Responding to a request from the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) to help member companies with their hiring challenges, Industrial Careers Pathway (ICP) arranged for retired industrial manufacturing executive Terry Knight to make a presentation to an NACD leadership meeting in Philadelphia, Pa., recently. Knight, who served as chair of the ICP Steering Committee for five years until January 2016, has been actively involved with ICP since its inception in 2002 as a leading advocate and contributor.

Knight spoke to about 30 executives from the chemical distribution industry about ICP resources to help with the challenge of recruiting, hiring and managing employees from generations Y and Z, and successfully engaging five generations in the workplace. Surveys of industrial distribution executives consistently show that filling open positions and managing younger employees continue to occupy a top trouble spot. ICP, having been at this issue’s forefront for the past decade, is a go-to resource for insights and solutions.

Knight said, “The opportunity to speak to this highly professional level of chemical distribution industry leaders was very valuable and worthwhile. The excitement in the room regarding the programs ICP offers was real.”

Of specific interest to the group was the introduction of a new program, dubbed Team ID, which is aimed at raising awareness of and attracting entry-level employees to careers in industrial distribution. The program consists of an online “personality” quiz for job seekers to discover how their own personality will match up with a specific entry-level career path in the field: inside or outside sales, customer service or warehouse work. In addition to the quiz, videos illustrate the process of these jobs, with Team ID “superheroes” swooping in to save the day with on-time, helpful and accurate problem solving as industrial distribution workers. Job seekers are then linked to the ICP website to learn more and to the ICP Job Board, the only online job board specifically focused on industrial distribution careers, to apply for posted jobs.

Access to the resources available for distributor companies (many for no charge or at very low cost) is at the website below. These resources include free “How-To-Guides” for everything from starting an internship to organizing a company tour for the community.

Any company belonging to one of the nine supporting Alliance Partner organizations, of which NACD is one, can take advantage of these free resources and receive discounted rates when posting open positions to the aforementioned job board. Member companies are highly encouraged to urge employees to register as volunteer ICP Ambassadors in order to help ICP spread the word about industrial distribution in their local communities. Many opportunities identified by ICP, such as classroom presentations and career fair appearances, are awaiting volunteers for 2016.