Safety Factor: How Global Lifting Awareness Day Addresses the Labor Shortage in the Lifting Industry
Global Lifting Awareness Day, Thursday, July 13, 2023, plays a pivotal role in combating the labor shortage that plagues the lifting industry. Join us as we delve into the history, strategies, stories, and goals behind this global movement aimed at promoting talent development and bridging the gap between supply and demand. Discover how you can be a part of the solution and make an impact on the lifting industry.
In this episode of Safety Factor, we delve into the importance of Global Lifting Awareness Day (#GLAD) and its efforts to combat the labor shortage within the industry. Join our guests, Ross Moloney, CEO of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA), and Mike Close, Mazzella Corporate Marketing & Communications Manager, as we discuss the strategies employed to develop talent, raise awareness, and tackle the growing gap between demand and available skilled workers. Gain valuable insights into how this global event plays a vital role in shaping the future of the lifting industry. Discover how you can actively participate in Global Lifting Awareness Day, contribute to the cause, and become a catalyst for change. Elevate your understanding and join us as we embark on a captivating exploration of the lifting industry’s future.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to make a difference and be a part of something bigger. Whether you’re a lifting professional, an employer, or simply interested in industry trends, this episode provides a compelling exploration of the labor shortage and the initiatives driving change in the lifting industry.
Prefer to watch? You can watch this podcast on the Lifting & Rigging YouTube Channel.
Transcript
Intro
– [Announcer] For your own safety, you are reminded to stand behind the yellow line.
(upbeat music)
– [Ben Hengst] Welcome to Safety Factor. My name is Ben Hengst, and today we’re talking about Global Lifting Awareness Day. Global Lifting Awareness Day 2023 or GLAD
Date of Global Lifting Awareness Day 2023
– [Ben Hengst] is Thursday, July 13th. And I’m joined by Ross Moloney, CEO of the LEEA, the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association. And Mike Close, Mazzella, corporate Marketing and Communications Manager. Thanks for joining.
– [Mike Close] Thanks for having us, Ben.
Ross Moloney’s expertise and background
– [Ben Hengst] So Ross, could you tell us a little bit about who you are and your background in the lifting industry?
– [Ross Moloney] Yeah, sure. Thank you so much for having me. I’ve just come back from the States, so yeah, it’s good to spend some time with you. So, so I’m Ross Moloney. I’ve been the chief executive here at LEEA for five and a half years now. And my background before joining LEEA has nothing to do with the lifting equipment industry whatsoever. I am an economist by background. My doctorate is in political economy. In my head, I’m still an economist. So when I watch the news, I scratch my head and wonder how we can be making how many mistakes across the world. And I kind of think that was the value that the board who appointed me at LEEA saw in me that we have loads of expertise in our industry within the association. I am fortunate to lead an organization that has 1200 global corporate members across this incredibly diverse and optimistic and wonderful set of industries that are under the lifting equipment umbrella.
What is the impact of lifting industries on economies worldwide?
– [Ross Moloney] And my interest in it is really, the interest that I push on politicians, stakeholders, and others, that without us not a lot gets done. And without our industry, the economy is a very different one. And you can see that across the world, that nations and marketplaces that have developed and sophisticated lifting industries are the countries that are developing, are the marketplaces that are developing. And where we don’t have standards and safety and ingenuity and entrepreneurs in this industry, they’re the marketplaces that are slow or are regressing. And so I feel really, really lucky to have ended up in the lifting equipment sector. And I guess one of the things I’m going to talk about today is not many people when they’re 14 or 15, grow up dreaming of becoming involved in the lifting equipment industry. But I have been fortunate to visit unbelievable places, work with unbelievable individuals, work with really rich individuals, and have got a hope, a good understanding of what our industry has going for it, but also the challenges that face our industry.
What is Global Lifting Awareness Day?
– [Ben Hengst] Could you tell us a little bit about Global Lifting Awareness Day? So what is it, what’s the history of it and why is it important to the lifting industry?
– [Ross Moloney] Yeah, perfect. So Global Lifting Awareness Day, like the best ideas in the world started in a hotel bar.
