Manufacturing Recruitment Tips: Why You’re Struggling to Find Top Manufacturing Talent
By: Laura McKenny, Manufacturing Recruiter
Hiring challenges have plagued the manufacturing industry for years. Since 2021, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) quarterly outlook survey has reported “attracting and retaining a quality workforce” as a leading concern for manufacturing companies.
In the 2024 Q1 report, over 65% of respondents maintained that talent recruitment and retention was still a leading concern, despite expansion efforts via construction spending in manufacturing being up 37% year-over-year.
If you find yourself in that adverse majority, challenged by talent shortages, you’re far from alone. But using our best manufacturing recruitment tips, we’ll help your company refine its recruitment efforts to find top manufacturing talent — and keep them.
Manufacturing Recruitment Challenges
In a Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute Talent study, research found that as many as 3.8 billion new employees could be needed to fill open positions in the industry between 2024 and 2023. Yet, half of these positions could remain unfilled due to pressing manufacturing recruitment challenges.
Let’s break down some of these hiring issues:
Skill Shortages
One of the biggest challenges when hiring manufacturing employees is the skill gap. As technology advances, the demand for skilled workers increases. However, there is a shortage of workers with the necessary skills and training. This gap makes it difficult for companies to find qualified candidates.
Additionally, the manufacturing industry has an aging workforce. Many experienced workers are nearing retirement, creating a need for new hires to fill these positions. But with the skill gap that currently exists, many companies are left to manage the potential loss of knowledge and experience within the company, making recruitment even more critical.
Perception Challenges
The public perception of the manufacturing industry can lead to recruitment challenges and higher turnover rates. Deloitte found that there are 3 primary challenges related to perceptions:
- Awareness of career opportunities: reports have found that many people are unaware of the growth the industry has seen over the years, including things like salary increases, safety benefits, and technological advancements.
- Rising competition: competition amongst manufacturing companies in the same geographical area is making it difficult for employers to recruit new talent and keep the employees they have.
- Workforce expectations: flexible schedules, shorter commute times, and a greater emphasis on DEI are becoming increasingly important to job candidates. Those expectations and benefits do not align with the general perceptions of manufacturing work.
Diversity
Manufacturing is a highly male-dominated field, with over 67% of male workers to 32% of female workers. Additionally, 61% of manufacturing workers are white.
The lack of gender and racial diversity can lead to misconceptions, deterring qualified candidates from pursuing manufacturing work.
Manufacturing Recruitment Tips For Improving Your Hiring Strategies
Despite the many challenges your recruitment teams may face when hiring manufacturing talent, you are in control. Start small with these 10 manufacturing recruitment tips.
1. Leverage Technology To Diversify Your Strategy
Use technology to improve your recruiting efforts, especially if you’re looking for younger workers. Consider sharing job posts on non-traditional mediums like social media to expand your reach and meet candidates where they are.
2. Improve Your Organization’s Personal Brand
Start building a social media strategy for your company. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but make an effort to share employee successes, company culture wins, and job opportunities on your social media accounts.
This can be a powerful manufacturing recruitment tip that sways potential candidates to apply to your open position vs. your competitors because they have a better idea of your company culture.
3. Stay Engaged Within Your Community
Stay connected with stakeholders and other professionals in your industry. Attending trade shows, networking events, and career expos can strengthen your company’s presence within the industry and get your team face-to-face with potential candidates in the field.
4. Offer Employee Referral Bonuses
Consider creating an employee referral program to incentivize your current employees to take interest and action in the recruiting process. Not only does this show your current employees that you value and trust them, but it also increases your chances of finding driven, quality candidates.
Who your employees refer is a reflection of them, so it’s unlikely they’ll suggest someone who is a poor worker.
5. Draft Engaging Job Descriptions
When it comes to manufacturing recruitment, transparency is a benefit, not a disadvantage. Letting your job candidates know what they’ll be responsible for day in and out can improve trust and reduce any feelings of uncertainty toward their decision.
6. Outline Career Paths
An underrated manufacturing recruitment tip is simply helping candidates understand the potential paths they can take to advance their careers within your company. Outline what opportunities currently exist and how they’d be able to get there.
7. Create a Training or Apprenticeship Program
The manufacturing industry desperately needs younger workers. Training programs or apprenticeship opportunities — even simple shadowing and mentorship opportunities — can help tap into the younger generation of students before they enter the workforce.
It could be smart to consider partnering with local trade schools or colleges to help students learn about the industry.
8. Ensure You’re Competitive
The easiest way to lose great candidates to your competition is through poor pay and benefit packages. Do your research and ensure what you’re offering is fair and competitive with those in your geographical area.
9. Differentiate Your Company
Highlight what makes your company stand out from the competition. Is it your benefits? Salaries? Culture? Advancement opportunities? Let your potential candidates know why they should choose you. And don’t just say it, prove it, with employee testimonials or other data.
10. Be Human
When there’s a job that desperately needs to be filled in your company, it can be easy to forget about the person behind the resume. At the end of the day, we’re all human — so be human.
Make your recruiting process personal by getting to know your candidates, their expectations, and potential concerns. When concerns are voiced, approach them with empathy and integrity instead of avoiding them. This simple manufacturing recruitment tip can give your company an edge over your competitors.
Hiring Tips For Improving Manufacturing Employee Retention
Now that you have some new strategies for how to find top manufacturing talent, it’s time to learn how to keep them.
1. Offer Competitive Salaries and Benefits
Not only is this a great manufacturing recruitment tip to attract candidates, but it also helps you keep those employees after they’re hired. Be sure to stay attuned to the changing market conditions and offer bonuses/pay increases when business is increasing.
2. Streamline Your Onboarding Processes
Take steps to improve your onboarding process. Ask recent hires what worked well or what would’ve been helpful to have to ease the transition into their roles. This is another great retention strategy that helps build trust between your employees and your company — but only if you take their feedback seriously.
3. Provide Training or Educational Opportunities
Career advancement is one of the driving factors for improving employee tenure. Take interest in your current employees’ advancement goals by offering training or educational opportunities throughout the year.
4. Adapt To Changing Expectations
Workforce expectations are rapidly changing in our post-pandemic world. Employees expect and are attracted to roles with a greater emphasis on work-life balance and job flexibility. If your company can support those changes, you can improve employee satisfaction and retention.
5. Check-In On Employee Morale
Keep a pulse on how your employees are feeling. Conduct quarterly or bi-yearly surveys to check in on employee morale. If there are concerns, don’t avoid them! Approach them with care and show your employees you value their input and are taking steps to improve.
Work With AllSearch
Work with a hiring agency that understands the challenges when hiring manufacturing employees. AllSearch Recruiting has helped manufacturing companies like yours fill thousands of specialized positions with the most fitting candidates for over 20 years.
Our recruitment process is thorough, but timely because we understand the hiring process is so important to your organization. On average, our manufacturing headhunters can source, screen, and hire talent within 6 weeks of working together, keeping you in the loop with weekly check-ins along the way.
By adopting our top manufacturing recruiting tips and partnering with our experienced team of recruiters, you can crush your hiring goals and improve employee retention.
Ready to transform your hiring strategy? Contact our expert manufacturing recruiters to get started.
Laura McKenny, Manufacturing Recruiter