S1E3: David Ottavianelli, John Deere

Robert Frederick, the President of Career Professionals of Iowa and Director of Career Services at UNI, sits down virtually with David Ottavianelli of John Deere. Robert and David discuss how John Deere recruiting has changed as the workforce has changed and specific skills John Deere looks for. Tune in as Robert and David talk recruiting veterans, a day in the life of working at John Deere, and the ins and outs of the company.

 

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the career professionals of Iowa College to Careers Podcast. I'm Robert Frederick, the current President of CPI and also the Director of Career Services at the University of Northern Iowa. Career Professionals of Iowa membership includes career services professionals from across the state Iowa's community colleges, Iowa's private colleges, its private universities, and its state region universities as well. The goal of our podcast is to explore the work of both colleges and employers in creating pathways to post graduation success, the nature of recruiting internships, and full time jobs and concepts, ideas, and practices that help students go from college to a career. In this episode, I have the absolute pleasure of talking to David Otavionelli from John Deere. David is the director of Workforce and community development programs for John Deere and also a veteran of the US. Army. Welcome to the podcast, David. 

 U2 

 1:15 

 Hey, Robert. It's a pleasure to be with you. Thank you for bringing me on to talk about this exciting work and a number of different opportunities to engage with students across the state. 

 U1 

 1:27 

 It's absolutely my pleasure. It's been fun getting to know you for the past couple of years, and you're such a great ambassador for John Deere, and I want to know how you got to where you're at. Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got into this role. 

 U2 

 1:40 

 It's a long story, but quick version of it. So, I'm actually originally from Massachusetts. I went to the United States military academy and then joined the US. Army. After graduating from the academy and served nine years as an infantry officer in US. Army. After nine years of service, I decided to get out and enter the civilian sector and after a couple of interviews, decided upon John Deere up in Waterloo, Iowa. Then that's where I first started. I spent my first two years in supply management and then had a number of different positions in operations leadership at our Waterloo facility and then down at our combine factory in east moline. After those operations related experiences, I transitioned over into our corporate headquarters, a role there in strategy and planning, and then into our labor relations department, where now I help lead our workforce and community development programs to help develop those future workforce and to help meet our needs going into the future. 

 U1 

 2:53 

 Wow. That is an excellent path. So, first off, thank you for your service. I appreciate that. Secondly, it sounds like you've had a single job with lots of different stops along the journey and to the point now where you're interested in that talent acquisition, developing workforce, being engaged in the community. Obviously, that's our audience. We've got folks from all over the state working in career offices and are looking for ways to connect with John Deere. Give me a little bit of sort of a background real quick for those who don't know. I'd be surprised if they don't. What is John Deere? How big is it? Where is it located? Just anything you can tell me about that awesome organization where I get to wear my green John Deere shirt all the time. 

 U2 

 3:33 

 A lot of people know about John Deere. Over 82,000 employees worldwide, manufacturing over 30 different countries, make great products to support our customers, help feed and shelter the world. We're also becoming a technology giant with the introduction of a smart industrial and kind of that technology that helps our customers, farmers, and infrastructure workers be more productive in what they do. We have 16 major manufacturing sites in the United States. A majority of those a large number of those are located in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. We have smaller facilities scattered throughout the Southeast, and we also support a number of independently owned dealer networks that work directly with our customers that are scattered across the United States. 

 U1 

 4:28 

 All. Excellent. Huge organization. My father is a retiree from John Deere and Dubuque, actually, and my sister in law works for John Deere in Des Moines, and she writes software for your automated tractors. Pretty cool. Hey, let's talk a little bit about what you're looking for. I mean, I know you're on the workforce side. You're looking at trying to recruit people. What do you want? What are you looking for? What do you need? Our audience is mostly going to be college students, but you've got a big bandwidth of people you're looking for. Walk us through what you're looking for at John Deere. 

