At last month’s NAED National, the association two major initiatives – ProjectNexus (aka Where’s My Stuff) and Careers with Power. I shared NAED’s press release and some questions that distributors and manufacturers shared with me a couple of weeks ago (and we’re pending answers from Patrick Knight and Wes Smith.)

With workforce issues being a major channel issue (where is that fountain of youth Ponce de Leon?), NAED is launching a workforce initiative called “Careers with Power.”

National Association of Electrical Distributors Launches “Careers with Power” Campaign to Strengthen Workforce Pipeline

The press release for the initiative stated:

“A strong workforce doesn’t happen by accident—it begins with awareness. Yesterday, the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) announced the launch of Careers with Power, a comprehensive industry branding campaign designed to position electrical distribution as a dynamic, rewarding, and future-ready career destination.

More Than a Job Board—A Pipeline Builder

Careers with Power is built with a clear purpose: to introduce the electrical distribution industry to the next generation of talent and connect interested candidates directly to distributor career opportunities. Through a strategic mix of digital tools, social media outreach, and partnerships with leading workforce development organizations, the campaign meets potential employees where they are—and guides them toward meaningful careers in the industry.

Targeting the Industry’s Greatest Growth Opportunities

The campaign focuses on three key audiences identified as critical to the future workforce:

• Students exploring career paths
• Military veterans transitioning to civilian life
• Women seeking dynamic, high-impact industries

By engaging these groups, NAED aims to expand awareness and attract a diverse, skilled talent pool to the electrical distribution sector.

What This Means for NAED Distributors

Careers with Power represents the first phase of NAED’s broader Workforce Development strategy. In the coming weeks, NAED will roll out additional resources designed to help distributors amplify the campaign and enhance their recruitment efforts.

Distributors are encouraged to learn more about the campaign and explore ways to leverage its resources to strengthen their hiring pipelines.”

NAED asked me to share the above to help spread the news and invited me to ask questions so I reached out to Chaney Disselhorst, NAED’s Sr. Manager, Workforce Development Strategy, with the below questions … and you can see here answers.

1. As I read this, this is an initiative focused on supporting the distributor community. I know Workforce is one of the initiatives under the MOU but that the needs are different by audience. What is the goal of this strategy for distributors?

Workforce Development is one of the strategic initiatives within the MOU, and we regularly collaborate to align priorities and identify opportunities to support our members. One of our earliest areas of focus was military talent, which continues to be an important component of NAED’s broader workforce development strategy.

The primary goal is to help distributors build stronger, more sustainable talent pipelines by increasing awareness of our industry and introducing new audiences to careers they may never have otherwise considered.

Careers with Power is designed to expand the top of the funnel by generating interest in electrical distribution and directing interested talent to distributor career sites and opportunities.

We also recognize that our members vary significantly in size, resources, and capacity to focus on workforce development efforts. That’s why our strategy extends beyond the Careers with Power platform. In addition to industry awareness, NAED has developed resources and tools members can leverage regardless of company size, including career site guidance, customizable school outreach presentations, social media resources, customizable industry job descriptions, internship program checklists, and onboarding guides.

Our goal is to provide practical, scalable support that helps every member company build awareness, engage potential talent, and strengthen its talent pipeline.

2. How does NAED plan to market the site to drive traffic, and resumes, to it?

Careers with Power is supported by a multi-channel awareness strategy that includes:

• Promotion through NAED member companies and industry partners
• Awareness, recruiting, and workforce development resources distributors can customize and leverage locally
• Partnerships with workforce development organizations such as SkillsUSA and military transition programs
• Industry events and conferences
• Social media campaigns targeted to key audiences
• Search engine optimization and digital content strategies

Careers with Power is not a job board, nor is NAED collecting resumes or serving as the hiring intermediary. The platform is designed to educate prospective candidates about the electrical distribution industry, help them explore career profiles, and connect them with NAED member companies.

Through the platform’s “Explore Employers” functionality, candidates can identify member companies by geography and access those companies’ career pages directly. From there, candidates engage with and apply through the distributor’s own hiring process.

The goal is to increase awareness of our industry and direct interested talent to member companies where hiring decisions are ultimately made.

3. I understand that the initiative seeks to reach out to women and military, specifically. What types of initiatives are designed to reach this audience?

For military talent, Careers with Power includes military occupational specialty (MOS/AFSC/Rating) crosswalks that help veterans connect their existing skills to careers in electrical distribution. NAED is also helping members engage organizations focused on veteran transition and talent attraction.

For women, the platform highlights female industry professionals, showcases diverse career paths, and addresses common misconceptions about the industry. The objective is to increase awareness and visibility among audiences who may not traditionally view electrical distribution as a career option.

Students also remain a primary audience, supported through partnerships with schools, workforce organizations, and career exploration initiatives.

4. What is the call to action that you’d like from distributors?

The most important ask is participation—help amplify the message that electrical distribution offers rewarding, long-term career opportunities using Careers with Power.

We are asking distributors to:

• Share the platform through recruiting channels, schools, workforce programs, and community partners
• Incorporate it into career fairs, hiring events, and presentations
• Feature it on company websites and social media platforms
• Equip recruiting teams to use it as an industry awareness tool
• Ensure career pages are current and candidate-friendly
• Utilize NAED workforce development resources
• Participate in industry awareness efforts and encourage employees to act as ambassadors

Careers with Power serves as an additional source of industry-wide awareness and talent attraction, connecting interested individuals to participating distributors.

5. What would define success for this initiative?

Success of Careers with Power will be measured at multiple levels.

