The topic of attracting, acquiring, and retaining next-generation talent has been one of the most talked about in the LBM industry for the last five years or more and will continue to be at the forefront in the future. It’s no secret that our workforce at the retail lumberyards, wholesale distributors, manufacturers, and builder/contractor levels is aging, and we are losing employees to more technology-based career paths.


In my 10 years with Windsor Mill/WindsorONE, I’ve made it my mission to help develop that next generation as much as possible and try to bring new faces into our beloved industry. This development comes through spending time at local trade schools, talking to junior and senior carpentry students; time at the high school level, presenting to business classes about how they might fit into the LBM industry; and time at my alma mater in the Penn State Forestry and Wood Products department, trying to further highlight where graduating seniors might find a home base for their careers. Furthermore, 10 years of involvement in the NYLE (North American Young Lumber Employees) organization has provided a great opportunity to grow business relationships and friendships, and converse with the next level of incoming LBM talent.


As I enter my 13th year in the LBM industry, I look back at the things I’ve tried to instill in our next generation, attempting to attract them to our workforce. What can the collective LBM community be doing to bring in this next crop of talent? This mission begins with educating all parties in the industry that we all know and love and the WHY we love it so much! I may not harness the tenure of many of you reading this, but it is very well known that many of our colleagues love this industry so much that they have dedicated their lives to it, professionally and socially. We need to be passing that on as an influential message to the next generation.


As a start, here are three things that should be top of mind when conversing with and developing the next generation:

  • Relationships: When polling a room of LBM professionals that have 10+ years of tenure in our industry, what keeps them coming back? Relationships are almost always No. 1. The networking that goes on in our industry to the level of major lifelong friendships is unwavering. How many of your customers, employees, vendors, competitors, etc. have you sat down with and enjoyed a meal or beer with over the past year?How many of those conversations go beyond “work” topics and dig into your personal lives? These business friendships not only make our businesses work better together and create stronger bonds, but they should also be used as a recruiting tool! Who wouldn’t want to work with their friends 24/7/365? People buy from people they like! Utilize this strength when talking to the next generation.
  • Upward Mobility: We all start at the bottom of the food chain or are trained to know most aspects of our business operations from the ground floor. When I started in the hardwood business fresh out of college, the first six months were spent in the woods with the foresters and in the mill sorting, grading, and processing lumber. At the time, I wondered why!? But as time went on, understanding those aspects of the manufacturing process created a level of understanding that was invaluable. The same goes for learning how to keep the yard clean, load trucks, plan daily shipments, etc. All these ground-level operations can be the universal building blocks to catapult a new LBM employee up the chain to sales, marketing, management, etc., and this needs to be explained in the very first conversations with the next generation. With our aging workforce comes opportunity, and what better way to show value in the industry than by showing room for future growth?
  • Sales Acumen/Business Skill Development: Explaining to a carpenter or yard worker that someday they may have the opportunity to help project manage or become a yard foreman/sales manager is a challenge, but every aspect of each role has some person-to-person conversational de-velopment involved. Each interaction can be a learning opportunity to bet-ter that employee’s skillset. Helping these next-generation talents know their value is also a big part of the conversation and where they can find and develop career mentors in our LBM industry. Get them talking to their peers in your business or peers at one of your vendors or customers.

When it comes to the next generation, if everyone reading this takes 15-20 minutes per week and puts it toward helping develop an employee, customer, vendor, potential new hire, etc., we can help things move forward more smoothly and continue to grow the industry that we all know and love. Also, if there is anyone within your organization or a potential employee who wants to learn more about the opportunities in our industry or with the NYLE organization, please feel free to reach out to me or one of the NYLE board members, as we would be happy to help!

Corbin Rinehart is in charge of Business Development and the “Resident Wood Nerd” at WindsorONE | Windsor Mill. He can be reached at corbin@windsorone.com.