Talent scout

As manufacturing grows more complex, so does the challenge of finding skilled talent. That makes Adam Snyder ’02, MEM ‘03, a key scout in Greater Cleveland’s advanced manufacturing sector. 

Snyder leads a workforce development initiative, called Workforce Connect Manufacturing, at MAGNET—the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network. Working with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the region’s chamber of commerce, he and his teammates are examining the skills gap and trying to find solutions so that area companies can compete and grow. 

In a Q&A with Crain’s Cleveland Business, he described a problem of increasing magnitude: Many area manufacturers are hobbled by an inability to find or train skilled workers. 

“So the danger would be, if we as a community can’t solve this problem, those manufacturers start to have to go to other places in order to capture the demand that they’re seeing from their customers,” he told Crain’s. “The flip side of that is, from a business standpoint, Northeast Ohio wants to be attracting businesses. That talent gap is a big red flag for anybody who’s looking to either increase their capacity or drop a new site here.” 

Snyder hopes to apply some of his own hiring experience—as the former President of ArtWall and Incept—and bring together manufacturing executives to identify best practices. 

“Where are great things happening that might be learned from or scaled or replicated?” he asks.