 U2 

 5:01 

 Yeah. Robert, back about four years ago, as our senior leaders leaders visited those large factories that you talked about in the state of Iowa, we knew that, hey, we had a challenge of finding that future workforce. And we also knew, due to the changing demographics of what was out there and the availability of people, that we had to do something dramatically different. So our initial focus was on those production skill trades, roles that support the manufacturing and building of those products, specifically in factories like Waterloo, Dubuque, Davenport, Des Moines, Otumwa, Payton, et cetera, across the state. And that's in those primary roles, they're focused on manufacturing to include welders, CNC, machinists, assemblers, electricians, skilled trades, a number of those folks. To do that. We quickly also saw challenges in some of those technical related fields to include It software engineering, data analytics that continue to grow, and also a wide range of different roles from operations, leadership, supply chain, human resources, finance, and accounting, the wide gamut of different opportunities that really look at all options. Regardless if you're going on to get a certificate, a two year degree, or a four year degree, there's a number of different roles that you can fit in within the company that a lot of people don't realize. 

 U1 

 6:38 

 Yeah. 1s It sounds like with your acknowledgment of how the world is changing, the workforce is changing, there's quite a bit of the listing that you were kind of going through there that is really technology focused. Not necessarily that they're computer science majors, but it seems like technology is playing a bigger, bigger role in manufacturing artificial intelligence, intelligent augmentation. Are you seeing, like, skill sets changing for what you're looking for as you guys move forward? 

 U2 

 7:09 

 Absolutely. As that technology changes in our products, we also have to enhance and change that technology to support the manufacturing of those products. So there becomes really a critical need to learn those skills earlier in the cycle and a number of different things. That one of the key initiatives that we started to work on is to really increase high school student candidate pool of high school students and their awareness of these opportunities and also helping them gain those technical skills along a structured path earlier in their careers. 1s So one of the key initiatives that we worked on throughout the state, and in doing so, that combined, really the high school, community colleges, local businesses, et cetera, are Department of labor high school registered apprenticeship programs, for instance. Students can gain those technical skills to help them become a great candidate into those roles upon completion of those programs and graduation from high school, and then continue on to learn more through community college and four year degrees to help further enhance their careers. 1s Another area, Robert, that we saw, and that one of the key action items that we worked on is working with transitioning service members out of the military. They bring an incredible high level of technical skills learned throughout the military, accompanied with their leadership, their ability to work as a team, solve problems, and they become excellent candidates to help lead our workforce and participate in those development of those new programs, products, et cetera, to support our customers. 

 U1 

 9:01 

 You kind of have a unique approach to recruiting that subset of veterans. Skill bridge is part of that. You have your own internal programming as well. Want to share some more about kind of what John Deere has done to specifically target this subset, this veteran group? 

 U2 

 9:18 

 In August of 2020, we initiated our Skill Bridge program. John Deere has a member memorandum of understanding with the DoD, and we can be an individual Skill Bridge provider. That's been an excellent mechanism to help with transition service members, to give them the opportunity to do an internship within the last six months of their service obligation at a business. That helps them gain the skills to enter the workforce, both their behavioral skills and the technical skills, to become a great candidate for those potential roles. It helps companies gain great talent in doing so. And then third, which was a key finding in some of these studies, it helps our communities grow, and it tracks either folks from Iowa or folks who are not from Iowa to come back to our state and to help build that workforce. 

 U1 

 10:22 

 All. 1s It's really an amazing program. And I understand that the pay for that individual is coming from the Department of Defense yet, right? Is that correct? 

 U2 

 10:32 

 That's correct. Right. During the last six months while they're doing this internship, the service members are still active duty, part of active duty, and their pay is provided by the DoD at that point. 

 U1 

 10:48 

 What an amazing program. And I know you guys have your own memorandum on understanding with the DoD on that, but it sounds like there might be some progress toward maybe the state of Iowa as part of our overall program future ready Iowa, Home Base Iowa. There's some talk about maybe having an MoU at the state level. Is that still going on? 

 U2 

 11:09 

 Yeah. So on April 4, we met as a group through the state to talk about this and get some initiatives going around military hiring. That was one of the key items that came out of this, is how to establish the state as quickly as possible as a potential 1s skill bridge provider to help smaller businesses, community colleges, and school pools gain access to a potential candidate pool that today 1s will be enhanced. 

