Image Caption: Thanks for your interest in interviewing; nobody seems to work out around here.
Harmonious Workplaces has heard manufacturers talking about the difficulty of attracting and retaining workers for years. Employers within skilled trades validate the perception of labor shortages. Experienced employees continue to retire seemingly daily, and younger workers have more choices than ever before. Competition for talent also extends well beyond other manufacturers. But Ben Kleinman and Rich Cruz argue that employers may have another question worth asking: what if the problem doesn’t only stem from the labor market? What if candidates evaluate the workplace just as carefully as employers evaluate them?
In their recent SME article, Make Your Shop Floor Stand Out as a Workplace of Choice, Kleinman and Cruz explore how manufacturers can strengthen recruitment by paying closer attention to the employee experience. If manufacturers want to compete for talent, they need to compete on more than wages and job openings. They need to create workplaces where people actually want to work.
Manufacturing Recruitment: A Two-Way Evaluation
Employers understandably approach hiring by asking whether a candidate has the right skills, experience, reliability, and attitude. Candidates conduct their own assessment at the same time. They notice what the facility looks like, how employees feel about their experience, whether supervisors seem approachable, and whether the environment feels safe, organized, and professional. They also try to determine whether they will have an opportunity to learn, advance, and contribute in a meaningful way.
Those impressions often begin before someone ever submits an application. A company website, job posting, online review, social media presence, recruiting materials, and reputation in the community all communicate something about the workplace. Once the candidate arrives for an interview or tour, the shop floor itself becomes part of the employer brand.
The Shop Floor As Part of the Employer Brand
Manufacturers often think about branding in terms of customers. They invest in websites, trade shows, signage, sales materials, equipment demonstrations, and customer tours. Potential employees see many of the same signals. A modern, organized facility with visible safety practices, good lighting, clean common spaces, updated equipment, and employees who appear to take pride in their work sends a powerful message.
That does not mean every manufacturer needs a gleaming new plant filled with robots. Authenticity matters more than cosmetics. Candidates want evidence that the organization takes both its people and its work seriously. Even relatively small details can shape the experience. How does the organization greet candidates when they arrive? Do interviewers seem prepared? Does the hiring manager show them around? Does the candidate get introduced to current employees? Do candidates get a realistic sense of the work and the people with whom they might work?
The recruiting experience itself often provides a preview of the employee experience. If the interview process feels disorganized, impersonal, or dismissive, candidates may reasonably wonder whether daily work will feel the same way.
The Relationship Between Recruiting and Retention
Workplaces often treat recruiting and retention as separate HR challenges, but Kleinman and Cruz point out their close connection. If an organization continually hires employees who leave within a few months, increasing recruiting activity may simply increase the speed of the revolving door.
Before investing heavily in another recruiting campaign, manufacturers should examine what happens after someone accepts the job. New employees need to be welcomed and properly onboarded. Supervisors need to know how to lead people, not simply manage production. Employees need clear expectations, opportunities to develop new skills, and access to experienced coworkers who can help them succeed.
Employees also need to understand that their work matters. Manufacturing offers a unique opportunity to make that connection because workers can often see a tangible product being created. Leaders can help employees understand where those products go, who depends on them, and how individual work contributes to the larger organization. That sense of purpose can become an important part of the employee experience and the employer brand.
The “Right Fit” Works Both Ways
Organizations frequently talk about finding someone who is the “right fit.” That seems reasonable. Every job requires certain capabilities, and every workplace has expectations. But fit works in both directions. Employers select employees, and employees select employers.
If qualified people continually reject offers, disappear during the recruiting process, or leave shortly after joining, employers might conclude that people no longer want to work or that they simply cannot find good employees. They may find it more useful to ask, “What do people experience when they encounter our workplace?”
That question shifts manufacturing recruitment away from simply filling vacancies and toward organizational development. It encourages employers to examine leadership, communication, onboarding, learning, recognition, workplace conditions, career development, and the many other factors that shape whether people want to stay.
Becoming a Manufacturing Workplace of Choice
No single initiative suddenly turns a manufacturer into a workplace of choice. It happens through dozens of signals employees experience every day. Leadership behavior, communication, recognition, safety, learning opportunities, technology, scheduling practices, career development, and workplace conditions all contribute to how people perceive the organization.
Some improvements require investment, but many do not. A supervisor acknowledging good work costs very little. A better onboarding conversation costs very little. Showing candidates the facility rather than interviewing them in an isolated conference room costs very little. Explaining career paths, introducing employees to leaders, asking for feedback, and communicating why the work matters can demonstrate how the organization operates.
Manufacturers already put tremendous effort into reducing scrap, improving processes, eliminating waste, and increasing quality. Workplaces can apply the same discipline to the employee experience. If an organization keeps losing good candidates and employees, the answer may not come from searching harder for the elusive “right fit.” Employers might need to examine the workplace where their best candidates may end up working.
Read the full article: https://www.advancedmanufacturing.org/resources/recruiting-tips/make-your-shop-floor-stand-out-as-a-workplace-of-choice/article_16df9437-febd-4538-b9f2-664dccdcbab0.html
0 Comments