By Boris Ladwig, The Republic
bladwig@therepublic.com
Cummins Inc. is expanding so rapidly that it has had to hire more people who specialize in hiring people.
In Columbus alone, Cummins will need 1,100 employees within the next two years, including about 300 engineers.
With low unemployment rates nationwide (4.8 percent in December), statewide (4.4 percent) and locally (3.4 percent in Bartholomew County), the company is facing a competitive job market that is being tightened by expansions of other local companies and new projects such as Greensburg's Honda plant, which will employ 2,000.
Through last year's first three quarters, Cummins generated sales of roughly $9.5 billion, up more than 14 percent from the same period in 2006, which was the company's best year.
Earnings through three quarters were up nearly 3 percent, also from a record. Cummins will report fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Friday.
That success is requiring more employees worldwide, but Cummins generally recruits regionally: It recruits in India for the Indian market, in Brazil for the Brazilian market, in the U.S. for the U.S. market.
The company has doubled the number of its full-time recruitment specialists in the U.S., said Mark Osowick, executive director of organization development and recruiting.
"It's getting increasingly competitive," he said.
"The top talent have lots of choice. We have to have a compelling story."
Cummins is banking on its reputation, successes and engineering challenges to attract bright and eager employees.
College recruitment is playing an ever-larger role.
Cummins has about 25 "target schools" from which graduates can be placed anywhere in the U.S. Those schools include Purdue University in Lafayette, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, and University of Louisville.
The company targets another 20 schools for regional recruitment.
Hundreds of employees participate in college recruitment teams, Osowick said.
Research partnerships with universities provide the company with technical expertise - but also allow Cummins to identify the best potential employees.
Internships also give Cummins a chance to evaluate potential employees' work ethic and how they fit into the company's culture - and it allows Cummins to "sell" the interns on what Cummins can offer, Osowick said.
Last year, the company had 175 interns in Columbus. Nationwide, 75 percent of interns accept the company's job offers.
Remaining visible
Derek Gillaspy, a 25-year-old software analyst, was recruited by Cummins after an internship from Purdue University, where he got his MBA.
He grew up in Mississippi and Oklahoma and first heard about Cummins at Purdue via an e-mail about a disaster recovery project that came about after the Columbus flood of 2005.
During an internship with Cummins in summer 2006, he helped put together a cost model for the implementation of that project.
On the Purdue campus, he talked to Gail Farnsley, Cummins vice president and chief information officer, after she spoke there about leadership. Soon after, he received a call from company officials, expressing their interest in him.
Name recognition has helped Cummins' recruitment efforts, said Timothy Luzader, director of Purdue University's Center for Career Opportunities.
"They're a known entity. They're a respected company," Luzader said.
Cummins has maintained its visibility on campus through interviews, job fairs, presentations and communication with Purdue staff.
Luzader said that Purdue annually confers roughly 1,300 undergraduate engineering degrees and about 500 graduate degrees, including doctorates.
Most of the grads look for work that will stretch and challenge them a bit, he said. And they want to see a career path with opportunities for advancement.
Osowick said Cummins can offer both: With cutting-edge work on clean diesels, power generation, fuel systems and other projects, young engineers can tackle tough assignments and have access to smart, experienced employees from whom they can learn.
And with a tech center and plants for midrange engines, fuel systems and light-duty diesels, they can find lots of challenges in lots of fields in Columbus.
That "has an appeal," Luzader said.
Graduates value not having to move as their career interests evolve and they want to switch jobs, he said.
Community
But Osowick said recruitment provides challenges partially because it is not a "one-size-fits-all" proposition.
Whereas some employees want to stay in one area, others want to travel the world. Some want to focus on working within one business area, but others want to obtain expertise in many fields.
As a global leader, Cummins can offer all of that, Osowick said.
Gillaspy said he values Cummins' global reach, being able to offer jobs in Memphis, Belgium, England and China.
"I want to see the world, and I know that if I stay (with Cummins) I'll get the chance to do that," he said.
But, Osowick emphasized, top talents also require a community that will challenge and engage them.
"The quality of the community is essential," he said.
Top talents care about quality of life, arts and culture, cost of living, diversity and education.
"We have to have an equally great story about Columbus," Osowick said.
Gillaspy lived in Bloomington during his internship with Cummins, because of the college town's lively atmosphere and because it was inexpensive during the summer.
When he got a full-time job with Cummins, he moved to Columbus. Beyond involvement in Columbus Young Professionals and a group at Cummins that plans events for recent hires, the self-professed "golf fanatic" said he was pleasantly surprised about the local and regional golf courses.
John Elwood, president and chief operating officer of Elwood Staffing, said that announcements about new jobs by major corporations send a message through the community, region, state and beyond: Columbus is a healthy, vibrant, growing community.
And Columbus already can attract employees because it has amenities unlike other cities its size, including nice parks, good schools, diverse cultural events and a vibrant downtown.
"A lot of people are doing amazing things (here)," Elwood said.
Gillaspy said that beyond Columbus' proximity to large cities, and Cummins' reputation, successes and promises of global travel, he values the company's flexibility, which ranges from encouraging employees to get experience in other fields to more mundane aspects of corporate culture:
"I get razor burn really badly," he said.
At Cummins, he doesn't have to shave every day.
He couldn't do that working for some other companies, he said.
Gillaspy believes in Cummins, so much so that the company already has tapped him to try to convince other young talents that Cummins is a great place to work: He has been named a team leader for MBA recruiting.