 U1 

 11:45 

 Awesome. What a great opportunity for the state of Iowa. So let me circle back to gender. One of the keys for us as career counselors, as people working in our field, is when a student asks us about an organization. We love to share about that organization, and more than just sort of the facts, but sometimes more about the culture, the ethos, kind of what's it like to work there. What's a day in the life look like you want to share some more about maybe not the technical pieces, but more of the culture, the ethos, sort of the day in the life kind of experience. A young person who's just getting out of college and going to work would get a sense of a John Deere. 

 U2 

 12:30 

 I've been with the company for over 24 years. Every day has been exciting. I'm proud to be part of this company and proud to do the work that we do and have the opportunity to help our communities. What a number of people see a new team members 2s that they see when they come to the company is this higher sense of purpose of helping farmers and infrastructure workers feed and shelter the world that resonates with a lot of people. You're making a purpose for what you're doing every day, and you can see the results in our great products that you reproduce, and you can see the impact that it has on our customers. There are similar core values of integrity, quality, commitment and innovation that resonate extremely well with people. Another key element is we're based on team based environment. We're focused on supporting our customers and looking for leaders to help improve daily and have that continuous improvement mindset to be change agents and bring in different perspectives. There's incredible opportunities for growth, and we're a market leader in pay and benefits. 

 U1 

 13:44 

 Thanks. 1s When I think about some of the people I've known over the years who've worked for John Deere, in some cases, they are able to locate in a particular place and they stay there their whole career. In other cases, I've had friends who seems like they move every two years. 1s Help me understand where people go and how that works. 

 U2 

 14:05 

 Yeah. So what's great about the company is up to you. If you want to travel and do different potential opportunities across the globe, that is something that you can consider. If you want to stay in one location and do multiple operations. Our facilities are large and have many opportunities. For instance, in Waterloo, a lot of people may not know we actually have a foundry right in a drivetrain component machining area, drivetrain assembly, our own engine facility, a tractor cab assembly in an engineering center. That's unheard of in most manufacturing today. And it gives you an opportunity to stay in one location and to have multiple roles in multiple experiences, if that's what you desire. 

 U1 

 14:53 

 Yeah. So when you're talking, you go to a career fair and you're having a conversation. 1s What are you hearing from the student? What questions are they asking of you? I'm just curious because I've asked the other employers I've interviewed the same thing, and everybody hears something different. So I'm just curious, when a student walks up to you and they're having a conversation, what are you hearing from them? What are they looking for? What do they 

 U2 

 15:17 

 want? Most students will want to know, hey, what's the career progression? Right? What's my initial kind of pay? What's my experiences? But what's my career progression? And the guidance and advice that I give them is, come in. 1s Do the best job that you can do. That is the greatest element of your current resume. They'll make an impact on your future. 1s And don't be spending too much time looking for that next job, but constantly look at how you can do the best in your role and really be a subservient leader, right? And take care of people and understand the human element of this, not only the technical and tactical execution of it, but understanding people will help you gain a better understanding of how the company is going to perform. 

 U1 

 16:10 

 You know, that's a great point. It's so interesting because I know what you make, and yet in many instances, what you're still about is you're a people business. And whether it's farmers, whether it's the people, you know, who put their hands to manufacturing and making things, the engineers, the technical people. You're right. I mean, I think when I think of John Deere, I think of a people business, 82,000 people. I didn't realize it was that big, but a lot of people. But yeah, obviously where I'm located, it makes a major impact. They're a big part of our community in a really positive way, including on our campus at the University of Northern Iowa, obviously a great partner. Do you have any specific partnerships with higher education institutions to do internal educational advancement, or is that something still like the individual is encouraged and supported, but they still find their own way when it comes to maybe keeping the train moving toward their next degree or their next certificate? 

