Hiring the People Who Make Complex Systems Work

By Zack Troyer, President

When I started Corrigo Consulting with the mission to be a different kind of recruiting firm aligned with the principles of sustainable hiring success, I knew those principles would apply to successful recruiting in any industry. I also knew I had a passion for the unique people who make complex facility systems work and the organizations that shape their business models around those skill sets. As we continue to grow into the chemical manufacturing environment it hit home why this is such a natural fit...Our passion comes not only from our success in working with those who engineer, construct and operate facility systems, but also from my first ‘real’ job...

Fresh out of college I was hired as a sales rep for a Dow Chemical subsidiary. Typical of large companies my fellow new hires and I completed immersive training modules to prepare us for every situation. Sales training, product training, and systems training including exposure to our laboratory and manufacturing systems were all part of the journey.

I quickly learned about a cornerstone issue that every R&D intensive business model faces... commercial viability. Often overlooked by those of us who benefit from the great science innovations of our world is the business equation that fuels it. It’s not enough to engineer useful chemistry in the lab and submit it to the rigors of government compliance if you can’t mass produce it in sufficient combinations of quantity, quality and per unit cost that align with market demand. I remember several citations of ground breaking chemistry that might have had a positive market impact but for manufacturing issues that couldn’t be overcome. Manufacturing capability defines commercial viability as the linkage between the lab and the market...and it is powered by the people who engineer and operate the applied technology.

Touring our state of the art manufacturing plants put a tangible face on the concept of commercial viability along with a foundation that would take root once I started recruiting.  Amidst the maze of pipes, bulk material handling contraptions, tanks, valves, control centers, industrial power gear, etc...there are actually people that know how to make all of this complicated stuff work and the commercial viability of it’s science is an applied science of its own.

The inventors of breakthrough science deserve the accolades that history has assigned to them, but there is a beautiful undergirding of people and applied technology behind the scenes that fuels the success of science and it merits equal energy toward attracting, developing and retaining the best and brightest who can excel in manufacturing technology career paths. 

Across many years of helping our clients build high performance teams that design and build manufacturing systems, there is simplicity that emerges among successful new hires:

• Specific knowledge dominates - Like kind experience translated from a similar applied technology arena is required to make next level gains in manufacturing operations.

• Passion Wins - Emerging technology fascinates top performers and solving mission impossible problems fuels them like a kid playing video games.

• Attitude and Communication define teamwork - It doesn’t matter what you know if you can’t share it as a team because you sure can’t do it all by yourself.

Despite this simplicity, you already know how hard it is to find the difference-makers who can make the complex systems of your manufacturing operation work in real life. Your business is different by design, the reasons for your success are different, and people that have been succeeding in a similar business may not succeed in your’s. Sustainable hiring success happens on purpose and we must get below the surface into the specific insights about how candidates will align with the the things that make you different rather than hiring and hoping. Building a custom hiring plan to do just that is our core competency and at Corrigo...it is where our passion meets your’s...and we would love the opportunity to show you how we can accomplish it together!

Please reach out if you would like to start a conversation. My direct line is 317.708.319.