(laughter)
When you get our industry together, they are different, diverse, opinionated individuals. And getting them to agree on anything is often problematic. And as the chief executive of a trade association, that’s an issue, but one of the things that most managing directors can agree on is in the top three things that keep them awake at night is where am I going to recruit from? Where’s my next generation of employees going to be coming from? And in conversations in this hotel bar, we were talking about how we can bring the industry together to address that issue. And so Global Lifting Awareness Day became a solution. And it is only a solution to that particular problem because we quickly, and I guess most people listening to this will probably be in the same sort of place that we can agree on this, that actually who out there in the world knows about lifting other than people that work in lifting. Even when you work in the lifting industry, if you go to a party or a dinner and you tell people what you do for a living, you can watch people’s eyes glaze over.
– [Mike Close] No doubt.
– [Ross Moloney] My children still tease me about elevators. And I’m like, no, that’s not the sort of lifting that I work in guys. And so we sort, I came up with this idea that, look, we can sit by and, you know, just get on with life and nobody knows what we do and we can carry on struggling to recruit. And I mean, one of the things that we,
How is Global Lifting Awareness Day addressing the industry labor shortage?
– [Ross Moloney] over here in the UK is we can see people who leave the military, who have all the skills and loads of experience in recovery. And they have got years and years of actually doing lifting in the most inhospitable places in the world in situations that none of us actually want to be in, let alone lifting stuff. And rather than coming and work in the civilian workforce, they would be going and retraining. And so we were just confused by that and frustrated by that. And likewise, how do we actually encourage young people to look at ours as an industry that is going to take them around the world, give them a fascinating, interesting career, one that gives them a good living, one that gives them opportunities. And so Global Lifting Awareness Day started in a bar when we were comparing frustrations about our wonderful industry. And the solution that we came to was, well, we’re going to have to do something about it. And it felt like it was a solution that all of us could be involved in and as the trade association in the UK and with a global footprint, yeah, of course LEEA has a role to play in that. But the really important message is this is an industry day. And so we at LEEA do things and we have content and we service a website and we push out messages, but it’s not a LEEA Day. This is a global lifting awareness day, which we as a trade association participate in. And so do loads of sister trade associations and we have sister trade associations in different supply chains who probably have never thought about the lifting component of what they do. And that we go right across the world, we’re talking to you guys, but also we have sister associations in New Zealand, in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. So yeah, so it’s a genuine global industry awareness day.
What can we learn from other industries’ recruitment practices?
– [Mike Close] Ross, do you think there’s any industries out there that are doing a really good job of recruiting young people into the industry? And is there anything we can learn from that and bring into the lifting industry?
– [Ross Moloney] Yeah, great question. If I start off with the rubbish industries, right? And then we can extrapolate what good looks like. So I think it’s common across all engineering industries. Simply we in the UK and I do not think that it’s unique to us, but we talk about the need for our next generation to have these science, math skills. And we know that, you know, research shows that when you talk to a young person about science and maths, it’s not something that they’re particularly interested in. And so the industries, the jobs, the careers that rely on those skills do struggle. And I know that there have been loads of attempts to really push the value of engineering and to really illustrate why and what it contributes to our everyday way of life. However, the value and the benefit of those sorts of initiatives means that we get loads of people who are 14, 15, and 16 that want to go and work in Formula One or that want to come over to you guys and work at Cape Canaveral. And so we end up getting a very niche approach to engineering. And what we don’t really do is illustrate that.
How can we rebrand to make lifting more attractive?
– [Ross Moloney] I mean, what is engineering, right? It’s about coming up with a practical solution to a real life problem. We’re not talking about something theoretical. We’re not talking about winning an argument, we’re talking about fighting gravity, we’re talking about overcoming real observable challenges. And so I think the engineering industry in general has this issue. I don’t think it’s unique to our part of that. However, I think that some of our sister parts of the engineering industry are probably a bit more glamorous, probably a bit more attractive. And so what we have to do is to really pitch ourselves as being interesting, a career opportunity. You know, when I talk to my children who are teenagers about lifting, they still think it’s all about manual work. They think it’s about grease, they think it’s about hard work in that sort of way. When I tell them that actually what we’re doing is math-based physics overcoming more and more challenges, we are going higher, we are going further, we’re going deeper, we’re going to places that generations ago we never thought we were going to be going. You know, what we’re actually doing is overcoming barriers. And when you start to pitch it like that, it becomes a more interesting concept. And so then going onto who actually does a good job at attracting new recruits, I kind of think that’s an interesting thing that no industry that I can think of thinks that they’re doing a really good job in that. Yeah, every, everybody’s their own worst critic in this, that my children, I’ve got a daughter that’s smart and a son that’s lazy and what are they thinking about doing? My daughter’s thinking about going into corporate law or corporate finance because that’s where they think the money is and where they can retire on a beach in the Caribbean. And likewise, well, my son’s looking at becoming a gamer. He wants to be an eSports professional, right? And so I think that’s pretty normal, but what do we get out of God for this? I think this is about showing that there is a really mature, grown up and exciting pathway for the rest of your life. This is a proper profession and it is a profession that means that we expect and we hope that our new recruits will achieve at school, will go to university or will go through a different pathway. In the UK we have apprenticeship.
