Master Guide to Recruitment & Retention in the Manufacturing Sector

If hiring is a top objective in 2021, consider moving Careers to the main navigation on your website. Some companies will even list Careers as the first navigation item. In addition to this, always place a Careers link in the footer. This is a common place for people to navigate when seeking career opportunities.

SEO plays an important role in the likelihood of your company page appearing in search queries. Be sure your meta title and meta description are filled with relevant keywords. Include the top roles you often hire for in the meta title and description. 

Meta Title: Should be 50 characters or less and include keywords. This is what appears in Google and should be descriptive of what they will find on the page. It should be unique for every page and should compel a user to visit the page.

Meta Description: Should be between 50-160 characters long and include keywords. The entire purpose of this is to get a user to click, so make sure it reflects the page and present compelling information. This should be unique for each page.

Be sure to include keywords throughout the page, woven organically into the content. Keywords change depending on the specific vertical, but here are the top keywords you should consider.

Candidates should be able to get a feel for your company through the Careers page. Sharing your mission, vision, and values can help set expectations.

Prospects want to know about pay structure. We know this can be a sensitive topic. But how can you find ways to set expectations while leaving flexibility for an individual’s unique approach? Can you showcase a typical commission structure? Can you talk about base pay? Can you speak in averages? Remember to share details about pay structure such as growth opportunities, timing of performance reviews, team goals/incentives available, frequency of commissions paid, etc. Cover broad beliefs and practices related to compensation such as non-cash incentives or perks such as product or service bonuses and trips. Taking time to share compensation information up front can save a wealth of time throughout the hiring process, including final negotiations on salary. 

According to a Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis survey of 476 manufacturing operations of various sizes across the Ninth District (Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Northwestern Wisconsin), manufacturing employers across the board are anticipating an increase in compensation to remain competitive. Here’s a chart from that survey:

Chart sourced from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

What are the questions your hiring team gets most often? Answer those in an easy-to-access spot on your Careers page. Ideally, this would be a collapsible section so it doesn’t take up much space. Do candidates want to know about training available or certifications needed? This could include things like: training available to employees, growth opportunities, hiring process, etc.

Don’t forget to outline the benefits your company offers, such as health insurance, short- and long-term disability, retirement plans, paid time off, provided technology, healthy living savings plans, etc. 

According to a Star Tribune article, employers are taking extreme measures to attract candidates: “Up near the Canadian border in Warroad, Marvin Windows is so desperate for factory workers that it’s dangling a $2,500 signing bonus and a $1,300 relocation incentive in addition to bumping up the starting wage by a buck to $16 to $20 an hour.”

In addition to standard benefits and perks, consider “non-traditional” offerings. Are there ways your company can offer flexibility to employees? According to FlexJobs, 82% of employees said they’d be more loyal and less likely to leave if they had more flexible jobs.

What differentiates your company from other manufacturers? How about from other organizations in general? Outline these clearly, boldly, and proudly. Don’t forget to back it up with data. That could include things like: employee survey results, awards and accolades, employee testimonials, average tenure of employees, community involvement, etc. Culture is more than having a ping pong table in the breakroom. Prospects want to understand the team dynamic and what to expect if they join your team.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Imagine what a video is worth! If your goal is to help candidates visualize themselves within your company, the best way to do that is to include video and images of your employees. Here's a video we helped our client, Kern Laser Systems, create about one of their team members. Testimonial videos like this can help candidates understand the culture, environment, and employee landscape.

This is a technical requirement that might require the help of a developer. But it’s critical that your Careers pages (including the individual positions) are optimized for mobile. 78% of candidates who own a smartphone would apply for a new job through their mobile device if given the opportunity.

This is, perhaps, the most impactful thing you can implement on your Careers page for quick results. Gating (requiring user information, such as an email, in order to proceed) the application process can help narrow the pool and disqualify candidates, but it can also dissuade qualified applicants who don’t have the patience to go through a lengthy process. We call this the ‘Form Hurdle’. Our recommendation is to simplify the application process as much as possible. This can be done in a number of ways. For individual positions, simplify the form as much as is reasonable for that position. On the main Careers page, consider offering a “general application” quick apply form, where a candidate can select their areas of interest from a dropdown. This is something that can be modified over time. Need a large pool to draw from? Make the form easier to fill out. Need more qualified, but fewer, candidates? Add questions.

