I manage a small job shop with 12 employees, most of which have been trained on-site and didn't know a thing about machining until they started here. We're slowly growing and needing to hire more people, but we're having a lot of issues when it comes to hiring experienced machinists. The last 4-5 people we've hired haven't worked out as they were way too slow setting up. I know setup times are a tricky subject and largely depend on the machine & part complexity etc., but I'm talking about fairly simple repeat jobs that have been setup time and time again in just a couple of hours - yet newly hired "experienced" guys are taking like 12 hours or sometimes DAYS to set these jobs up.
We find that the guys we trained in-house are running circles around these other guys we're hiring with 20-30 years experience.
On paper they all seem to really know their stuff, and they certainly look the part with their fancy kennedy rollers that they bring in stocked full of tools- but in reality I just don't get how they've been surviving all this time at other shops given their setup times & work ethic. If I were quoting jobs at the time it's taking them I'd never win a bid again - not to mention these guys want paid like $30/hr which is significantly higher than most of our employees. At this price tag we almost expect them to be able to teach us a thing or two, but it's the opposite.
It's been the same experience with the last 4-5 guys we've hired and I'm starting to feel crazy. Wondering if anyone else has had similar issues.
We find that the guys we trained in-house are running circles around these other guys we're hiring with 20-30 years experience.
On paper they all seem to really know their stuff, and they certainly look the part with their fancy kennedy rollers that they bring in stocked full of tools- but in reality I just don't get how they've been surviving all this time at other shops given their setup times & work ethic. If I were quoting jobs at the time it's taking them I'd never win a bid again - not to mention these guys want paid like $30/hr which is significantly higher than most of our employees. At this price tag we almost expect them to be able to teach us a thing or two, but it's the opposite.
It's been the same experience with the last 4-5 guys we've hired and I'm starting to feel crazy. Wondering if anyone else has had similar issues.