EMSNow Executive Spotlight: Karla Trotman, CEO of Electro Soft, Inc.
With more than 600,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs unfilled, the political promises of revitalizing the sector made by both Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump face a significant challenge. To truly modernize American manufacturing, leaders like Karla Trotman, CEO of Electro Soft, Inc., say it’s time to address the root issues: attracting a diverse, younger workforce and breaking down cultural barriers. EMSNOW caught up with Karla, author of ‘Dark, Dirty and Dangerous: Building the Vibrant Future of Manufacturing’ to learn about her experiences championing manufacturing jobs.
EMSNOW: There has been a lot of attention focused on bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. But your company has been manufacturing electronics for 35 years. Tell us about Electro Soft – your customer base, your HR policies, your family story.
My father worked as the Director of Engineering for SmithKline and Beckham (at the time.) They decided to shut down their instrumentation department, where my father oversaw the design of blood-analyzing equipment, manufacturing, and software writing for the product. He took his 6-months severance and decided to spend some time off while figuring out his next steps. Someone reached out to him and asked if he could assemble a few cables. He reached out to one of the women who used to work for SmithKline in manufacturing. She and my father built the cables on the kitchen table. Interestingly enough, during my father’s tenure at the company, he suggested they outsource manufacturing to contain costs, but the management team didn’t want to put people out of work.
That small ask turned into several assembly jobs. At the time, I was in elementary school. When I came home, I would help out by measuring and cutting wires with a ruler and wire cutters. I made $0.25 per hour.
Our customers have always been in the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) space, mostly industrial companies. We also did work for the Department of Defense and continue to do so.
Even though we have fewer than 50 employees, we opted to offer the same things a large company would offer its employees—healthcare benefits (which we pay 60%, regardless of single-payer or family), free dental, free life insurance, EAP, paid vacation, 401k Safe Harbor match, profit sharing, etc. We felt it was fitting to honor each person who invests their time and talent with us. We didn’t need to be forced to do so by government mandates.
We also offer free training and free certifications that are all portable.
Today, we have long-term relationships with industrial companies and government contractors where we are their outsourced provider of electronics assembly services. We assemble their printed circuit boards, cables, wire harnesses, panels, and box build assemblies – what I like to call the brain and central nervous system of a device.
EMSNOW: Everyone is trying to figure out how to spark young people’s desire to work in manufacturing. The government says it wants to help, at both state and federal levels. What policies work?
Manufacturing needs marketing help. We’ve done Manufacturing Day for years. We’ve also been part of community outreach programs to market manufacturing to students, but the parents were not accepting manufacturing as a career. They pushed their children toward four-year degree programs. Now parents are seeing that four-year degrees are not a panacea and trade schools are filled with students. We are turning the corner, and we now need a huge marketing push to show what manufacturing really looks like. It’s not the dark, dirty, and dangerous atmosphere that most people assume it is. In my company, the loudest noise is compressed air. The production floor is well lit. People work independently on custom manufacturing projects while listening to music and podcasts.
As for government assistance, pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs are a great start, but the paperwork is a monster. Three-fourths of manufacturing companies employ less than 20 people. How does one find time to meet the rigorous reporting requirements while running a business? WedNet PA has been a great source of financial help as well. When we attract young people, we can actually give them up to $2000 in training that comes directly from the program and not from Electro Soft.
We are also part of an industry partnership called the Southeastern Pennsylvania Manufacturing Alliance (SEPMA), of which I am co-chair. This partnership allows all manufacturers in the partnership to discuss and resolve issues within the manufacturing sector. Our biggest issue has always been attracting talent to our industry, so we created a career pathways program and training initiative that allows adults to understand what it’s like to work in manufacturing. This program has been enhanced and is now deployed by Drexel University’s Goodwin School of Professional Studies. The program is called Manufacturing Career Accelerator Program (MCAP) and it is a six-week bootcamp that has had tremendous success. It is also offered as a pathway for high school students who need credentials to graduate. The problem is in the scalability of the program and funding. We would love to offer it throughout the region.
EMSNOW: Explain how diversity initiatives can address these challenges.
EMSNOW: Why do you think manufacturing has such a bad rep among these groups of workers? What can be done?
EMSNOW: Frankly do these jobs pay as well as they should to attract the talent?
EMSNOW: The EMS industry has always been a low-margin business. Can this business model support higher pay?
EMSNOW: What else do you want to tell EMSNOW readers?
