Minnesota Manufacturing
Select, Recruit, