How do We Attain the Best Talent in Today’s Climate
By Raymond McKee
Director of Manufacturing, Currier Plastics, Inc.
It seems that all manufacturing companies are having challenges with hiring people. This challenge is at all levels of organizations as well. Let’s face it, if you are a person that is willing to work, you can find employment. If you are unhappy with your current position, employer or location, there are plenty of positions available for you to consider and very likely at a higher salary than you currently earn. The question for companies is how do we handle this current climate? How do we find the people we need to produce the parts that we have committed to make for our customers?
Fundamentally, we have a few difficulties being in the manufacturing industry. One is the perception of manufacturing careers. There are many old stories, touting manufacturing facilities as unsafe, dark and dirty environments, with intense physical jobs. The reason many people took those extreme jobs in the past was most often the compensation and benefits that couldn’t be made in the service or retail sectors. The undesirable working environments were just worth the paycheck.
Over the past 30 years, things have changed significantly within manufacturing facilities. Although manufacturing careers are generally far less laborious than they were in the past, the old perceptions leave potential candidates to go elsewhere for the same wages. Manufacturing jobs no longer offer significantly higher wages than other industries, benefit costs to employees have increased significantly (as it has everywhere), and there is an uneven playing field in terms of the cost of doing business across the country.
As state governments have increased the minimum wage in their respective states and localities, the competitive environment has become more difficult across state lines. Generally, customers are striving to achieve the lowest cost part. They don’t care if it comes from New York, California, North Carolina, or Arkansas. The competitive environment for labor and supplies isn’t equal between states leaving some companies profitable and others struggling. There are a lot of other things we can point to that we can’t control as well but fortunately there are a lot of things that we CAN control.
Manufacturing isn’t the dark and dingy workplace that it used to be anymore. Most modern factories are clean, bright, and safe. Is that message getting out to the public? Most companies only promote what they are selling to the marketplace. What would your message be if you considered your customers to be your perspective employees? Are you selling a higher wage? A better culture? Employee development? Long-term company growth? Environmental sustainability? When you determine what it is that you are selling, how are you marketing it? Do you have marketing collateral that you give to your prospective employees? Are you promoting your culture on your website, employee review websites and social media channels?
As a manufacturer, you know you have to optimize production, promote your product and deliver on the promises made to your customers. Hiring the best team members requires a strategy and process as well. As long as prospective employees can earn similar wages in lower-stress roles that may have more flexible hours/work terms, we as manufacturers have to be creative in promoting our businesses as exciting and opportunistic places to work. Let’s face it, the general public still doesn’t view manufacturing as a desirable field of work and at the current wage structures, it will make it more and more difficult. The companies that are having less issues with acquiring talent have already made these adjustments and unless you begin to devote resources to your people and prospective talent, they will be going elsewhere
