By / Jessica Kirby
Social media’s refurbishing of the advertising landscape has changed the way businesses and organizations promote their offerings and effectively reach a viable market. Its ascension to omnipotence has triggered an over saturation of the information market where brand creation and promotion are only a few clicks away from just about any fingertip, making it difficult for the average consumer to garner meaningful information about what has genuine value. While overwhelming in some ways, this abundance has also demanded a return to the basics—personal stories, recommendations, and first-hand reviews—as key determinants of quality.
So what does this mean for the signatory sheet metal industry? Looking at North America’s labour shortage, it can mean a great deal in terms of recruitment. Young people are graduating every day and making decisions about their futures. As with any other entity leveraging the online consumer market, the challenge is standing out among the onslaught in a genuine, meaningful way.
The SMACNA-SMART Task Force has launched a recruitment initiative that seeks to do exactly that. The Brand Ambassador program, which piloted in various American locales in 2019, uses an evidence-based approach to attract new recruits to the sheet metal trade, leveraging research collected surveying apprentices in their first, second, third, and final years of training.
The approach is simple—contractors, training centers, and instructors can identify apprentices and journeypersons in their communities that are models of “best of breed,” and who might be active on social media. These “ambassadors” should typify the sort of individuals leaders would like to see more of in the industry. Ambassadors will be encouraged to take to the frontlines of social media promoting various aspects of the sheet metal trade.
Ideal ambassadors
Paul Pimentel, research and communications for SMART, says being a brand ambassador means being someone who goes above and beyond, someone who can uniquely communicate their positive contribution to the sheet metal industry.
Ambassadors demonstrate members’ skill, pride, and craftspersonship and the high standards consistent in the unionized sheet metal industry. “We represent contractors and members that are a cut above the rest and we should not be shy about making it known,” Pimentel says.
Fulfilling this mission means standing out and making an impact bigger than the every day work, he adds. “We all want to leave the world we inherit better than how we came into it. This is how we recognize people who have made a positive mark and hold them up as examples to be followed.
“Whether it’s your work ethic or how you blaze a path forward for other women or lead your fellow members in calling out safety issues at a non-union jobsite, brand ambassadors are the best among us, who industry stakeholders look to as pioneers in the industry and the world we live in.”
Industry research
The SMACNA-SMART Best Practices Task Force recruiting initiative surveyed 1,459 apprentices to find out where they’d learned about a career in sheet metal, how they would suggest improving recruitment efforts, and whether they would recommend the trade to others.
Of those, 1,209 learned of the trade from family and friends, 95 received the information from a school counselor, 72 from social media, and 52 from job fairs. The remaining few were inspired by radio, TV, and newspaper ads.
They gave nearly equal consideration to wages, training, health care, and retirement benefits (in that order) when deciding on a career in sheet metal, and listed social media (70%), supporting school counselors (56%), and support for non-print media ads and websites (52%), respectively, as the best ways to reach new recruits. Ninety-four percent said they would recommend the trade to others.
Brand ambassador program materials focus on these areas and promote the items apprentices said they wished they’d known about the trade before entering, such as variety of work, diversity in the trade, earning college credit, continuing education, and leadership opportunities.
