It is not the “WHAT’
but the “WHY” that is MY FOCUS
James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© October 31, 2019
CHARLES D. HAYES WRITES (re: Why Engineers Never Get Hired in HR):
The reason engineers are being replaced in the oil industry is because engineers in India can be hired online for much lower wages.
MY RESPONSE
Although I don't question the accuracy of your assertion, as you know, the focus of this missive and most if not all of my writing is the WHY of the situation. It is where my competence resides. I have been an internal and external organizational development (OD) consultant even before I acquired the credentials for the discipline as all my work has been in, for or about the complex corporate organization.
What I discovered at Honeywell Avionics, a facility, at the time of 4,000+ employees, is that HR did not understand engineers, could not relate to them, in fact HR operatives were seemingly intimidated by their prowess and selective knowledge and therefore could not give management guidance or direction in the proper utilization of this massive engineering force. In fact, the engineering community operated as an essentially privileged body, but not necessarily as an effective one.
An outside consulting firm did an extensive intervention of engineering, confirming many of my suspicions, finding engineers were underutilized suffering low morale for the low expectations with which their work was appreciated or expected to achieve.
This opened the door for my own inquiry into WHY engineers were of such a mindset when the insouciance of the engineering environment seemed closer to a country club existence.
Being in personnel, I had access to numbers (i.e., age, education, salary history, and status in terms of complexity/competence of engineers relative to standards of performance).
Honeywell Avionics, at the time, was a Department of Defense subcontractor, meaning it relied mainly on “cost plus” programs. Of the some 4,000 employees in this hi-tech facility, 60 percent were engineers, 20 percent were engineering administrative support, 10 percent were managers and directors, and 10 percent were hourly workers as secretaries, accounting support and manufacturing, whose primary task was in the building of prototypes for program managers’ proposals.
Among many discoveries -- I write about this extensively in my books – was that 80 percent of the engineers were working on technology that had been developed after their formal education had ended. What is worse, the 20 percent neophyte engineers were often reported to be carrying the veteran engineers while making far less money. In fact, technicians with limited formal training, but receiving technician pay, were reported to be often doing engineering work. It was what I would come to call a "Culture of Complacency."
By the serendipity of being there one day when several engineers were in personnel with chits in hand to be signed up for attending engineering training at some resort, I asked several, the nature of the training and how it computed with their present jobs. They laughed. “It doesn’t work that way. It is like a bonus to get away from this place for a few days at somewhere nice.”
It was from that point forward that this progressed from a concern to metamorphosing into a project. Calling on the Director of Engineering along with several Chief Engineers in support, I was granted permission (and a million dollar commitment) to create an in-house Technical Education Program.
Already, Honeywell Avionics had a close relationship with the University Of South Florida College Of Engineering, while Avionics had a score of Ph.D. and Master Degree holding engineers to teach a multi-faceted technical education program. Honeywell Avionics became a veritable university campus with technicians as well as engineers participating. I would give a paper at the World Conference of Continuing Engineering Education in Orlando, Florida (see cover of monograph above).
Honeywell Avionics, at the time, was a Department of Defense subcontractor, meaning it relied mainly on “cost plus” programs. Of the some 4,000 employees in this hi-tech facility, 60 percent were engineers, 20 percent were engineering administrative support, 10 percent were managers and directors, and 10 percent were hourly workers as secretaries, accounting support and manufacturing, whose primary task was in the building of prototypes for program managers’ proposals.
Among many discoveries -- I write about this extensively in my books – was that 80 percent of the engineers were working on technology that had been developed after their formal education had ended. What is worse, the 20 percent neophyte engineers were often reported to be carrying the veteran engineers while making far less money. In fact, technicians with limited formal training, but receiving technician pay, were reported to be often doing engineering work. It was what I would come to call a "Culture of Complacency."
By the serendipity of being there one day when several engineers were in personnel with chits in hand to be signed up for attending engineering training at some resort, I asked several, the nature of the training and how it computed with their present jobs. They laughed. “It doesn’t work that way. It is like a bonus to get away from this place for a few days at somewhere nice.”
It was from that point forward that this progressed from a concern to metamorphosing into a project. Calling on the Director of Engineering along with several Chief Engineers in support, I was granted permission (and a million dollar commitment) to create an in-house Technical Education Program.
Already, Honeywell Avionics had a close relationship with the University Of South Florida College Of Engineering, while Avionics had a score of Ph.D. and Master Degree holding engineers to teach a multi-faceted technical education program. Honeywell Avionics became a veritable university campus with technicians as well as engineers participating. I would give a paper at the World Conference of Continuing Engineering Education in Orlando, Florida (see cover of monograph above).
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