How does GLAD helps direct career changes to the lifting industry?
– [Ross Moloney] So yeah, so I’m hoping that what we do really as an industry using GLAD and other things is that we become first in the race of actually attracting a new generation. However, less and less do any of us work in the same job for life, right?
– [Mike Close] Sure.
– [Ross Moloney] More and more of us are having career changes. And so GLAD is about attracting young people, but it’s also about showing people who are looking for a career change that ours is a career where we can have them. And that means if you are bright, if you are smart, dedicated, hardworking, it’s a guarantee that our industry will give you the rewards that you’re looking for.
What career opportunities exist in the lifting industry?
– [Ross Moloney] And that can be if you’re an IT professional, it’s a huge part of our industry, right? If you are an engineer, we want you. If you’re a scientist, and that’s a scientist that can be looking into strength of metals, strength of synthetics, it can be a scientist that’s looking into overcoming gravity, managing risk. I struggle to think of a particular profession or academic discipline where our industry would not love you to come and work.
What amazing project opportunities exist in the lifting industry?
– [Mike Close] I agree, and I think there’s a real opportunity within our industry. You know, I’ve heard before that the lifting industry, it’s not a sexy industry. And while that that may be true to a degree, I don’t think we do a good enough job showcasing some of the really cool projects. Like you mentioned earlier, there’s opportunities to do cooperative projects with aerospace companies like SpaceX and NASA, and you’ve got complex rigging situations in sports arenas and facilities all across the country with massive hoists and rigging and entertainment. And you know, you’ve got these massive infrastructure projects across the United States right now. You’ve got a whole new industry for onshore and offshore wind that’s coming over to the States. So I think we need to do a much better job of letting people know the types of opportunities and projects that are available when you do become, you know, whether you’re an engineer, whether you’re in the labor, you’re in IT, like you said, you’re a trainer. There’s so many great positions that you can get into in really cool projects.
– [Ross Moloney] I could not agree more with you.
Pitching the lifting industry as a key component in supply chains
– [Ross Moloney] And I think, you know, how have we not been better? I think how have we not been better as an industry? Because we focus on ourselves as an industry. We focus on ourselves as lifting. What we haven’t done is what you’ve just talked about there. We haven’t really understood or pitched ourselves as key components in different supply chains. So we focused on the lifting bit of the lifting industry rather than highlighting the results that come up because of our interventions. And so, for instance, I have a member that is based in Australia, looks after the wire rope on Sydney Harbor Bridge. We have members who put up the offshore energy that you’ve talked about in the North Sea and in the Middle East. And we’ve got members that are involved in oil and gas. And then in Britain we’re constructing at nuclear stations. That’s all about lifting, right? That’s not going to happen without lifting. And likewise, when you think about international cargo, it only gets on and it only gets off because of lifting. And so when we start talking about lifting,
How to focus the positive and negative impact of the lifting industry
– [Ross Moloney] I have been in rooms meeting with people who are otherwise polite who start yawning literally and metaphorically when I talk. But what’s much better is when we talk about the impact that our industry has, both positive and negative. Positive in the sense of literally, look around you now, nothing in the room is there without having been through a lifting process. And then the negative side, if you go on social media, particularly LinkedIn, you will see hopefully amusing videos of people dropping stuff. And actually we know that when stuff gets dropped, injuries and fatalities happen. We’re not making that up. This is real. So what we do is important for our way of life, but it’s really important to make sure that everybody gets home safely at night.