Much like your main Careers page, it’s important to optimize each position page for search. This includes filling in the meta title and meta description. It also includes working in relevant keywords throughout the content. In most cases, these keywords revolve around the position itself, and any variation of that position title that might be used by a candidate. For example, if you are hiring for a sales position, you would want to work in a variety of titles naturally within the content. Things like: Account Executive, Direct Salesperson, Distribution Sales Representative, Inside Salesperson, Equipment Sales Specialist, etc. By organically working the variations of the title into the content on each individual position page, you signal to Google to serve your page up when someone uses whichever term is relevant to them. 

Lastly, you’ll want to make sure you add Google’s job posting structured data to job posting web pages in order to make your job postings eligible to appear in a special user experience in Google Search results.

While each individual position page shouldn’t be a repeat of the main Careers page, it’s important to include relevant content. For example, how can you highlight your company’s core values and how they apply to that specific position? Are there position-specific testimonial videos you could incorporate into the content? Are there specific benefits that only apply to that position, in addition to the standard benefits? Position pages tend to be more content heavy and include less visuals, but don’t let that stop you from including videos and photos if they are relevant to your audience. 

If you are struggling to find candidates, consider removing barriers. One way to do this is by encouraging those without prior experience to apply. Explain your process for onboarding and ongoing training. Highlight transferable skills.

There is a temptation in this industry to be straightforward with position descriptions. That makes sense, since we’re often talking to people who would be described as no-nonsense, detail oriented problem solvers. That, however, can be damaging if taken too far. While you may want to avoid overly fluffy language, you shouldn’t shy away from the epic nature of the role. Manufacturing is the backbone of America. It often involves hard work and results in critical products our culture needs to thrive. Stray away from pointing out the obvious (e.g. “you must be able to lift 50 pounds”) and lean into the extraordinary (e.g. “you are crafting materials that will be used across the globe for decades to come.”).

Leveraging job boards such as LinkedIn Careers, ZipRecruiter, and Indeed are an important part of a well-rounded recruitment process. The amount you spend within each platform should be based on historical data in terms of candidate quality. Don’t have historical data? Start collecting data with your first posting, noting key elements such as number of qualified candidates, number of individuals advanced to the interview process, number of offers extended and accepted. Want a list of job boards to consider? Get it here. Don't forget about local job boards. They often offer unique opportunities through local channels. A good example of a local job board is the Greater St. Cloud Jobspot. 

Share positions on your social media feeds and encourage employees to share with their networks. Be sure to share on both your primary feed, as well as in your story (relevant for Facebook and Instagram). Boosting specific posts will also result in a broader reach.

There are specific actions you can take on most social channels to promote open positions. For example, Facebook allows you to add a Jobs tab to your company page, which links to your open positions. LinkedIn also allows you to post job positions.

Paid media plays a big role in how visible your company and specific positions are to an interested candidate. The world of paid media is deep and complex, but here are the most common paid media avenues:

Paid search, often called PPC (Pay Per Click), gives companies the ability to feature their links at the top of search results. This article does a good job summarizing the elements of paid search.  

Display ads are visual ads you see while browsing various websites. These are effective for general employer branding, and can sometimes be effective for specific position recruiting (although it is more rare). More info on that here. 

Social paid media refers to the promotion of specific messages and visuals on the most popular social media platforms. Before investing in paid advertising on social media platforms, it’s critical to know if your target audience is actually on that platform. This is hopefully something you uncover in the persona exercise.

When it comes to a local recruitment strategy, traditional media can be highly effective. This might include things like billboards, radio ads, and mailers. Traditional media takes a broad stroke approach to attracting candidates. This casts the net wide, but can also be frustrating as it lacks the ability to track results and hone in on what works 

Another downside is that local traditional media focuses on attracting candidates from the local market. This often puts you in a position of recruiting employees away from other local manufacturers. This is especially prevalent in smaller communities. It can be a frustrating experience to collectively draw from the same pool. Many companies would prefer, instead, to target candidates outside of the local market. 

Leveraging local partnerships is a crucial tactic in filling your candidate pipeline. Community partners could include your region’s economic development center (like the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation). It could also include local colleges, universities, and high schools. It’s important to keep in mind events and programs that educational institutions host to help connect their students to future employers. By developing strong relationships with your local community resources, you will get a front row seat to these opportunities. 

According to our recent survey, 73.7% of employers indicated that they work with local schools and organizations to create a candidate pipeline, vs. 26.3% who do not.

Most of these partnerships were with local universities, colleges, and highschools, but some cited faith-based organizations, programs like Junior Achievement, and events like EPIC.

