Is the manufacturing talent shortage hindering productivity and negatively impacting profitability? Are you concerned that your inability to find quality new hires will threaten business continuity? Are you looking for ways to overcome these hiring challenges but unsure where to begin?
The tips below might offer some solutions if any of this sounds familiar. On their own, each of these tactics can reduce the impact of the global talent shortage. Cumulatively, they can significantly improve your ability to hire and retain talented manufacturing professionals.
To overcome the hiring challenges created by the manufacturing talent shortage, we suggest that you:
Train, Train, Train
According to Deloitte, 71% of chief executive officers believe the global talent shortage will be the biggest disrupter they will encounter in 2022. Even though we are already in the second half of the year, minimizing the global talent shortage’s impact on business continuity is possible.
One solution is to double down on employee training. While it may take several months to produce measurable results, you will be able to circumvent some shortage-related challenges by creating an internal talent pool.
The obvious benefit of training your staff is that they will acquire new skills and become more valuable to your organization. Investing in training offers a multitude of other benefits as well.
Employees appreciate when their employers provide them with professional development and growth opportunities. As a result, their morale and loyalty toward the organization will improve.
An excellent employee training program also helps with succession planning. You can develop your internal leadership pipeline and turn your most talented staff into lifelong members of your organization. Furthermore, when you promote from within, you can be confident that the leaders you select understand your company culture and can work successfully within it.
Rank and file employees will have better chemistry with their supervisors because they are already familiar with them and understand their expectations. This familiarity will reduce workplace friction and help your company maintain a positive working environment.
Decrease Time to Hire
As a result of the manufacturing talent shortage, the hiring climate closely resembles the current residential real estate sector — it is a seller’s market. In other words, job seekers (sellers) possess an asset that is both scarce and in high demand. Much like individuals selling their homes, job seekers often choose the most favorable offer presented to them.
With that in mind, you must streamline your hiring timeline. The faster you screen candidates and extend employment offers, the better your chances are of landing top candidates. However, the employment offer you make must be appealing in terms of both salary and benefits. Otherwise, top candidates will hold out for a better offer.
You can expedite time-to-hire by implementing skills tests to improve the efficiency of your screening process and evaluate candidates more quickly.
Identify Causes of Attrition and Fix Them
As you explore ways to overcome the global talent shortage, you need to evaluate why your company has vacancies. Most of your vacancies probably occur for three main reasons–involuntary attrition, resignations, and growth, and you can easily control involuntary attrition and resignations.
Involuntary attrition occurs when you hire the wrong candidates for a job, and they underperform. They either sense that the job is a bad fit and resign or are terminated. There are two ways to reduce involuntary attrition rates—hire the right person in the first place and implement a strong employee development program.
Skills tests and behavioral assessments help you minimize hiring mistakes by providing hard data that shows which candidates have the required skills to do the job and verifying they are a good fit for your company culture. A robust training program enables you to identify knowledge “gaps” in new hires and current staff to correct minor to moderate performance deficiencies.
Reducing voluntary resignations can be a bit more challenging and requires a multifaceted approach. You should first find out why employees are leaving. Then you can work to address the root causes and reduce your turnover rate. These corrections might include offering flexible work schedules, providing staff development opportunities, increasing salaries, or paying bonuses.
Shift Your Focus to Skills, Not Accolades
Refining your hiring process will certainly mitigate the impact of the global talent shortage. However, you will not realize the maximum benefits of these efforts unless you shift your focus from accolades to skills.
Think back to your candidate hiring and screening experiences. Has there ever been a time when a candidate’s resume indicated they were perfect for the job, but their job performance fell well below expectations? If you are like most business leaders, you can probably think of several times when this happened.
This happens because many candidates subconsciously or intentionally exaggerate their skills on their resumes. Screening processes that center on resume reviews and interviews favor candidates who excel at creating a good impression. In contrast, hiring methodologies that measure candidates’ abilities separate the pretenders from top talent.
You can tackle your manufacturing talent shortage by leveraging skills testing. Various skills tests are available for screening manufacturing candidates, including CNC Skills, Mechanical Aptitude, and Electrical Engineering. You can also use soft skills tests to measure abilities like reasoning, logical thinking, and emotional intelligence.
Do you want to learn how skills assessments can help you tackle your manufacturing talent shortage? Contact us to request a demo.