What is LEEA’s Think Lifting?
– [Ross Moloney] One of the things we did when we were sort of wrestling with that at LEEA is we developed a think lifting suite. And the think lifting, you’ll see it on our website if you Google “think lifting”. We put together a video and it’s three minutes that we have encouraged everyone in the industry to share. Every time they talk about what they do, just bring it on. And so it is deliberately a bit glam, right? So there’s sunsets in the background and there’s big cranes and there’s a bit sort of cinematic stuff. But yeah, it really highlights that what we do is huge, is macro rather than oh yeah. It’s just, you know, a bit greasy and a bit hard work.
How GLAD pitches the Lifting Industry as a macro industry
– [Ross Moloney] But yeah, I really think that, and why I love Global Lifting Awareness Day is it really pitches us as the industry that we are. This huge, massive global macro, important on an everyday basis industry that if we don’t invest in, if we don’t look after, will not invest in us as we look to go forward. And I’m talking about our economies and it won’t deliver the economies that we are looking for moving forward. And, you know, and I will be quiet because I know I’m going on a bit, but you know, what’s happening in Europe at the moment really showcases that we need to be able to pivot quickly and pivoting quickly always involves the lifting industry. During COVID, when we were creating hospitals within a month, they only happened because lifting engineers existed. When we were checking that buildings were still safe to be used, these things only happened because of our industry. Moving away from the fossil fuels that we’re relying on in other economies is only happening because of the lifting equipment industry. So we’re an industry that has a brighter future than we have a proud history. This is clearly an industry for the future. This is not going to be an industry that rests or that withers on the vine. This is one that’s full of opportunities and really has a positive future ahead of it.
– [Ben Hengst] So speaking of that,
How the role of AI in the lifting industry’s future can attract new talent
– [Ben Hengst] there’s a lot of new technology that’s coming out within the lifting industry, and you mentioned specifically that your son is a gamer. He enjoys that kind of stuff. So I guess how can we kind of combine these two things together to attract those people to this industry?
– [Ross Moloney] Yeah, I mean, what a great set of issues we have ahead of us, right? So I tend to get overexcited about AI. So I’m looking at what AI is going to change for me as an a trade association. But in terms of the whole digital processes, we’re already seeing that there is a move away from eyes on the prize type inspection as we’re moving towards drone technology, as we’re talking towards big data, as we’re moving towards big data, the sense of actually being able to understand usage and stresses. So digital gives us wonderful opportunities for doing what we currently do better, safer, cheaper, but there’s so many things that we haven’t already thought of that we’re going to be able to achieve as technologies are coming along. And so one of the things that we are doing for Global Lifting Awareness Day is that LEEA is hosting a roundtable on digital. So digital in the sense of, well, two things, there’s two main parts. How can we use digital technologies to do what we do already better, but also digital technologies can also be the driver for this. So rather than using digital to overcome the current problems that we have, given that these things are existing now, what can we do that we’ve always wanted to do? So effectively because of the process of digitalization and technology, we can kind of say to our industry, you’ve got a magic wand, guys, what is it that you wanted to do forever? Because now you might be able to do it. So I mean, it’s a really interesting area to see how digital is going to be growing. Like I said, I’ve got this roundtable where we’re going to be bringing together some of the brains that are bigger than mine to actually talk about what’s the future going to be in 10 years, let alone 20. Because that’s The pace of change. The pace of change is in 10 years, our industry will have component parts that we’ve always done. We’re always going to be forging stuff. We’re always going to be making really big hooks. We’re always going to be making wire rope. But what’s next? What are the new processes coming that change and make safe for our industry? And that’s something for me to really push home that, you know, LEEA is a trade association. We are a not-for-profit trade association. And our goal is a really simple one. Our goal is determined by my board, which is made up of LEEA members. It’s simply, I say simply, easy to say, hard to achieve. It’s to eliminate accident, injury and fatality from our industry. And eliminate is deliberately to zero. It should be as safe to work in our industry as it is working in a Starbucks. It’s inherently more dangerous, inherently harder, technically unbelievably challenging, but because of the brains that we have, because of the expertise that we have, because of the dedication that we have within our industry, we should be able to make our industry as safe as it is to go and work in a Starbucks.