Short-Term

• Increased engagement with the Careers with Power platform
• Growth in referrals to distributor career pages
• Engagement with career content and videos
• Utilization of NAED workforce resources

Long-Term

• Increased awareness of electrical distribution careers among target audiences
• Expanded talent pipelines for member companies
• Stronger workforce outcomes across the industry
• Greater participation in workforce development initiatives

Workforce development is a long game. Building awareness of an industry takes time, consistency, and sustained effort. Success will be measured by our ability to increase awareness, expand engagement, and strengthen talent pipelines year over year.

We will continually evaluate results, gather member feedback, and adjust our tactics to ensure we are making meaningful progress toward our goals of elevating industry awareness and broadening access to talent. NAED is committed to helping the industry address one of its most critical challenges by building a stronger pipeline of future talent for the long term.

6. If I recall, years ago NAED had a similar initiative where there was a website describing the industry and opportunities and distributors were encouraged to use marketing collateral that NAED had developed. There was limited adoption at that time. What makes this initiative different?

NAED previously launched a recruitment website housing a job board, along with supplemental supporting materials, which was ultimately discontinued around 2009. It was launched during a very different time for both the industry and NAED, and there are valuable lessons we took from that experience.

What makes this initiative different is that Careers with Power was built with strong alignment with our members to directly serve their needs. Before developing any resources, NAED took time to understand the workforce development needs of its members and established a Workforce Development Advisory Group comprised of industry leaders to help define the strategy, identify priorities, and guide the solutions we developed.

A key difference is that Careers with Power is not recruiting site or a job board. It is an industry awareness and career exploration platform designed to help more people discover electrical distribution and connect them to member companies.

In addition, Careers with Power is part of a broader workforce development strategy rather than a standalone marketing effort. The industry’s workforce challenges are more urgent than ever, and there is greater recognition that building awareness and strengthening talent pipelines requires sustained, long-term commitment.

7. Will you be presenting this at the AD Functional Meeting, where there will be some HR personnel involved?

This has not been discussed but we would certainly welcome the opportunity to share Careers with Power at that meeting.

8. Has there been any outreach to get industry recruiters involved?

Absolutely. Talent acquisition and HR professionals have been involved from the very beginning of both our workforce strategy and the development of the Careers with Power platform.

At the strategic level, NAED’s Workforce Development Advisory Group is comprised of senior HR leaders from member companies who oversee the full talent lifecycle, including recruitment, onboarding, development, and retention. Their guidance helped shape our workforce priorities and the overall direction of the initiative.

At the tactical level, talent acquisition and HR professionals from member companies played an active role in developing Careers with Power, particularly the career profiles. They helped validate the roles we featured, the career descriptions, and compensation ranges to ensure the information accurately reflects opportunities across our industry.

We also continue to engage recruiting professionals through workforce development initiatives and outreach efforts. For example, this week representatives from Border States, Graybar, McNaughton-McKay, and Sonepar are partnering with NAED at SkillsUSA, where we will introduce nearly 19,000 attendees to electrical distribution careers and opportunities within our industry.

In addition, we are working with member companies to expand outreach to military talent. Most recently, DSG participated in a RecruitMilitary virtual hiring event as part of our broader effort to connect veterans and transitioning service members with career opportunities in electrical distribution.

Talent acquisition and HR leaders have not only been consulted, they continue to be active partners in helping us build awareness of the industry and strengthen talent pipelines for our members.

9. There are some national distributors that have extensive collegiate recruiting tours. Have any of them committed to actively supporting the initiative and marketing the website?

Support from national distributors has been an important part of this initiative from the beginning with members sharing that awareness is their most immediate challenge.

Many distributors have strong recruiting programs, including collegiate recruiting efforts. Our challenge as an industry is awareness and members understand that prospective candidates need to know electrical distribution exists as a career option before they can actively choose to pursue it.

Careers with Power is designed to elevate awareness of our industry and strengthen and broaden talent pipelines, creating more opportunities for member companies to attract talent through their own recruiting channels.

10. If there was one thing you could say to distributors to garner support for the initiative, what would it be?

No single company can solve the industry’s workforce challenge alone. Careers with Power gives us an opportunity to work together to elevate awareness of electrical distribution, expand the talent pool, and create more opportunities for every distributor to attract future employees.

The stronger we make awareness of our industry and its career opportunities, the stronger the talent pipeline becomes for every distributor.

Take Aways

• First, thank you Chaney for sharing more information to help the industry better understand this resource that NAED has developed.
• The challenge with workforce recruitment, and then development, is that it takes time. It’s helpful that the association has aggregated information that can help increase awareness, however, more importantly, is developing some of the information that others without internal / professional HR resources can “borrow.”
• While distributors may not link to the site due to concerns that someone may learn of their competition, there is information to educate your staff, yourself, and, as mentioned, to “borrow” to create your own tools (especially since your association membership dues funded the initiative … and this is why more should be members.)
• Here’s the link to the Careers with Power – https://careerswithpower.com and here’s more information on the overall program on NAED’s website.
  • Of note, the information on the Careers with Power website is the “official” information from NAED but is not fully representative of the industry given that the site says 200 distributors and AD and Empower Electrical Group, combined, have much more than that (like 3x) and this does not include lighting showrooms, automation distributors (think AHTD members) and there are others, and the distribution revenue is not consistent with industry forecasts from DISC and Electrical Wholesaling that are both closer to $180 billion.
• If you responsible for HR / recruitment, or a branch manager who may have to “fend for yourself” in recruiting, checking out the sites may give you some ideas, especially relative to military vernacular.

Distributors … what else would you like as part of this initiative?