Nurturing Manufacturing Staff for Sustained Performance and Retention

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Posted?November 4th, 2024

An engaged team is crucial for any industry, but in a field like manufacturing where it can be especially challenging to fill roles, it is essential to prioritize supporting your workers. According to the BLS (Household Data Table A-14) there were 478k unemployed manufacturing works in October 2023 compared to 537K unemployed manufacturing works in October 2024.? With that significant amount of displacement, employers must put in the extra effort to consider your staff’s well-being and satisfaction.? Employee retention must be one of your top priorities.? Doing so can boost productivity and morale and prevent turnover. Find out more with these best practices for nurturing production workers for sustained performance and retention:

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Build a Collaborative Culture?

A common barrier to employee engagement is their perception of leadership and a lack of trust in their motives. Build a collaborative culture, so there is transparent communication between employees of all levels. Give detailed updates, have an open-door policy, or better yet schedule regular one-on-one meetings between staff and their leaders.? Do not wait for your team to reach out, but instead encourage and welcome the sharing of ideas.

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Recognize Employee Contributions

Look for a decline in productivity and morale among normally top performers using data and direct conversations with staff.? Lower productivity can often be traced to them not feeling as if their hard work is appreciated. Recognize employee contributions on an ongoing basis, in a timely manner and publicly when possible. Thank your team and individuals for their effort and acknowledge sincerely when they go above and beyond.?

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Offer Professional Development?

Production work can get monotonous and employees can risk becoming complacent and bored if they no longer feel challenged, which can lead them to seeking jobs elsewhere. Offer professional development to help your team gain new skills that will both revitalize their motivation and further improve their performances.?It is always important to tie career progression and compensation together to drive the behaviors and culture you want in your organization.? Encourage taking on new tasks, learning new process, and becoming more valuable to the company and then reward them for their value.

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Provide Advancement Opportunities

Both performance and retention will struggle if employees feel like they are stuck in a dead-end job with no potential for growth. Provide advancement opportunities to make it clear that they have a professional future with your company, such as prioritizing promoting from within and working with employees to set growth goals and get them on the right track to achieve them.?One key way to encourage advancement and to gauge ability is to give workers small projects to lead, or ask them to take on a challenge.?

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Solicit Ongoing Feedback

Unfortunately, there are often not clear signs top production workers are unhappy until they are resigning and it’s too late for you to fix.? Solicit ongoing feedback to allow them to have their voices heard and give yourself an opportunity to address challenges and provide solutions to improve their job satisfaction and retention.?The old way of “open door” meetings should be replaced with scheduled check ins and regular one-on-one time.? When possible make it a casual setting that is uninterrupted so workers feel they are getting leaderships undivided attention.

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Land Qualified Candidates

Build a team of top production workers and support staff with the help of PrideStaff Akron. Our recruiting experts will collaborate with you to determine your strategy and find the prospective candidates who align with your overall goals.?Contact us?for more information.??

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