Showcasing the lifting equipment industry in the Houses of Parliament
– [Ben Hengst] So how can companies and individuals participate in GLAD?
– [Ross Moloney] Great. So GLAD is a social media awareness day, right? So LEEA has a full range of content that is going to be pushing out on the 13th. In fact, the day before for listeners in the US, I’m guessing that the only bit of the political process in the UK that you guys ever see is prime minister’s questions, right? Where our prime minister and the leader of the opposition shout at each other, members of the Houses of Parliament, shout at each other and it’s really like, it’s quintessentially the most British thing you’re ever going to see, right?
(laughter)
People being rude and polite at the same time. Well, that happens on a Wednesday. So on Wednesday the 12th, we have an event in Houses of Parliament where we are going to be showcasing the lifting equipment industry. We expect the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to join us along with other members of the UK government. And so that’s what we are doing at LEEA, right?
– [Mike Close] Very cool.
– [Ross Moloney] And we’re working with members and we’re really grateful to our members of the board who’ve made that happen. But that’s a trade association, right? We bring together the industry. So we are going to the highest point of UK government to say to them, remember us, remember us when it comes to standards, when it comes to policy, et cetera, et cetera. But then on the 13th, using the website,
How can you participate in Global Lifting Awareness Day 2023?
– [Ross Moloney] globalliftingawarenessday.com. Shouldn’t be a hard one to forget, right? So globalliftingawarenessday.com. You’ll be able to go on there and see what we are doing on the day. And deliberately we’re using social media and we’re using technology. So we’ve got a webinar that’s dedicated to lifting within the nuclear energy industry. And why, because lifting’s lifting, but if you are lifting something in the construction industry, it’s different if you’re working with nuclear materials. So it’s a dedicated webinar about nuclear energy and it’s free and it’ll be recorded and anyone can look at it. And the idea there is that if you work in those sorts of industries, you don’t have to join live. But if you join live, you can ask questions live time, but just look at it over lunch, you know, when you’re sitting in your van, eating your sandwich, drinking your coffee, whatever, you will get content that will make you better at your work there for free. And likewise, we’ll be launching some online training. We’ll be launching some more stuff that LEEA is producing for its members. We have an online app that means our guidance material is instantly accessible so you can be on site and get the industry perspective. But that’s just what LEEA is doing.
How can you participate in GLAD2023 on social media?
– [Ross Moloney] What we encourage everyone who works in the lifting equipment industry to do is to post and it’s to post basically anything that raises awareness of lifting on that day. We don’t have control of this. We’re encouraging everybody to be sensible and activist. I’m not editing it anywhere. You know, there’s things that I’m hoping people might avoid, but we don’t have control of this. We are just an active participant in this. The only thing really I would ask is that people use a hashtag and the hashtag is #GLAD2023. So #GLAD2023, and please post. And it can be as promoting as you want. You can talk about how awesome your firm is, how awesome you are. That anything that raises the profile of our industry so that people who have never thought about lifting on the 13th of July, what great looks like is on the 13th of July. Somebody not from our industry says to somebody else, what’s all this about lifting? What’s going on? So it is breaking that boundary between them and us, right? So that next time I go to a party and I talk about lifting, if I can get somebody that says, oh yeah, I saw that on social media, then I feel like there’s a big tick and we’ve achieved it because the results, what we are looking for. I’m looking for that kid that’s thinking about the next career to actually think about lifting because of Global Lifting Awareness Day or because one of their school teachers has seen something on social media. I’m looking for when they then think about lifting just to Google or to search the hashtag. And then they will find a myriad, a multitude of solutions of material that they can look at. But likewise, and you know, my final, “what does good look like?” What good looks like to me is the guy that’s leaving the services that’s nervous about their next step in life, realizes that there is an industry that wants them, that doesn’t want them to retrain, but wants them to bring their expertise and their skills. And that my civilian workforce as the chief executive of the trade association would love them to come interview. So that’s what I’m hoping for. I’m hoping just that the industry takes ownership, the industry posts, it doesn’t have to be polished, it doesn’t have to be edited. Some of it will be, but some of it, the most hard hitting stuff will be from the heart and will be raw and will be self filmed. And that’s what we’re looking for. A mixture of everything.
