Staffing and building a skilled, expert workforce can be difficult in any industry. In manufacturing, this can become even more challenging as you not only need employees with the necessary interpersonal skills and experience, but also the relevant technical skills and certifications.
Knowing where to look and how to attract qualified employees is at the crux of the issue. Here are some creative, and proven, ways to find the most qualified people and build your workforce.
Leverage LinkedIn to Build Relationships
Use social media to your advantage. LinkedIn is not only for professional news sharing but can be a powerful recruitment tool. It’s standard for businesses to spam LinkedIn users’ inboxes with job invites, but this strategy isn’t typically effective. Instead, focus on your content production on LinkedIn.
Act as an industry thought leader by contributing quality content to your page, respond to comments and become part of the conversation. Consider using targeted LinkedIn advertising and recruiting tools to push this content further. Join groups related to your industry to share this information. The key here is a more informational, passive approach – you’re not directly messaging potential recruits with job openings, but instead making them come to you. And when they do – they’ll be a higher-quality lead and one who is primed for your engagement.
Just be sure to also post those open jobs on LinkedIn and on your profile. You want these leads coming back to your page to see that you are actively hiring.
Coordinate with Schools to Reach Employees
Reach out to potential employees through educational institutions. Many colleges and technical schools have robust recruitment programs designed to help students find internships while they work on their certifications as well as employment after program completion. Developing a relationship with technical manufacturing faculty will make you part of their placement strategies.
Consider adding an internship program through those institutions to attract a highly trained, new workforce to your door.
Related Content: Tips for Hiring and Retaining Gen Z Employees
Create a Staff Incentive Program
Your staff knows your company culture, your reputation, and they also know other people in the industry. An employee incentive program rewards your staff but also offers the opportunity for them to take ownership in building the business. Studies show referrals build significant retention, which saves you money. A properly managed incentive program can build loyalty and morale, while building your workforce.
Related Content: How to Maximize Employee Satisfaction to Increase Retention
Utilize Manufacturing Forums
Contributing to a specialized manufacturing forum is one another to find qualified manufacturing employees that is a little outside of the box. Forums are an online discussion focused around a myriad manufacturing topics. Often, organizations or those with specialized industry knowledge contribute to the conversation. As you participate you may notice participants that you may want to reach out to for a meeting and potential employment.
Like with your LinkedIn strategy, focus on providing value and positioning yourself as a thought leader through valuable content.
Partner with a Manufacturing STaffing Agency
Make the most of your time by working with an agent or employment service that specializes in manufacturing. Knowledge of the industry, language and job requirements are crucial in matching employee and employer effectively. However, general staffing agencies won’t have the experience to provide that level of specialized placement. A specialized manufacturing recruiter – like Strom Minnesota – will help find the right candidates for your highly-skilled position.
Looking to fill contract, temp, or ready-to-hire positions? Strom Minnesota can help. Using our database of thousands of skilled workers, we can match ideal employees for you – with 0 work on your end.
Strom Minnesota is an engineering and technical recruitment agency that specializes in high-skilled job candidates for highly technical positions. We facilitate contract employment, project staffing, temp-to-perm and direct hire opportunities. Industries served include IT, engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and manufacturing. We are affiliated with Strom Engineering, a national staffing and recruitment agency.
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