Made from scratch: When Honda built a plant in Alabama it also built a workforce-using local workers who had no experience in making cars - Recruitment & Hiring

HR Magazine, April, 2002 by Robert I. Grossman

Eastbound out of Birmingham on Interstate 20 you notice the motels and shopping centers eventually giving way to an Alabama countryside of forests and farms. At exit 65-Lincoln-you might expect to see a quintessential Southern rural town where Aunt Bee makes cookies from scratch.

Look again.

Lincoln is a small town growing fast--and it's where Honda has been creating a workforce from scratch.

Honda Manufacturing of Alabama (HMA) built a plant in Lincoln to turn out Odyssey minivans and engines, and, with major help from the state, it has recruited and trained mostly local workers, none of whom had any experience building cars.

The effort has netted amazing results. It was only about three years ago that Honda decided to put a plant in Lincoln. Vans began rolling off the assembly line last December, and the plant is expected to reach full production later this year.

Everything about this newest U.S. Honda plant reflects a determination to start fresh. That attitude is reflect in the HMA's staff and in the partnership that the company has forged with the state of Alabama.

Alabama-Bound

When Honda announced that it wanted to build a plant for manufacturing Odysseys, it was besieged with suitors. Several states competed heavily for the factory, hut Alabama walked off with the jackpot.

Honda officials say they liked Alabama for many reasons, including weather, accessibility to suppliers, tax incentives, wage and benefit levels in the region, and the low profile of labor unions in the area.

But the deal clincher, they say, was the availability of labor and the state's offer to enter into a recruitment and training partnership. Alabama earmarked $30 million for training--aimed primarily at helping the company find and prepare a high-quality workforce. The funds pay for the 62,000-square-foot Honda Training Center in Lincoln--a facility with modern classrooms and replicas of Honda equipment--and for other elements of a state-run program that virtually ensures that Honda's hires are well-suited for their jobs.

Honda's partnership with Alabama represents the closest links the company has with any state. "There's nothing comparable in other Honda plants to the training here," says Mike Bergman, assistant manager of engine assembly. For example, Honda's Anna, Ohio, engine plant--where Bergman worked previously--has no pre-employment training.

A New Start

In planning the Alabama facility, Honda decision-makers studied what they viewed as the strengths and shortcomings of previous Honda start-ups in Mexico, Canada and Europe. They concluded that the managers who would build and staff the Lincoln facility not only had to be competent and embody Honda's values but also had to be excited about going to the South. And since the individual is paramount in Honda's philosophy, HR had to play a central role.

In July 1999 Honda offered the top HR post at the newly formed HMA to Andy Ritter. He was working at Honda's corporate office in Marysville, Ohio, and had headed HR operations at Honda's plant in East Liberty, Ohio.

Honda knew Ritter's HR competencies were a good match for the job in Lincoln. He had not only the necessary people skills but also the analytical and organizational savvy that Honda demands in its manufacturing areas. "He had very strong project planning skills, was detail-oriented, thought things through well and had a high level of integrity," says Kathy Jones, HMA's executive vice president. "With Andy, there are no surprises. Good news or bad, he lets you know what's happening."

Ritter understood the challenges he faced. "I knew I would need to find and train about 1,500 employees by April 2002," he says. "The clock was ticking."

Ritter set out to recruit a human resources team that was passionate about Honda and the chance to be part of a new beginning. Jim Willman was among the first to sign on. A training manager at Honda's plant in Marysville, he was itching for a change. "Everything in Ohio, I had inherited," he explains. "The systems were in place; anyone could have done it. Andy gave me license to come down here and do it my way. He said, 'If it worked well in Ohio, we'll take it, but we don't have to use anything we're not comfortable with.'"

Ritter also tapped Michelle Turner, currently HMA's coordinator of staffing, to honcho the hiring of non-exempt, hourly workers. It probably helped that Turner, like all Honda HR professionals, knows what it's like to work on the assembly line. "You had to work in production for six months to a year when I started with Honda 12 years ago," she says. "Now it's been reduced to two weeks. Whatever the time, it's worthwhile."

Honda rounded out the Lincoln project team with line managers who would run the various aspects of the manufacturing process--welding, assembly, quality, purchasing--and would take part in the initial managerial hiring. Like Ritter, they were excited.

"I saw an opportunity to live out a vision in quality that I had," says Ken Pyo, manager of the vehicle quality department. "It would have been very difficult for me to change things in Ohio because they're so instilled."