BRIGHT IDEAS
||
INDUSTRY
S
ir, we’ve reviewed your qualifications for this promo-
tion and we’ve found you to be lacking. Actually, the
problem is more that we’ve found you to be
having
—
that
is, having too much hair. You see, a recent study from
the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found
that people consider men with shaved heads to be more
dominant, confident and masculine (as well as nearly an
inch taller, four years older and 13 percent stronger) than those
with full heads of hair. This is true even when hair is digitally manipulated: In
pictures where their hair had been removed by Photoshop, men were rated
taller and stronger than they were in photos of their real selves.
Researchers believe the effect may have to do with the number of bald
action heroes in American cinema, the prevalence of shaved heads among
those in traditionally masculine professions, and the nonverbal communica-
tion of confidence. Unfortunately, they also found that men with shaved
companies downtown has a com-
bined 500 openings.
Detroit is not unique in this regard.
Despite nagging unemployment, there
are 3.6 million jobs nationwide sitting
empty, the U.S. Department of Labor says,
because employers contend they can’t find
peoplewith the right skills. What sets this
hard-luck Midwestern metropolis apart,
however, is the dazzling speed at which it’s
training prospective employees for those
unfilled positions.
Businesses, schools and public agen-
cies—determined to overcome their
city’s roller-coaster economic history,
overdependence on the Big Three auto-
makers and general bad rap—have come
together in an unprecedented effort to
bridge the skills gap. “We have an urgency
placed on us like no other community in
this country has ever faced,” says Sharon
Miller, vice chancellor of external affairs at
Oakland Community College, which has
five campuses inmetroDetroit. “Whenyou
hit bo omfirst, you’re the first ones to try
to get back out. And we hit bo om first.”
When Hewlett-Packard opened an
outpost in nearby Pontiac, Mich., in 2011,
it ranhead-on into the ITworker shortage.
“
When I first startedhiring, Iwas surprised
to find that weweren’t overwhelmedwith
people applying,” says Jane Montecillo, a
seniormanager atHP. Thefirmneeded 200
people to dowork for public-sector clients,
but unemployment in technical fields,
including programming, was effectively
zero. So Miller’s community college
stepped up and in three months created
and filled an accelerated course to train
programmers who could build and test
so ware applications. Many of the train-
ees nowwork at HP; when they graduated,
Montecillo brought the celebration cake.
In the Detroit of even a few years ago,
“
it would have taken eons to get training
set up,” says Michelle Salvatore, director
of recruiting at former Intuit subsidiary
Quicken Loans, which took a gamble on
moving to downtown Detroit instead of
sending its IT work overseas. The firm
still has 120 openings, even after hiring
440
IT workers last year. “Now people
here respond to everything with a sense
of urgency.”
One reason for this urgency is that
training programs have for so long relied
on outdated labor data in a fast-shi ing
economy. The need for CNC machinists
inDetroit, for example, plummeted in the
period leading up to 2010, which remains
the last year for which the federal Bureau
of Labor Statistics has issued figures. In
response, training programs canceled
machinist classes. Although demand
rebounded dramatically in the two sub-
sequent years, schools were still working
off the old figures.
“
What the federal government was
telling us was the exact opposite of what
was actuallyhappening,” says LisaBaragar
Katz, executive director of the Workforce
IntelligenceNetwork (WIN) for Southeast
54
The Shorn Supremacy
WHYMENWHODITCH THEIR HAIR ARE
MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
this month’s
AMAZING
FACT
!
ILLUSTRATION BY JEFF QUINN
P
URVEYORS
OF
F
INE
A
RT
C
ONSERVATORS
OF
W
ORKS
OF
A
RT
A
RCHIVAL
F
RAMING
Wrigley Building
410
North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611
312-642-5300
The Natural History Art Gallery
AUDUBON
and the
ART
of
NATURAL
HISTORY
Chicago & Charleston
