Editor's note: This article is the first in a five-part series on the chemical industry workforce called "Chemical Industry Workforce: Shaping Tomorrow's Talent." The next article will focus on diversity in the workplace. Get more information on the series here.
Attention operations team: Your new material loader was stocking shelves at Walmart yesterday.
If that scenario seems far-fetched, it’s not, according to one plant production manager for a $30 billion chemical manufacturer.
This industry veteran, who preferred to remain anonymous, says in desperate times he tapped inexperienced service workers to fill oftentimes hazardous positions.
“Stocking the shelves one day and opening a valve that contains chlorine at the other end is not the same thing,” he laments. “But what do you want me to do? I can’t get anyone else.”
The situation highlights the industry's dilemma: Operate understaffed or rely on potentially less knowledgeable workers, including contractors and those from outside the sector, instead of full-time, highly trained staff.
Consider the battery sector as a prime example. More chemical and petrochemical producers, like Exxon Mobil Corp. and BASF, have announced plans to process battery materials to supply the electrification boom.
But finding qualified employees to fill essential roles within battery production may be difficult, according to a 2024 Center for Automotive Research report. That’s because 82% of respondents reported workforce shortages for skilled labor. The greatest shortages reported were technicians and engineers. About 40% of employers reported that 25%-50% of their employees have outdated skills, and 15% report that 50%-75% of their employees have outdated skills.
And, in many cases, the college graduates who are qualified for these positions are choosing Silicon Valley over lithium mines.
“I think that the tech industry has realized that chemical engineers, by and large, are a pretty ambitious group,” says Adam Krueger, a chemical industry recruiter with Sun Recruiting Inc. “You don't get a chemical engineering degree by accident; that's for sure. So they have started taking talent, especially at that entry-level and adapting that engineering skillset to their needs in the tech industry, whether that's Amazon or Meta or Tesla, SpaceX.”
In this first part of our five-part special workforce series, we take a closer look at the current talent landscape through conversations with industry professionals.
Competing for Talent: The Industry's Recruiting Challenge
The veteran operations manager, who hired from Walmart, reflects on the complex challenges he's encountered during his 30-year career. Echoing Krueger's sentiments, he points out the intense rivalry for skilled professionals. Industry giants such as Exxon Mobil, BASF and Dow frequently attract the most competent candidates. Smaller firms struggle to compete, unable to offer comparable salaries to entice these high-caliber workers.
Krueger echoes his sentiments, saying, “Retention-wise, I think the compensation landscape has changed quite a bit over the last several years, and I think that's led to some frustration on the part of at least some companies."
The demand for higher wages was highlighted in CP’s 2023 Salary Survey, with average salaries rising to $135,000, the highest level measured since the survey began in 2005.
Location, Location, Location
Skyler Cornaby is the type of candidate chemical manufacturers are fighting over. Cornaby graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Brigham Young University in 2020 before receiving his master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah in 2023. His passion is process controls, a skill in high demand within the chemical industry. But he now works for defense contractor Northrop Grumman at the company’s Bacchus plant in Utah.
For Cornaby, the decision to work outside the chemical sector had more to do with opportunity over any misgivings about the industry. Prior to graduating he worked as an intern at Valero. He had opportunities to work full time in the refining, but location and scheduling factored in to his decision. Cornaby says he didn’t want his options limited to the Gulf Coast. Also, the more rigorous schedule of the petrochemical industry, often involving 12-hour shift rotations, didn’t appeal to him.
“One big advantage for where I'm at right now and I think a lot of other manufacturing here in Utah is the work schedule, a lot of places have a four (day)/10 (hour) schedule,” he says. “So you get that three-day weekend every week.”
Cornaby also discussed a recruiting strategy that seems to be limiting for an industry that’s grappling with a talent shortage. The Gulf Coast petrochemical companies seemed to focus on candidates from Texas and Louisiana, with BYU being an odd exception, Cornaby says. This approach leaves a vast ocean of talent untapped.
"A chemical engineer from Nebraska can do just as well in the chemical industry, even though they didn't grow up around the plants like some of these Gulf areas or California coast areas have,” he explains.
Cornaby suggests that broader outreach could help the chemical industry find new candidates.
Bridging the Gap Between Experience and Innovation
The chemical industry is grappling with an emerging generational divide. Younger workers bring distinct perspectives and expectations to the workplace, shaped by their unique experiences. They often prioritize flexible work arrangements, including remote options, to a greater extent than their predecessors. Additionally, this new generation tends to be more technologically adept and places higher importance on broader societal issues, such as environmental sustainability.