– [Mike Close] Yeah, and we’re really excited to participate again this year. This is actually the most kind of thoughtful we’ve been about how we’re going to participate this year. I remember, I think it was 2020, it came on my radar for the first time and we had a couple people who were part of some industry associations that participated through those associations like AWARF.
– [Ross Moloney] Yes.
– [Mike Close] And filmed some videos and we put some things out there. we have kind of some safety best practice type content that we create on our website and we shared out some of that. So we were kind of participating maybe from the fringe, but we’ve participated each year, you know, we have a shared partners with Bridger Howes and we’ve been in communications with those guys and learned more about it and how we can do a better job of participating and spreading the word. And, you know, Mazzella, we’re not unique in our challenges. I mean, we face the same challenges that everyone in the industry does. You know, we’re constantly looking for more people to join our team, to fill our openings all across the country here in the US. And you know, I actually just heard on the radio today that we’re based out of Cleveland, Ohio. Ohio’s unemployment rate is actually the lowest that it’s ever been in the past several years. So it’s just getting harder and harder.
– [Ross Moloney] Yeah.
– [Mike Close] And you know, we’ve been very intentional about trying to partner with the US military and some of the programs that exist to help support veterans as they phase out of that part of their lives and look for a career.
How an apprenticeship can help your career
– [Mike Close] We’ve also developed a couple apprenticeship programs where you can learn how to be a crane service technician, and you get the full training on the structural, the mechanical, the electrical side of dealing with overhead crane equipment.
How to appeal to the younger generation
– [Mike Close] Part of that is also, you know, trying to understand what’s going to be most appealing to younger generations. So there’s a whole portion of that too, about new technologies, about virtual reality. And, you know, kind of like we talked about earlier, I think the cool thing with the lifting industry is you can basically take it back to, you know, several hundred years ago where you could become a blacksmith essentially. You know, when you’re forging and you’re casting and you’re a true craftsman, but you can also take some technologies that you might learn just as a hobby, like flying a drone and using a drone to inspect overhead crane equipment and looking for hotspots in the electrical system, or taking it all the way up hundreds of feet in the air to inspect a wind turbine out in the middle of, you know, the Great Plains portion of the US here. So we’re really trying to be intentional about how we can recruit and raise awareness, and not just for ourselves, but it is for the entire industry as a whole. There’s so many different, like you said, supply chains that the whole industry relies on. So the more we can all do to raise awareness about who we are and what we do in this space for the better for everyone, and ultimately, you know, it affects all of the different industries.
– [Ross Moloney] Yeah. And how awesome is that? And you know, I salute you for the leadership that you guys are providing to the industry, right? So go right back to the start. Why is GLAD here? well, we as an industry have a problem. We’ve got a few challenges, but let’s take them as challenges. Let’s take them as challenges that we as engineers, that you guys as engineers, you see a challenge, you look for a way to overcome it. You don’t sit back and just, oh yeah, I’m going to moan about it. But this is what the industry is doing and you guys, and others, you know, big companies are providing real leadership without which we’re not going to overcome these challenges. And so, you know, I really salute you and I’m grateful for the time and effort and the creativity that you guys are putting into this. Just one last thing from me is our commitment
LEEA’s commitment to a global military transition into lifting
– [Ross Moloney] to military transition is we think unique. My LEEA board has instructed me to provide free training to military leavers globally, irrespective of which armed forces they served in. I’m duty bound now to provide free foundation level training to any military veterans. So the only constraint is a time one that they have to be within six months of leaving or two years of having left. And details are on the LEEA website. So if you Google LEEA, L-E-E-A, you’ll find a military transition scheme. So, you know, again, so many people talk the talk, but we think in our industry, we walk the walk and here, you know, you guys, but there’s no real financial benefit to what you’re doing here, but it’s leadership, right? And likewise, we, a trade association, we could be talking about this and we know in some industries, trade associations are really good at getting in press and really good at lobbying. And we try and do a bit of that as well. But actually our members expect solutions from us. And so we are not here just to moan. We’re here to come up with creative solutions that actually fix the problems that we identify. And we hope that Global Lifting Awareness Day is one of those solutions.
– [Mike Close] Well, we certainly admire what you guys are doing, and I think it’s so important too that it’s not just, that you’ve opened it up to be a global, you know, that everybody across the world can help participate and spread awareness. I think that’s so important. But we certainly admire what you guys are doing and we appreciate the opportunity to participate and we’re really excited about the program we’re putting together for this year.
