Rock-and-Roll Manufacturers

The following article was published in Enterprise Minnesota magazine© newspaper (December 2015)

By Tom Mason, Editor

More than 130 prospective employees (and, importantly, their parents and grandparents, toured Alexandria Industries earlier this month as part of their annual Not So Heavy Metal Tour, the company's annual attempt to interest young people in manufacturing.

Rydell Robinson, an extrusion press lead at Alexandria Industries was one of 40 volunteers who helped produce the [Not So Heavy Metal Tour] event by giving tours or providing demonstrations.

The event is hosted annually on the first Saturday in October as part of Manufacturing Month, the long-designated nationwide effort to get manufacturers and their allies to emphasize their contributions to local economies as well as to promote the lucrative, secure and rewarding career opportunities in manufacturing.

Patty Hoffman, marketing and communications specialist at the company says the tours are a natural extension of ongoing marketing to students all year long. This year attendees received a Not So Heavy Metal Tour lanyard, similar to VIP rock concert tickets.

To promote the event, the company circulated 11x17 posters (see sidebar) to high school principals within a fifty-mile radius of Alexandria. They also put posters in storefronts along Alexandria's main street to appeal to parents or grandparents. The poster promises the event will debunk the myths of manufacturing, that it is backbreaking, requires low-skilled employees, male dominated, dirty, low paying repetitive jobs with limited opportunities.

In addition to attracting high school students, Hoffman says some college students and 20-somethings who were looking for work attended the event.

Hoffman says attendees are "enraptured" by what they discover. "Parents and the students just soak it all in," she says.

With HR people on hand, Hoffman said seven potential employees filled out applications.

Hoffman says the tours seem to have a particularly positive effect on parents and grandparents.

"You can tell by the way that they behave at the tour stops," she says. "We have probably about eight or ten different tour stops and we have presenters at each tour stop. A tour guide walks attendees through the plant (which is in operation), providing overviews about manufacturing in general and about Alexandria Industries in particular."

Other tour stops include the extrusion press, the tool-and-die room, shipping, and machining.

After they have the tour, they're invited to come into the lunchroom and have coffee or lemonade and a cookie, and we visit with them when they're in there too.

That's where we get people to fill out applications or ask about their interest in choosing a career or something that would get them to think about working and developing a career in manufacturing.

Hoffman said the tours tend to energize the company's employees as well, many of whom become volunteer guides and demonstrators for the event. "We get people who come back over and over again. They just really like sharing what makes Alexandria Industries special. There are probably 30 to 40 people who are involved in making this event happen."

The event is part of a larger outreach effort at Alexandria Industries headed up by Ben Bomstad, one of their corporate trainers. Bomstad typically focuses on tech school relationships, but recently has added high schools to his portfolio – "to catch them when they're trying to decide what career path to go down, and encourage them to look at manufacturing and get involved with a tech school."