 U2 

 17:09 

 Yeah. And all that would be at an individual basis. Right. So we have certain guidelines around tuition reimbursement to help those employees with that schooling, but it's based upon their individual plans and their desires of what they want to do, and a lot of employees take advantage of it. And these partnerships with the schools are critically important, not only for students that are starting out, but even interns. And some are part time student roles. And those are great experiences and great roles to get your foot in the door and to get your network and grow your network when it comes time for that full time job, you got folks asking for you rather than you asking for what jobs are available. 

 U1 

 17:59 

 Right? Yeah. We have a huge number of students that you and I, who take advantage of the part time student employee program 1s every year. I mean, it's just incredible. That's been a great addition to your talent acquisition and recruiting side. Hey, if you were going to send a message out to all these wonderful people who do career work across the state community colleges, private colleges, private universities, and the Regents universities, what would you want to say to that group right now, today? 

 U2 

 18:27 

 There's tons of opportunities within our facilities here at john deere in a wide range of different occupations, from your assemblers to your skilled work to the welders CNC machinists and those certificates that typically come out of the high schools and community colleges. Data analytics in that engineering footprint continues to grow. So further education and growing in there, it takes a partnership of all the different entities to include high schools, community college, four year colleges and businesses to create these pipelines. 1s There's tons of opportunities to do that that equal great paying opportunities, careers that you can get started that can branch off and go many different paths. You may start in one area and find out that you're passionate about another area and the company is going to support you on that. 

 U1 

 19:29 

 That is awesome. Excellent. Excellent. How in what way should we get in touch with you if there's one of our career folks who wants to get more engaged with John Deere? 

 U2 

 19:41 

 So we're building out our community outreach teams and our military recruiting teams. Anyone can inquire directly for any of those contacts from the state level to the four year community colleges or high schools through my personal work email. And that would be ottavianlidavidf at john deere. And then also for our veterans transitioning service members. Veterans folks can look go to our john deere military hiring site. All transitioning service members, veterans, spouses, national guardists or reservists can fill out a contact card to express interest at our john deere military hiring program site. And that is at www.deer.com. 1s Backslashjdmhp and just by filling out that simple contact card, we'll have a veteran reach out to you just to have initial conversation about potential 

 U1 

 20:49 

 matches. Yeah. Who did I just talk to the other day? 1s Jess maddie, right. One of yours? Yes. What a great person. You could tell. The passion, the enthusiasm. Air Force veteran. I mean, it's amazing. You do have people like that who are going to go out and make that call, have that conversation and super great program. I'm really proud of that. John Deere offers that up and I'm sure you are, too. So I can't thank you enough. I can't thank you enough. 

 U2 

 21:22 

 Go for it. Let me add a few to put in here. Okay. So another thing that people may not realize is our extensive network of dealerships that have opportunities scattered throughout the state to include, of course, technicians, but also those professionals, sales, customer support, management, inventory, logistics to support those operations. And there's a number of incredible opportunities for folks to consider there 

 U1 

 21:57 

 is. It still the case where if somebody is interested in that aspect of working for John Deere in the dealership level, they have a training program, they'll get people up to speed. If I show up and I'm a farm kid and I've worked on tractors most of my life, but I'm not formally trained, is there a program where they're going to be like, we can get you from here to there? 

 U2 

 22:24 

 Absolutely, and all that's on an individual basis, once again, but they'll train you. Right. So you don't necessarily have to have the skills, but you can come in and once again, be a good learner, 1s show initiative, and the dealerships will coordinate all that training for you to become certified in that area. 

 U1 

 22:45 

 Wow. So many channels and opportunities. David, this is really amazing. 1s Can't thank you enough for taking time out of your day. We know you're one of the largest employers in the country, let alone the Midwest, and you make a big impact for the state of Iowa in so many ways. But appreciate the open door, appreciate the opportunity to not only talk with you, to learn how to engage with and to have a direct contact. Sometimes it's the nicest thing of all, because when you get really big, sometimes you don't know who to call. And your willingness to be the person is greatly appreciated by all of us who work in career services. So I appreciate your time and hope you have a great rest of your 

 U2 

 23:26 

 day, sir. Thank you, Robert. Thank you for this opportunity to share our story.