The company is looking for applicants with a solid work ethic.
“ You show up on time and show up every day,” Winegar said.“ You ask questions and learn. Be a part of the team and contribute to it.”
Midwest’ s team includes 400 employees in all of its facilities and 30 in Northwest Arkansas, Winegar said. he said.“ I didn’ t have a mechanical background. That made it harder.”
“ When something breaks down, it’ s all hands on deck,” Winegar said.
Mechanical skills the company looks for in employees include welding, knowing how to trouble-shoot hydraulic systems, pneumatic operations and simple electrical wiring.
According to Winegar, taking classes in school that teach those skills can pay off. Machine operators, shift managers and some maintenance positions can make as much money as supervisors.
According to Alcala, to make it on the team, you need to be prepared for anything.“ Be ready to work no matter what the job is,” he added.
You need to learn basic math and leadership skills, Crowell said.
“ Learn anything that can help you solve problems. It’ s not any solution, but the best solution. Think independently,” he said.
“ Stay in school and learn,” Alcala encouraged.“ I didn’ t like school when I was in it. You need to take advantage of the opportunity and be somebody.”
“ Quality and production drive compensation,” Winegar said.“ Wages are directly connected to attitude and are incentive based. For promotions, you need to master the technical skills.”
Positions for people who can operate programmable logic control machines are hard to fill, Sales Manager Coltr Crowell said. The company looked for machine operators and couldn’ t find them, Crowell said. It finally stopped looking. Midwest now offers onthe-job training.
“ About 90 percent of the applicants were under qualified,” Crowell explained.“ We had to weed out the waitresses and cashiers. We decided to train from within.”
“ If you have a good attitude, you can learn on the job,” Winegar said.“ You need to be adaptable.”
“ There is always something different,” Alcala said.“ I’ m still learning new stuff.”
Hiring new people who are trainable is important, Crowell said.
“ You must be willing to work and know how to work,” he said.“ You need problem solving skills independent of instruction.”
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