‘Kaizen’ and pinch tests: Toyota begins hiring workers for its NC battery plant
Toyota doesn’t expect to begin producing batteries at its new factory in Randolph County until 2025, but the company has already begun hiring the people who will make them.
The first group of new employees began going through the weeks-long hiring process in July at a temporary training center in Greensboro. Eventually the Japanese automaker plans to hire 2,100 people at the plant, starting at anywhere from $18 to $41.50 an hour depending on the job and their experience.
Despite a tight labor market, there’s been plenty of interest, said Tim Stanton, senior human resources manager for Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina.
“Our response from the community has been outstanding. We have hundreds of people that are in the queue for positions,” Stanton said Wednesday. “We’ve been blessed so far.”
Toyota screens applicants online, to ensure they are a good fit with the company’s culture of teamwork and “continuous improvement,” the business philosophy known by the Japanese term Kaizen. Those who pass are then brought to an office building off Interstate 40 where the evaluation continues, including one-on-one interviews and assessments of the physical skills and attention to detail needed to assemble car batteries.
Job candidates are tested on their abilities to bend, stoop, reach, push, pull and grip. Measures of hand strength include the “thumb push” and “pinch test.” The goal is not to weed people out so much as put them in the right jobs, Stanton said.
“So we’re actually checking,” he said. “Can a person bend, lift, reach, and then we’re placing that human body in the best possible fit for them.”
Toyota has hired about 200 workers for the plant so far, a number that will go up each week, Stanton said. After completing basic training, these early hires will begin working in the factory early next year, helping the company create and refine its production lines so it’s ready to begin shipping batteries to a Toyota assembly plant in Kentucky in 2025.
This will be Toyota’s first company-owned battery plant in the world. The automaker expects to spend about $3.8 billion to build the factory outside the Randolph County town of Liberty, about 20 miles southeast of Greensboro. It chose the 1,800-acre site in part because of a state and local incentive package worth $438.7 million.
Welcoming new employees to the Toyota family
All new hires at the plant go through weeks of paid training, starting with a two-week program Toyota calls the Center of Excellence. It’s a way of welcoming new employees to the family and preparing them to excel in their work, says Derrick Taylor, the center’s senior manager.
“We will have programs set up to make sure that we have the right experiences, right assignments, to help you progress,” Taylor said. “Because as we grow, we want them to grow. ... We care about not just the hands but the people.”
On Wednesday, Taylor spoke to a class of about 40 new hires about their values and personal journeys and their “working life plan,” and how working at Toyota fits. He said they’d have team-building exercises and lessons on The Toyota Way, the company’s guiding principals, but also discussions about what they want from work.
“Your happiness here is something we really want,” he told the new hires.
Among them was Chelsey Butler of Asheboro, who will do internal communications at the plant. Butler, 32, said the on-boarding process covered more ground than she expected.
“It is very extensive,” Butler said. “We are spending a lot of time learning about the company, learning about ourselves, how we fit into the company, where we best fit, how we can be part of this growing puzzle, and it’s been very extensive.”
To learn more about jobs at the battery plant, go to www.toyota.com/careers and type “Liberty, NC” in the search bar.
This story was originally published October 5, 2023 at 8:00 AM with the headline "‘Kaizen’ and pinch tests: Toyota begins hiring workers for its NC battery plant."