In some cases, those clashing cultures can cause workplace strain. For example, our unnamed operations manager says younger engineers are eager to move on from their jobs quickly.
“Every two to four years, they want to hop into something new and exciting,” he says. “In my job, I get better with time simply because the mistakes I made five years ago I don't make today. We are losing that because the kids today who come into a corporate environment and were assigned a role, like production engineers, in three years they’re gone. They all want to end up as vice presidents or president somewhere.”
However, Ganesh Sanganwar, an agricultural market lab manager at Syensqo in Bristol, Pennsylvania, says he has worked with younger employees who are eager and willing to contribute. Sanganwar has worked in the industry for nearly 15 years. He began his career with agrochemical manufacturer Syngenta in 2010 before joining Solvay’s Bristol operations five years later. In 2023, the plant was part of a spin-off that became Syensqo. He says that while some interns can be impatient at times, he views it as a positive attribute because they’re taking ownership of their growth.
“I have a lot of co-ops in my lab, and I had also opportunity to mentor and manage what we call foundational engineers,” says Sanganwar. “And what I found is that they are super talented. They own the task, they come up with new ways of doing it.”
Bailey McCrea, a process engineering specialist at BASF's Northworks plant in Wyandotte, Michigan, values having an active role in shaping and improving processes. McCrea received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Iowa State University in 2021. He already knew what he wanted and didn’t want out of a career before receiving his diploma. He had previously attended Montana State University and didn’t like the work placement options available at the time, which involved mainly refinery work in Montana, he said.
“I didn’t want to be a vessel inspector. I wanted to make decisions on a process and then enact change,” he says.
In his internships at Bayer Crop Science and Dow, McCrea benefited from supportive managers and mentors. He recalled one supervisor who struck a balance between giving him autonomy and offering assistance. This manager encouraged McCrea to work independently while remaining available to provide direction and address any questions that arose.
Sanganwar says such a fresh perspective can help plants find new ways to solve problems.
“I have discovered these employees really don’t have any baggage,” he says. “They are more hungry to find out and connect and find a solution. So once you teach them, they follow the instructions very closely and also challenge why we do things in certain ways.”
During his internship at Valero, Cornaby found that most fellow employees were supportive, but he did face some pushback when working in the process engineering group, which typically trends older.
He remembers working on a project with the group to automate manual injection rates on a pump. The process engineer kept finding reasons it couldn’t work.
“At times, I would say there was maybe a generational disconnect,” he says. “But also, I was a 20-year-old at my first internship. What did I know? But the communication barrier was a little harder or more present working across generations like that.”
Reframing the Industry's Image
The anonymous operations manager presents a more pessimistic view of the current talent landscape. He attributes part of the problem to parents and the educational system, which he believes prioritize white-collar careers over industrial jobs. He argues that their quixotic "follow your dreams" advice encourages young people to pursue less-practical careers and relegates dangerous jobs to the least-skilled workers.
He adds that many operator positions offer good salaries without requiring a four-year degree. However, he notes that educators continue to guide students toward traditional college paths. He acknowledges that the industry shares some blame for not marketing itself effectively. Ironically, he adds, the very factors that make these jobs dangerous also underscore their critical importance to society.
He cites the classic BASF slogan, "We don't make a lot of products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better," as an example of effective messaging. He hints that the chemical sector needs to better demonstrate its relevance and importance to candidates in today's world.
If chemical manufacturers can’t attract more talent, they will continue to turn toward automation to fill the void, he says. But that won’t completely resolve the talent gap because someone has to manage the systems.
“I don't need an operator anymore. I need an instrument technician, and I need a controls engineer. I'm lacking in both again,” he says.
Krueger echoes some of these sentiments, saying many new job entrants don’t understand the day-to-day functions of the chemical industry. He says he’s hearing about many new graduates looking for remote work in the industry when most of the jobs are hands-on in a plant.
“So are we telling people the right things on the front end to make sure that the people who are graduating with the degree have an accurate picture of what's going to be available?” he asks.
Attracting and Retaining the Next Generation
Tackling the personnel deficit might demand unconventional methods to entice and maintain a new generation of workers.
For example, Syensqo recruits employees based on cultural fit and strong educational backgrounds from high-profile institutions, such as Penn State, Drexel University and Georgia Tech, Sanganwar says.
Once on board, employees participate in a rotational program in which they cycle through various functions, business units and plants every two years for up to six years.