An incredibly powerful, and often underutilized, resource for recruitment is your current employees. They are often connected to the groups of people you’re trying to reach. They can speak to the company’s process, values, and approach. They can share their own experiences and encourage friends and family to apply. We will cover more about employee-driven recruiting in the next chapter.

Covid-19 has dramatically changed the way we interact with each other and with companies in a public setting. Prior to 2020, tradeshows and job fairs were a standard practice in the recruitment process. While in-person events are smaller (or in some cases, canceled for the foreseeable future) it’s important to remember the value of these types of engagements. Look for virtual or small-scale event opportunities.

Offering competitive pay to employees is an essential, and sometimes overlooked, necessity within organizations. As mentioned previously, pay isn’t always a primary factor for employee loss, but it is not something that can be overlooked, especially in the competitive landscape of manufacturing. 

So what does “competitive pay or salary” mean for your company? First, you need some guide rails to know where your pay offerings land among organizations of similar size, geographic landscape, socioeconomic factors of employees, and so on. Creating a competitive compensation structure for your company is not a “one-and-done” activity, but an ongoing practice that should be informed by recent research, data, and trends in similar industries. There are myriad of resources available to inform and guide, your compensation structure. 

Companies such as Payscale.com offer a multitude of resources. Here are the highlights from their article on a simple way to conduct a competitive wage analysis.

• Set goals. Know why you’re doing an analysis. Are you seeking legal compliance or wanting to address pay inequities? Or perhaps you’re seeking a way to build a compensation system and process for assessing wages on a regular basis. Whatever you’re setting out to do, make sure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based (SMART). 

• Examine your organization’s current pay practices and philosophy. How were current wages determined? Is there a known, and consistent, methodology in determining wages and pay increases? How is pay determined for new employees? Unsure if you’re doing it “right?” Here’s an article about compensation practices to inform your review.  
• Gather data. Leaving compensation to gut instinct is expensive and time consuming. And, it’s likely a big factor in poor employee retention and performance. Employees crave, and need, visibility to compensation parameters. Data resides at the heart of establishing a practice of compensation analysis and implementation. Two factors to consider when selecting market data sources: is it current, accurate, and relevant? And, does it align with your organization, jobs, geography and industry? “How to perform compensation benchmarking and set salary ranges” is a helpful whitepaper on available data sources to inform your competitive salary analysis. 
• Establish pay ranges by job categories. Use the data you’ve gathered to inform pay ranges for job categories. Market data will typically reflect a midpoint for pay, and from there you can begin to see how experience, education, and longevity might inform where employees fall within the categories. Again, pay ranges shouldn’t be set by instinct or good intentions, but should be informed by data and best practices. An experienced compensation analyst, typically with a human resources or finance background, is a helpful partner in establishing these guidelines. 
• Follow through. Compare employees’ salaries with the ranges you’ve established and determine if adjustments are needed. Watch for both underpaid, and overpaid, employees. Where can small adjustments be made and where are the most dominant pain points? Salary discrepancies can be remedied with one-time adjustments or incremental adjustments over time and in some cases, reworking the job entirely in order to more closely align with market data. 
•  Communicate your compensation strategy. It’s important to remember that not all leaders and managers are comfortable discussing pay. So, starting with information sessions with this group can arm them with information and set the tone for how this information will be shared with teams and individual employees. In addition, determine what compensation information and practices can be shared and available broadly at all times, within communication vehicles such as an intranet, employee handbook or company newsletter. 

Salary surveys, such as this one by Industry Week, can be a good place to start to ground yourself with baseline information and awareness across a broad set of companies. It’s important to remember that these kinds of surveys are not a one-to-one comparison to your company but rather a pulse on averages or comparison of similar companies. 

In addition to compensation-specific resources, it’s critical to pay attention to world and economic circumstances and even community trends that might affect individuals, families, and companies. As an example, a surge in gas prices may dramatically influence recruiting and maintaining employees from outside the local community, as it directly impacts the costs of transportation to and from work. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic introduced new challenges for families related to childcare, distance learning, and parents working from home. Consider how these elements affect your employees’ livelihood and whether the company addresses this with compensation adjustments. 

As previously stated, a small percentage of employees surveyed state pay as the primary reason for a job change. However, if your compensation structure is left idle, it won’t take long for it to become noticeably outdated and beneath the standards of other employers who invest the time and energy to actively study and adjust a compensation structure that is competitive, relevant, and timely.

Workplace retirement plans not only help set you apart from competitors, but they offer long-lasting impact to your workforce. Employers have found these plans can improve productivity and loyalty from your current employees and attract top talent from outside your business. Implementing a 401(k) plan indicates your commitment to help employees build future security.   

