In the manufacturing world, as in many other niche disciplines, small or limited talent pools create challenges for organizations seeking to recruit resources for specialized roles. It is increasingly difficult (not to mention time-consuming) to find candidates with the requisite skill sets. In many cases, these candidates don’t have the technical and computer skills or they lack problem-solving skills.
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Staffing Agencies Rising Above the Challenges of the Manufacturing Industry
Baby boomers have been dominating the manufacturing industry to this point, but now they are retiring in ever-growing numbers. The impact of that transition has been felt by many organizations across the industry and the country.
Another challenge facing the manufacturing industry is the changing nature of its work. Increasingly, the domain requires new skills such as 3D printing, computer-aided design, and other specialized talents to perform manufacturing jobs. These automated processes have replaced much of the manual work that characterized the industry over much of the Twentieth Century. Today’s manufacturers need talent with technical and critical thinking skills.
Manufacturing staffing agencies have been playing a positive role in changing the composition of the next generation talent pool in the industry. They are also assisting organizations to identify top talent that meets the criteria of every specialized role. It took a long time for manufacturing organizations to realize they need staffing agencies to attract candidates with a diverse skillset and varied experience.
Strategies Used by Manufacturing Recruiters to Attract Top Talent
Despite the challenges, employee recruitment within the manufacturing sector has improved. Here is how manufacturing recruitment firms are assisting organizations in attracting top talent within this industry:
1: Rewriting Job Descriptions
It’s easy to create a list of skills and experience when writing a job description. However, this could scare the top candidates and keep them from applying for roles even if they are qualified.
Candidates often refrain from applying to positions in case they don’t meet every single qualification criteria. The converse, worst-case scenario is when under-qualified candidates end up applying just by recognizing a skill or two from the list.
To avoid this, recruiters can help organizations to revise the job descriptions of specific roles. Instead of writing a long list of qualifications and skills, employers must describe the on-site responsibilities of the candidate necessary for the role. This attracts better candidates from the start.
The organization has a better chance of retaining those employees too. The working conditions must also be clarified in the job description to adequately prepare the candidate for the potential work environment into which they will be stepping.
2: Creating Employer Brand
Like all other types of recruitments, manufacturing recruitment also demands creating an employer brand. Top candidates wish to work in a dynamic and forward-thinking organization. A candidate needs to believe he or she will get opportunities to ascend the ranks of the potential organization. For that, manufacturing recruiters work with the HR department to create a plan for communicating the employer value proposition of the organization to the candidates.
Recruiters act as the culture carriers for their client organizations. They determine what will excite a potential candidate about the organization and use that to their advantage to source an appropriate talent pool. A notable “hook” could be the unique company culture, the potential to excel in a career, or drive change.
In addition to highlighting the culture, recruiters also emphasize the benefits of working in the organization. These benefits include profit sharing, annual leaves, insurance, retirement plan, and more. These notable extras help the candidate differentiate one organization from the rest.
3: Partnering With Local Institutions
Schools, colleges, and universities often introduce a range of programs and courses in the manufacturing industry. It makes sense to target students in different institutions and invite them to join the manufacturing industry as a career.
It’s one of the recruiting best practices (even engineering staffing agencies follow it) to partner with institutions and build a relationship with their campus career centers. Recruiters and career coaches on-campus work hand in hand to create potential internship and employment opportunities for students.
Each institute has its specific guidelines, events, and timelines associated with recruiting. Recruiters become well attune to these first, thereafter establishing an employer brand presence. Once done, they ask the marketing team of the organization they are working with to create marketing materials that appeal to the students.
4: Apprenticeship Programs
Many of the issues centered around finding qualified or skilled talent in the manufacturing industry have been solved with manufacturing apprenticeship programs. With the ongoing help of recruiting agencies, many organizations have successfully started attracting young audiences. Today we can see that young and qualified people have started to give the manufacturing industry a chance.
5: Building New Talent Pipeline Sources
Recruiters use advanced technology stack to identify talented candidates. They continuously work on building a new talent pipeline sources to find the right candidate with specific skills for a given role. A good recruiting agency doesn’t hesitate in adopting hiring strategies and supporting their recruiting teams when they present novel ideas.
6: Great Candidate Experience
All candidates dread a lengthy hiring process. Unrealistic job descriptions outlining a cumbersome list of skills deter many candidates. To avoid this, manufacturing recruiters and staffing organizations work together in order to create a smooth and seamless candidate experience.
Recruiters identify the roadblocks that make hiring difficult for candidates. The best way of identifying these issues is to seek feedback about the hiring process from newly hired candidates as well as those who turned down the offer. Once the roadblocks are identified, the next step is to nullify them.
7: On-Job Training
Offering more than just a job is key to attracting and retaining a young workforce with the right skillset. Nimble companies in the industry are already investing in their workers. When a potential candidate knows he or she has better chances of moving through the ranks of a company on the basis of merit, he or she is understandably excited to apply for a job there.
Conclusion
Manufacturing recruiters have been playing a pivotal role in changing the perspective, somewhat outdated, that many people have about the industry. Increasingly, organizations are now realizing that they must redefine their recruitment strategy and seek external expertise, rather than struggling on their own. Many leading staffing agencies are already closely working with manufacturing organizations in attracting, hiring, and retaining qualified candidates, and CGT Staffing is one of them.
