According to a 2023 Integrated Benefits Institute study, 73% of employers had difficulty attracting employees. Also, 61% were struggling with retention. 

Attracting and retaining skilled workers for your manufacturing or light industrial company can be challenging. The talent crunch in a competitive market further increases hiring difficulty.

Finding and keeping skilled workers helps reach your manufacturing or light industrial organization’s business goals. Creating an environment that supports long-term tenure helps retain institutional knowledge. 

Attracting and retaining skilled workers reduces hiring, onboarding, and training costs. These factors impact the bottom line. 

Implement these tips to attract and retain skilled workers in a competitive market.

Train Management

Managers significantly impact whether skilled workers enjoy working for your manufacturing or light industrial company. Therefore, they require training to develop leadership skills and retain top talent.

You should customize your management training to fulfill your company’s goals. Examples of training options include:

  • Video-based training
  • Webinars
  • One-on-one training
  • Instructor-led group classes
  • Online training 
  • Job shadowing

Emphasize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center report, 56% of employed US adults felt that focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives helped provide a positive workplace. These initiatives included:

  • Leaders who promote DEI
  • Regular training and meetings regarding DEI at work
  • Employee resource groups (ERGs) and affinity groups 
  • Policies to ensure fairness in hiring, pay, and promotions
  • Salary transparency

Psychological safety

Embracing DEI initiatives helps skilled workers feel their ideas, perspectives, and contributions are valued and appreciated. These factors support psychological safety for workers to express their true selves and feel belonging at work. They also encourage workers to refer members of their network who can provide additional organizational value.

Sense of belonging

Feeling welcome, known, included, supported, and connected provides a sense of belonging. These factors encourage skilled workers to improve performance and increase company value. Creating a sense of ownership strengthens employee attraction and retention. 

Create an Attractive Company Culture

Your organizational culture impacts employee performance, job satisfaction, and morale. These factors affect whether skilled workers want to work for your manufacturing or light industrial company.

The following tips can help improve your culture:

  • Demonstrate company values in all interactions.
  • Emphasize transparency and authenticity at all organizational levels.
  • Provide flexibility when possible. 
  • Support collaboration and team-building.
  • Develop employees’ leadership skills.
  • Encourage constructive feedback.

Write Accurate Job Descriptions

A job description often provides a first impression of your manufacturing or light industrial organization. Therefore, you should include your company’s culture, benefits, job duties, responsibilities, tasks, expectations, required skills, and qualifications.  

Use headers and bullet points to highlight the job requirements and make them scannable. Include a clear call to action so applicants know how to apply.

Offer Competitive Income 

Paying skilled workers what they are worth strengthens attraction and retention rates:

  • Review the industry average for employee wages or salaries based on the role, skills, and experience. 
  • Use benchmarks based on the position, geographic location, and other relevant details. 
  • Include the company’s retirement plan, paid time off (PTO), bonuses, and other benefits that impact the total compensation package. 
  • Prepare to review the wages or salary at least annually for potential increases based on performance.

Provide Comprehensive Benefits

Skilled workers desire benefits that fill their needs and support their lifestyles. Supporting employees’ health and well-being increases engagement, productivity, and job satisfaction. These factors help find and keep skilled workers.

Popular employee benefits for manufacturing and light industrial workers include:

  • Customized health plans including a flexible spending account (FSA), health saving account (HAS), and vision, dental, life, and disability insurance.
  • Financial assistance including a retirement plan, pensions, and stock options.
  • Paid time off including holidays, sick days, and bereavement leave.
  • Parental support including adoption assistance, parental leave, dependent care, military leave, and family medical leave.
  • Professional development opportunities including educational assistance, job training, and customized skill development.

Streamline Your Hiring Process

Update your manufacturing or light industrial company’s hiring process to attract and retain skilled workers:

Sourcing

Understand effective methods for sourcing skilled manufacturing and light industrial workers. Examples include:

  • Internal hires
  • Employee referrals
  • Applicant tracking system (ATS) database 
  • Social media platforms, especially LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook
  • Niche job boards such as ManufacturingCrossing.com and JobsinManufacturing.com
  • Manufacturing and light industrial associations’ job boards

Interviewing

Create a uniform, consistent hiring process:

  • Ask the same interview questions for the same role.
  • Use a rubric and specific criteria to rate candidate answers.
  • Determine whether a candidate’s values and work style fit your company’s culture. 

Onboarding

Provide a comprehensive onboarding process:

  • Introduce new hires to your manufacturing or light industrial company’s culture, policies, and business processes.
  • Match each new employee with a teammate to answer questions and provide support.
  • Begin training your new hire to blend with your team and start producing.
  • Regularly check in to answer questions, address concerns, and evaluate progress. 

Monitor Employee Engagement

High employee engagement elevates productivity and morale. These factors encourage skilled workers to remain long-term with your manufacturing or light industrial organization.

Use regular pulse surveys to evaluate employee engagement. Include room to provide constructive feedback for improvement. 

Prioritize Professional Development

Ongoing professional development opportunities encourage skilled manufacturing and light industrial workers to work for your company long-term:

  • Partner each employee with a mentor to provide career guidance, advice, and feedback.
  • Encourage managers to work with each employee to develop an organizational career path that aligns with their goals.
  • Include the criteria for promotions and equitable resources and support. 
  • Offer stretch assignments and cross-training for skill enhancement. 
  • Promote internally when senior roles become available. 

Recognize and Reward Employees

Acknowledge each employee’s specific contributions, results, and organizational impact. Also, provide fair, equitable incentives aligned with employee preferences. 

For instance, create a program where employees can earn points for their accomplishments and spend them on their desired rewards. Examples include gift cards, company swag, and additional vacation days. You can talk with your employees about desirable incentives and implement the most popular ones. 

Is Your Manufacturing or Light Industrial Company Feeling the Talent Crunch?

The Ōnin Group can provide skilled manufacturing and light industrial workers to strengthen your company’s attraction and retention rates. Reach out to discuss your staffing needs today.