Benjamin Barrett, Financial Advisor at Edward Jones, shares: “The importance of retirement plans are often overlooked. ‘Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act’ was recently passed in 2019. Its intent is to improve retirement savings. One of the SECURE Act’s most attractive provisions has made it less expensive for many small businesses to start new retirement plans, including 401(k)s, SEP IRAs, and SIMPLE IRAs. Each of these workplace retirement plans serves a purpose, depending on the size and structure of your business.

"Most plans include the opportunity for the employer to hire a local financial professional to work directly with your staff. That professional helps with onboarding new employees into the plan, and providing personalized education and resources. Employers who offer quarterly educational events tailored to their employees have seen increased loyalty. During these events, employees have the option to meet one-on-one with the financial professional.

"Every company is different, which requires a different approach to rolling out a 401(k) plan. A common issue we see is employee disengagement and confusion when it comes to retirement plans. The worst thing a company can do is send out an email or hand out a pamphlet about the available options. Without proper education, employees likely won’t understand or see value in this benefit.”

One sign of successful leadership is the vision, and follow through, to invest in an employee's development and future. A proven way to develop employees is through career paths. Career paths can also increase productivity and retention and also employee happiness. 

What are career paths? Career paths are structured development plans aimed to identify, and nurture, employees’ interests and career potential within the company. It involves honest assessment of employees’ skills, experiences, goals, personal competencies, as well as needed knowledge and gaps. 

If your company is large, with multiple departments, management layers, and frequent job openings, career paths can be an essential tool in succession planning and helping employees move to their next level.

Smaller organizations can offer career paths by thinking of “sideways,” or lateral, development opportunities such as learning and training across teams or opportunities to lead cross functional teams toward a company initiative. These career path opportunities can build depth and breadth of knowledge for a “deeper bench” of employees who are primed to step up when opportunities arise. 

Employees and leaders who engage in career path development conversations gain valuable insight about:

• Current skills and competencies
• Vertical or lateral growth opportunities
• Resources, training, or tools needed to fill gaps or to grow knowledge
• Gaps in skills and competencies 

So after you’ve discovered the above, now what? It’s important to implement ways to keep career path conversations front and center. Here are several ways you can do this:

• Check-in during one-on-one meetings. What is going well related to career development and learning? What are the challenges? And, what immediate actions are needed to keep the development on track?
• Support learning opportunities. Unfortunately, training and learning opportunities can easily be pushed aside to prioritize day-to-day demands of the work. Research and schedule training and learning opportunities in advance and schedule around them. Maintaining them as a priority will demonstrate your commitment to employees and their futures. Can’t seem to find the time for learning and training? Some organizations have gained momentum in this area by adopting “certification days.” These can be full- or half-day commitments where large groups of employees embark on specific training opportunities together. Is there a slow season to your business? This could be an ideal time to incorporate this kind of education practice into your organization. 
• Watch for, and leverage, high performers. Sometimes small learning opportunities such as leading a team or a project, researching a new idea or mentoring a new employee can help tap into highly motivated, top performing employees. These employees often crave the opportunity to flex their knowledge and experiences to improve a process, educate others and so on. This is definitely a form of career path development and also a way to recognize employees for their contributions. 
• Prioritize development. It’s important to disassociate career path development with “more work.” It will be counterproductive if employees see career development as having to do more or consistently outperform others. This isn’t the purpose or driving factor of development. Rather, you can ensure that development is seen, and maintained, as a priority by making space for it within the employees’ work day. This can be achieved by removing administrative tasks or bringing tasks together for efficiency or reassigning small projects.

Career paths are not all about vertical or lateral movement within an organization. Keep in mind that career paths can help leverage talent, identify skill gaps, and improve productivity and retention. Keeping these factors in mind will help ensure your approach to career paths is creative and strategic in the ways it can serve individuals as well as company needs.

What is an EAP? Besides being a hidden gem in most companies, an employee assistance program is typically a “voluntary, work-based program that offers free and confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals, and follow-up services to employees who have personal and/or work related problems,” according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  

An EAP rarely gets the stage time it deserves. The offering may be conveyed through a loose pamphlet in the employee hiring packet or a brochure pinned to a billboard in the company breakroom, and thus in many cases, remains an underutilized, underrepresented benefit.

Ensure that your management and leadership know how your company’s EAP works. Encourage and remind them to share with their team members regularly and to watch for individual instances when the program could be beneficial. Referrals are typically as seamless as providing a phone number, website, or email as a place to start. 

