The labor market is tight, and managers who fail to adopt actionable recruitment and retention strategies in today’s competitive labor market will encounter sustainability challenges and reduced profits.
The average employee turnover rate is around double what’s considered within the normal range. So, how do businesses combat the labor shortage? It is more complex than increasing salaries, though that’s part of the process. Hiring and operations managers must get creative in their manufacturing and recruitment strategies.
The Competitive Labor Market
The days when employees were comfortable working for a salary are gone, and insufficient competition in the labor market hurts workers and businesses. Higher wages will potentially attract employees, but businesses need something extra. Companies must make themselves stand out when hiring in a competitive labor market.
Manufacturing recruitment strategies must center around retaining their employees as well. If talent acquisition targets a talented and productive workforce, employees must see their workplace as one that fulfills their needs, including their desire for professional development, a positive daily environment, and increased scheduling flexibility.
Manufacturing recruitment and retention strategies need to align with the market, and both hiring and operations managers need to assess their strong and weak areas to improve both the short, and long-term competitive labor market. Let’s examine key retention ideas for manufacturing your business could benefit from in the current labor market.
Focus on Career Growth Opportunities
Career growth and professional development are top motivators for employees. Companies that support the career growth of their employees are far more attractive than those that don’t allow for upskilling in the workplace. Could you match employees with roles where they will have advancement opportunities from the beginning to help with this process?
Providing a clear path for growth and advancement keeps employees motivated and comfortable, knowing they have an ever-expanding future with your company. You can allow for professional development in your employee programs by assigning them coaches or mentors to encourage them and provide them with the requisite advancement skills.
Growth also involves unlocking perks and benefits throughout an employee’s career with your company. Their continued loyalty, combined with their engagement and the quality of their work, garners quantifiable growth results. Examples of perks and benefits could include the following:
- Wellness incentives
- Healthcare benefits
- Retirement funding
- Tuition assistance
- Special events
- Discounted products
- Financial advice
Making a long-term investment in your employees is one of many sound employee retention strategies. Doing so lets employees feel valued for their contribution and fosters enthusiasm and loyalty for their work. From the recruitment phase, qualified applicants will be interested in being employed by your company and will likely stay with you.
Improve Employee Experiences at Work
You can improve your employees’ daily work experiences in many ways. If employees enjoy coming to work every day and look forward to the culture and challenges within the business, they will be happy to work — and stay — within your organization.
Some methods you can use to improve employee experience include the following:
- Create a strong company culture: A robust, positive, and trusting environment helps employees feel appreciated, engaged, and excited to come to work every day. Your company values should permeate every part of your organizational structure, from day-to-day operations to special events and rewards systems. As news of your work environment travels, you will likely receive an influx of applicants.
- Strengthen the bonds within your organization: Capitalize on the strong interrelationship between organizational purpose and an employee’s sense of purpose. Your company culture should inspire employees, but don’t get complacent. Keep open communication with your employees so you can track their experiences and improve collaborative efforts. Most importantly, leaders should let employees speak and listen to what they have to say.
- Recognize employees: Take the time to let employees know you value them and appreciate their efforts. Providing feedback keeps people motivated. A simple form of acknowledgment makes employees want to work harder and stay with the company.
- Stay transparent: Nothing fosters suspicion and unrest like compartmentalizing organizational information. Leaders should be as transparent as possible with data and business policies.
- Encourage collaboration: Forming strong bonds through communication and teamwork fosters loyalty and a feeling of contribution and belonging. From management throughout the organization, encourage people to connect and learn about each other in their personal and professional capacities. Employees should feel supported by one another rather than in direct competition.
- Set leadership standards: Employees want to know management cares about them from the outset. Employers need to consider this when hiring people for leadership positions. Leaders need to be relatable, not infallible, so employees can open up to them should they experience any struggles.
Create a Healthier Work-Life Balance
Flexible work options are more prevalent than ever before. Some employees may even value the flexibility to create a healthy work-life balance over a bigger paycheck. Acknowledging that every person works differently gives employees better options and employers the opportunity to make the most of their workforce. The better a job fits a person’s lifestyle, the better their job satisfaction.
To date, the shift to flexible working schedules has primarily focused on work and the family. In truth, workers have interests outside of both. An excellent example of this is allowing employees flexible time to go to the gym and focus on their physical and mental health.
How do you trust employees not to take advantage of their agency? Allowing workers flexibility may seem daunting, but in the long term, your employees will be happier. As a result, they are far less likely to abuse the trust you’ve shown in them. With proper scheduling systems in place, you can let employees adopt more flexible hours and achieve a better work-life balance.
Many top-tier applicants will only consider a position with flexible work options. When it comes to attracting the best possible talent, flexible work scheduling options are a valuable tool, making it easier to attract new hires via word-of-mouth and employee referrals.
Achieve a Healthy Work-Life Balance With Indeavor
If you’re looking to have a real, measurable impact on both large-scale recruitment and retention and the working lives of your employees, Indeavor’s optimized workforce management solutions are here to help you achieve your goals.
Our innovative technology and unparalleled customer experience will help you plan, manage, schedule, and engage your workforce. Whether you’re simply looking to facilitate annual vacation planning or provide your employees with a healthy work-life balance, you can do so with schedule automation. You’re welcome to give us a call to learn how we can help you or book a demo with us so we can take you through what we offer.
Change the way you recruit and retain your workforce with Indeavor today!