– [Ross Moloney] Brilliant. Look forward to it.
How can you participate and learn more about #GLAD2023
– [Ben Hengst] All right, Ross, so once again, how can people participate? What’s the hashtag? What’s the website?
– [Ross Moloney] Great. So the hashtag that we ask everyone to use when they’re posting, so straightforward one. So it’s #GLAD2023. So that’s hashtag G-L-A-D 2023. Please use that hashtag so that we can easily see what everybody’s doing and then we can go back and review it afterwards. So yeah, #GLAD2023. And for more details, details that show who else is involved, what other associations are involved, the full content list schedule that LEEA’s going to be producing on the 13th of July. Again, it’s a simple one. It’s a mouthful, but it’s www.GlobalLiftingAwarenessDay.com. Okay. So you’re not going to forget that. So it’s GlobalLiftingAwarenessDay.com. You Google that, you’ll find us and you’ll see who’s participating, the key messages, why we are here. But also you’ll find direct links to what LEEA’s doing on the 13th that includes our nuclear webinar and everything else that we’ll be doing.
– [Ben Hengst] So be sure to visit GlobalLiftingAwarenessDay.com to find out more about how you can participate and support safe lifting. Make sure you use that hashtag #GLAD2023. And as always, you can get ahold of myself, Mike, or any of our other experts at MazzellaCompanies.com. Don’t forget to pop into our learning center. We have a ton of information there. Subscribe to Safety Factor wherever you listen to your podcast. You can also find us on YouTube at the Lifting and Rigging channel. My name is Ben, stay safe out there.
Guests:
- Ross Moloney, Phd, CEO of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA)
- Mike Close, Corporate Marketing & Communications Manager at Mazzella
Background Reading:
- GLAD 2023 Global Mission Statement
- About LEEA
- Think Lifting: Schools Engagement Project
- How Can Mazzella’s Crane Service Technician Apprenticeship Help Your Career
- Mazzella and ITI Deepen 30-Year Relationship with a Robust Partnership
- Military Transition Scheme
Learn More:
- Global Lifting Awareness Day 2023
- The Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA)
- #GLAD2023 Twitter
- #GLAD2023 LinkedIn
- Follow Mazzella on LinkedIn
- Cuyahoga Community College Lifting Technologies Program
Mazzella Career Opportunities
Contact Mazzella:
Schedule Remote or In-Person Rigging Training
Contact Mazzella’s Rigging Division
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In This Podcast:
0:00 – Intro
0:27 – Date of Global Lifting Awareness Day 2023
0:44 – Ross Moloney’s expertise and background
2:00 – What is the impact of lifting industries on economies worldwide?
3:20 – What is Global Lifting Awareness Day?
5:21 – How is Global Lifting Awareness Day addressing the industry labor shortage?
7:28 – What can we learn from other industries’ recruitment practices?
8:58 – How can we rebrand to make lifting more attractive?
11:39 – How does GLAD helps direct career changes to the lifting industry?
12:24 – What career opportunities exist in the lifting industry?
12:53 – What amazing project opportunities exist in the lifting industry?
14:00 – Pitching the lifting industry as a key component in supply chains
15:06 – How to focus the positive and negative impact of the lifting industry
16:02 – What is LEEA’s Think Lifting?
16:41 – How GLAD pitches the Lifting Industry as a macro industry
18:10 – How the role of AI in the lifting industry’s future can attract new talent
21:46 – Showcasing the lifting equipment industry in the Houses of Parliament
23: 12 – How can you participate in Global Lifting Awareness Day 2023?
24:23 – How can you participate in GLAD2023 on social media?
28:38 – How an apprenticeship can help your career
28:52 – How the lifting industry can appeal to the younger generation
30:55 – LEEA’s commitment to free training for military leavers globally
32:50 – How can you participate and learn more about #GLAD2023
Disclaimer:
Any advice, graphics, images, and/or information contained herein are presented for general educational and information purposes and to increase overall safety awareness. It is not intended to be legal, medical, or other expert advice or services, and should not be used in place of consultation with appropriate industry professionals. The information herein should not be considered exhaustive and the user should seek the advice of appropriate professionals.






