The 3D printing industry creates physical objects out of a rough design that blossoms into a three-dimensional digital model. From furniture to medical devices and planters, 3D printing has an abundance of products that can be built from an idea.
Unfortunately for hiring teams searching in today’s complicated job market, a seasoned engineer with the desired experience can’t be blueprinted in a lab.
Following the recent Great Resignation, many companies that conducted massive hiring sprees only a few months ago have since frozen their efforts — but that doesn’t mean people stopped looking.
In fact, about 40 percent of workers are considering quitting their current jobs in the next three to six months, according to a July 2022 report from McKinsey and Co. The study surveyed more than 13,000 people across the globe, including 6,294 Americans, between February and April.
So in a saturated job market with a partially dammed flow of opportunities, what stands out to a tough-to-fill crowd like engineers? And from the perspective of coding teams, what qualities matter for engineer retention?
The currency of unique values.
“Understanding what motivates each employee is very important,” said Jim Cuseo, VP of mechanical engineering at 3D printing company Markforged. “Once you understand what motivates a person, you can then work with them to find project assignments that maximize their engagement — a key factor in retention.”
Built In Boston caught up with Cuseo to learn about Markforged’s stand-out value proposition, how he keeps current employees satisfied in their roles and his top strategies for engineer retention.
Describe your company’s value proposition to engineers.
At Markforged, we are creating an end-to-end additive manufacturing solution consisting of hardware, software and materials we call the Digital Forge. Across these three verticals, there is something exciting for nearly every type of engineer, and we all come together as “one team” — a key Markforged value — to solve some extremely complex problems. Due to the close-knit nature of the team, each engineer learns a ton about all of the other disciplines.
Because 3D printing is an interdisciplinary field, there are many different directions in which an engineer might take their career. One might become an expert in mechanical design, while another may focus on the tuning of complex control systems. Some choose to go super deep in one area over many years, while others prefer to develop a broad knowledge base across many disciplines. This, combined with the fact that this is a constantly evolving technology, creates an environment that allows each individual to craft their own career journey and pursue many different opportunities for advancement on both technical and managerial tracks.
As a manager, how do you keep a pulse on your team members’ job satisfaction?
At Markforged, we do bi-annual employee surveys, which provide us with great insight into the factors that are affecting engagement. This data and feedback allow us to create targeted initiatives to address the biggest opportunities.
While these anonymous surveys are very useful, an even better strategy is to maintain an open door policy with your team. I stress this to my teams often and try to hold skip levels — meetings with team members who don’t report to me directly — with each person in the organization a few times each year. Since that becomes harder as the team continues to grow, I also remind the team that if they have anything they need from me, they shouldn’t wait until we have a scheduled meeting — I’m happy to make the time so we can address issues in the moment.
Once you understand what motivates a person, you can then work with them to find project assignments that maximize their engagement.”
What have you learned about employee retention in your time as a manager at your company?
Some people are motivated by solving the hardest problems, others by opportunities for professional growth and promotion. Some enjoy quickly moving from one challenge to the next; others like to go deep into a discipline over a long period of time. In order to determine what works for each team member, I have used a motivation exercise to good effect.
In the exercise, we ask the employee to choose from a list of abstract nouns such as challenge, happiness and recognition that describe motivators and pair them with the area of their work that best applies: company, leaders, product, team or role. During this exercise, an engineer might determine they are motivated by working on innovative products, on a team that feels like a family, in a role that is fast-paced. A different engineer might decide that they don’t really care what type of product they work on as long as the role allows them to go deep and the company has a strong moral compass.
