Heneom HR’s Emma Clack gives her thoughts from a human resources perspective on the recent Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit 2024, part of The Manufacturer Live.
It goes without saying that the more you put into something, the more you get out of it.
I was lucky enough to be part of the Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit in Liverpool last week and found so many opportunities to network, learn, debate and discuss relevant topics affecting manufacturing across the UK. My HR and recruitment brain was full of fantastic stories, thoughts and ideas by the time I boarded the train home.
My key takeaway from the event was to focus on the positives, the good days, and not always on the negatives. The Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge University held a brilliant session on Sustainability, highlighting how we so often look at how we could do things better when we see poor practice, data or results, when in fact the answer is often in what is going well. In the context of HR and recruitment what does this?
In recruitment practices, look at the recent success stories – how did you attract and retain your current staff? What positives can you gain from successful employment initiatives? Look around your team and ask your line managers – where did we find great people from and how can we replicate the same? Recruitment can sometimes feel like groundhog day and a really hard slog – but you have successfully recruited in the past, so focus on what went well.
A key theme of our roundtable discussion was turnover i.e. the number of people that leave the business within 12 months of joining. For some SME’s I met with, turnover was over 50% and these business leaders recognised that to fill 20 vacancies in a 12 month period, they would need to recruit 40+ people. It is expensive, time consuming and frustrating however this is not unusual in UK recruitment practices at the moment, so you are not alone. What can we do about this?
- Ask your new recruits what they are looking for in a new role/new company – If they tell you something unrealistic, manage their expectations
- Recruit for soft skills – you should recruit for the culture of your organisation, not for the hard skills that are needed. You can train people to do skilled work but it’s very difficult to train someone’s attitude and approach to working
- Ask your current employees – why did they join your organisation? Then shout about these things at interviews and check that the candidates are excited about them also. The culture of your organisation could be the reason why someone chooses to join – or chooses to leave
- Be open and honest about the working environment and probe candidates – if your expectation is that there is no working from home for that particular role, then be really clear. If a candidate cannot answer a direct question and you are concerned about their answer, dig deeper
- Trial potential new starters if you can – invite them in to shadow someone, spend time working with the team, arrange for them to meet some of the people they would be working with if they were successful. This is a 2-way process – you can observe them in the workplace and they get to know you and your organisation. (Make sure you adhere to all H&S and risk assessments if you do trials)
If we are to really focus on the positives here, find out why people stay and make sure you are celebrating long service and commitment. It’s really key for all organisations to understand why their employees come to work – if you’re unsure why a member of staff, or a team of people, are working for you – ask them! Many SMEs that I spoke to last week were focused on pay, location and profit sharing. These are all incredibly valid reasons, especially in the current economic climate.
Also consider some of the broader, cultural reasons as well as reasons that support wellbeing and work life balance – is it because they value your brand? Are they a generational employee – have other family members worked for you? Is it your flexibility and compressed hours – this came up a lot in conversation last week and there were great examples of longer shift patterns Monday to Thursday, with Friday as a non-working day if production was to schedule.
A lot of SMEs recruit from relatively small geographical areas, and you will have a reputation that your employees and the local community are aware of – are you proud of that reputation and do you know what it is? Are employees proud to work for you? Share your positive workplace stories within the community and see what happens.
In performance management terms, focus on the great skills and people within your business:
- What makes your employees great – did they arrive great or did you train and develop them to great?
- Can you replicate that again?
- Do you celebrate with your teams when something goes well and do you have a reputation of being an organisation that says thank you?
- Do your teams understand what great looks like?
- Do you have high performing teams or high performing individuals (spoiler – strive for the former)
Data and productivity are so important across manufacturing – take a look at the data on your very productive team members. What are they doing that others could adopt? Can they train, upskill and/mentor others? Consider asking your great employees to help you with recruitment – can they add insight to how you attract good people? Clare Bailey, Master Data Manager from Safran Seats led a fantastic discussion on how digital transformation and IT projects must be led by people, not by IT. Sometimes we forget that it is the people in the organisation who determine the success and failures, not the systems and data.
There is a lot for HR to think about and for business leaders to consider when planning for the months and years ahead. No-one has a complete set of answers, but one of the most wonderful and unique parts of the Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit last week was having these open and constructive discussions with passionate people who want to drive their businesses forward.
Special thanks to Phil Dewson from Spacestor who co-hosted our roundtable discussions and provided valuable insights: www.linkedin.com/in/philip-dewson
For no-nonsense HR advice and guidance, contact Emma Clack at Heneom HR. Email [email protected] or book in a free, no-obligation 30 minute call here: calendly.com/emma-heneomhr/30mins-introductory-call
To find out more about Heneom HR and what we they, visit www.heneomhr.com
For more articles like this, visit our People & Skills channel
