior employees or attending workshops. “A lot of them are still figuring out where they want to be,” and the program helps them find their passion, says Diane Lenius, a vice president at Parametrix. “People with work they’re passionate about tend to stay.” n Stacy Collett is a business and technology writer based in Chicago. NovEmbER / DECEmbER 2007 ENGINEERING INC. 23

Engineering Inc. - November/December 2007

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