BUILDINGS’ Sarah Kloepple speaks with Susan Kaufman from Daikin Applied about their Next Generation Event they hosted at AHR Expo 2019 in Atlanta.
The event, created exclusively for engineering and technical trade students during the show, helps to foster interest in HVAC professions.
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[Start transcript]
Sarah: Hey, everyone. Welcome to this new BUILDINGS Podcast. I am Sarah Kloepple, staff writer and we are here at AHR 2019 in Atlanta. I am here with Susan Kaufman, who is vice president of marketing for Daikin Applied. And Daikin has just done a really cool program here to attract the next generation of HVAC workforce.
They’ve invited a lot of students here and they’ve met up with them and are doing a really great program. So, tell us, Susan, a little bit about this program.
Susan: Sure. One of the things that we’re really challenged with in this industry is the number of Baby Boomers who are reaching retirement age. And 10,000 people reach retirement age every single day. So, 3 million people a year are leaving the workforce.
And they’re leaving not just positions, they’re taking a lot of that knowledge with them. And we don’t have enough young engineers who are coming into the industry.
A lot of these engineers are going to sort of the “sexy” companies in Silicon Valley, like Google, thinking that there are really great opportunities there. And yes, of course, there are really good opportunities there.
But there are also really good opportunities in the HVAC industry. So, one of the things that we wanna do at Daikin Applied is address this gap with people leaving and not enough people coming in. How do we meet students where they are as opposed to expect them to come to where we are?
[Here is a related article: How HVAC Companies are Attracting the Next Generation]
So, we think about places where we’re going to be able to engage students. A place like AHR. We reached out to a lot of different university (unintelligible) chapters and we welcomed them to come to this Future of HVAC recruiting program that we just hosted.
We scheduled a presentation with the students, talking a little bit about Daikin, but really talking about the forces in the industry that are making the HVAC industry a really dynamic place to work.
So, we talked about those market trends and now we’re giving tours to these students of the booth and different product portfolios that they could potentially work on and helping them understand what a career with Daikin would be like.
Sarah: That’s great. So, you just did this today, right? It just ended.
Susan: Yeah. It’s going on right now.
Sarah: Okay. So, how did it go? How did the students react?
Susan: I was impressed with the students’ questions. It showed that they were definitely paying attention. They’re really, really dialed in. I think that engineering students now are having like 6 or 8 or 10 different job opportunities before they even finish their senior year in school.
So, you could tell from the kinds of questions that they asked that they were really very thoughtful, not just about our industry, but about specific career pathing. They’re defining their career path as seniors in college. And we want to make sure that we’re able to offer them an opportunity that hits their career path.
What’s exciting about Daikin is that there are so many careers to choose. It’s not just engineering and product development. I’m a marketer. There are roles across virtually every discipline. There are sales roles, there are service tech roles, there are factory roles, operational, manufacturing, design, there are so many different things that the industry offers. And it’s nice to see the students really dialed in to be focused on that career pathing for themselves.
Sarah: Yeah. That’s great. So, we talked about the younger generation too. What about women too? I know that’s probably part of the workforce you want to attract. Even just being at this conference, you’re only the second woman I’ve talked to.
Susan: Yeah. I know. That’s crazy.
Sarah: So, is that part of this plan too, trying to attract more women engineers who are graduating?
Susan: Yeah. It’s not just women, it’s actually just diverse thinkers, right? I don’t even care if you have a mechanical engineering degree. I care what kind of a thinker you are and what kind of ideas you bring to the business.
I know that we’re going to have more ideas from a diverse group of students who come into our organization. So, I’m definitely amped up about getting more women into the industry, because I think it’s a really, really dynamic industry where a different point of view coming from women is going to be valuable to further the advancement of HVAC.
[Read next: Connected Buildings Increase as Companies Prioritize Advantages]
Sarah: Yeah. Any advice you’d give to companies who are also trying to do the same thing, attract younger generations, like maybe mentoring programs or anything else that you can think of?
Susan: I don’t want to give our competitors any advice. I think the pendulum is shifting. It used to be that the companies had the power and now the students really have the power. And I would say to just embrace that. Be transparent about who you are and what opportunities that you offer.
Let the students take control of the recruiting process. Let them ask the questions. Make sure that in that process, it’s a mutual good fit, so that when you attract students, you invest in that recruiting effort.
Make sure that you’re investing for the long term to bring the students in for all of the right reasons and then it’s a win-win on both sides.
Sarah: Yeah. And that brings up a good point about the younger generation, I’ve read a lot about how they are aiming for jobs instead of careers, so that brings up that point. Anything else you wanted to add about the next generation program or just in general in HVAC?
Susan: I would just say that I think that the HVAC industry is really a dynamic place. I think that we come from sort of a negative perception that we’re a slow-moving industry. And we’re on the cusp of dramatic change.
We’re looking at digital transformation in manufacturing. It’s amazing. We’re looking at artificial intelligence. We can now read over 300 data points on a rooftop unit or on a chiller. We can bring all of that data, suck it up into the cloud, analyze it in the cloud and push it back down to make actionable insights.
There’s so much transformation that’s happening in our industry right now. It’s just a really dynamic place. We look at sustainability, environment, climate change, legislative regulation around all of those topics. There’s so much opportunity here.
Sarah: That’s wonderful to hear. Well, thanks so much for your time, Susan. I really appreciate it.
Susan: Thank you.
[End transcript]
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