The employment market, especially in the manufacturing sector, is a highly competitive place – for employers as well as employees. Of course, you want to add the best manufacturing talent to your team; the ones in the top 10% with the right qualifications and manufacturing experience, but so does every other company in your area.
These candidates have career aspirations and goals, and they want the companies for whom they work to meet these expectations.
So what do you need to do to both attract, and hold onto, these great people?
Remuneration Benefits and Added Value Perks
Though this might sound a strange thing to say, some manufacturing organisations pay at the low end of the pay scale; which in the current skill short market still amazes me.
Today more than ever it is imperative to at least pay the median salary range to attract talent to your organisation; if in doubt get in contact as we have benchmarked the salary ranges across the region.
Also, today’s manufacturing workforce is looking for additional benefits too. That might be reduced cost gym memberships, voucher schemes and the list goes on. This interesting article from the Telegraph highlights some options which vary from a starting bonus to Children’s Christmas parties.
Have A Plan To Help Them Succeed
Though it is reasonable to expect that when you recruit high performers in the manufacturing sector, they will come with the appropriate skills and attitude they will also expect something from you too.
Today’s workforce will soon be dominated by Millennials who expect to be ‘developed.’ Contrary to popular belief these individuals are happy to work hard, yet they do want to be assured they’re joining a company where they matter and where they will be encouraged to develop.
Culture and Communication
A good company culture is one of the biggest drivers of staff recruitment and retention, and it’s noticeable for us as an established specialist manufacturing recruiter to notice how much organisational culture flows down from the leaders. Employees value traits like approachability, trust, and transparency.
If things are going well, employees want to feel as though they are part of that success. Likewise, if something goes wrong, employees like the facts and the reasons, not a whole “spin” to try and mask the problem.
Organisational leadership and how these things are handled contribute to company culture, and communication is a vital part of getting this right.
Create An Organisation Where Relationships matter
Research has shown that no matter the size of the company, there is one trait that is common to great places to work, whether it is a gigantic multinational or a small manufacturing firm.
This is the quality of the relationships within the organisation. Great relationships can be fostered in a range of ways, primarily by establishing and maintaining trust between managers and employees – built by strong feedback and open communication.
The other relationships are between employees and their work, and of course, between co-workers. All of these can contribute to a strong company culture and a workplace that is attractive to high achieving manufacturing candidates.
Promote Your Brand
A big problem for job seekers is not being able to appreciate and understand the manufacturing company behind a job opening fully and, consequently, they aren’t strongly motivated to apply.
By making your company and staff accessible, your current employees can use their experiences to show future co-workers how they could benefit from joining the company. This can be done through social media, jobs fairs, networking functions and memberships of professional associations.
Creating the right and accurate social image for your company, when done well, can help you to attract high performing and motivated manufacturing professionals.
Best regards
Rhys Williams
About Sigma Recruitment
We are ‘South Wales Recruitment Specialists’ based in Cardiff, Wales. We offer a full range of permanent recruitment solutions to many of South Wales’ and the South Wests’ leading manufacturing, technical, automotive and life science organisations.
This includes companies in Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Ebbw Vale, Port Talbot, Bridgend and the surrounding areas in South Wales.
Sigma Recruitment has one of the largest and most comprehensive recruitment candidate databases in the area. To get in touch with our team call us now on 02920 450 100. Alternatively, contact us here.