The value and contribution of an EAP cannot be overstated. Employees bring their whole selves to the workplace, and an EAP can offer services to help manage all facets of life and its challenges. From counseling services to financial resources and childcare education, EAP programs often cover a gamut of areas and topics. In addition, most EAPs do not limit services to personal matters, but are open to helping to address workplace conflicts and questions as well. 

EAPs are always helpful, but it’s certainly obvious how incredibly valuable they are today, given the additional challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Offering EAP services should be done broadly with consistent and regular reminders to staff about its availability and benefits and also on an individual basis as circumstances arise. This program is typically administered through a third-party entity contracted as part of a benefits package. If your company doesn’t have an EAP, here’s a helpful resource to explore EAP options. 

What are tactics that can be put in place to help the new employee feel connected and perhaps begin the onboarding process at their own pace, before day one? Think about company background material that can be read leisurely, human resources paperwork, a welcome gift (outside of a signing bonus) from the company or team, etc. Most of these details should be managed and delivered by the organization with an invitation to the new employee to engage as they are able.

Make a checklist, make sure the new employee has someone (or several people) walking them through the processes and procedures of your company in the first week. What tours should take place? What cultural aspects or conveniences are helpful to know right away, such as customary break times, lunch culture, location of restrooms, and other key “bonus” areas such as workout facilities, proximity to favorite dining spots, etc. You might consider aligning the new hire with a mentor, who is not a direct report or manager, who can provide companionship and insight throughout the first 90 days of employment.

The first year is often the riskiest when it comes to attrition. According to Jobvite, 30% of job seekers have left a job within 90 days of starting. Naturally, it takes time for an employee to settle into their new career and build relationships with new peers. It’s vital that the new employee is engaged well and often in the first year. This could look like:

• Assigned non-manager mentor (mentioned above) 
• 30-, 60-, 90-, 120-day meetings to address questions, inquire about the employee’s experience, share resources, etc.
• Scheduled, formal performance reviews identified during the onboarding process (consider bi-annual in the first year) 
• Invitations to new employees to participate in culture-related activity planning 
• New employee recognition, awards, and rewards for hitting specific milestones

New employee training program that spans the first six months or year—a formalized approach to integrating the new employee into the organization. According to research by Medium, 90% of employees are more productive with gamification, with 72% reporting that inspires them to work harder.

How you survey employees might change based on the number of staff (one-on-one feedback sessions for small teams, digital surveys for large teams, etc.), but one thing is for sure: gathering data from current employees is critical to hiring the best employees. Collecting information on an annual, bi-annual, or quarterly basis can help identify trends, differentiators, or gaps in the hiring process, organization, structure, and more. 

According to the survey we conducted with manufacturers from the Upper Midwest, only 34.2% indicated that they collect employee feedback regularly. 21.1% indicated that they collect feedback rarely and 44.7% indicated that they do not collect feedback.

Need inspiration on which survey questions to ask? Here are some helpful resources:

• 20 simple Employee Engagement survey questions you should ask  |  Culture Amp
• The Ultimate Guide to Employee Engagement Survey Questions  |  TINYpulse
• 9 Questions That Should Be in Every Employee Engagement Survey | Smarter With Gartner 

Similar to surveys, the purpose of an open format “Town Hall” meeting is to give employees the opportunity to share ideas and feedback. Town Hall meetings can be facilitated in a number of ways. Sometimes these break down into smaller group meetings (per department, for example). Sometimes they include the entire company (especially for teams of 50 or less). Typically these meetings are used to facilitate a conversation around a specific topic. For example, if you are trying to get feedback on the development of a new product or service. Not only does this give you access to a broad group of problem-solvers, it gives employees the opportunity to speak their minds. 

Need help setting your Town Hall agenda? Here’s a great resource.

This is perhaps the most important aspect of the empathic loop. It’s not enough to ask employees for feedback. You must share back to employees the changes that have been implemented because of their feedback. And yes, you should still share the feedback even if no changes were made, along with the “why.” It’s important to outline what happens when employees share feedback. This will not only encourage more feedback, but it will avoid a widespread feeling of neglect. 

There are many other ways to engage employees. Things like:

• Quarterly team activities
• Employee spotlights
• Employee newsletters
• Training 
• Free meals 
• Awards or recognition programs 

There are also structures you can put into place to support employees:

• Shift flexibility
• Clean and safe work environment
• Bonuses and other incentives
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)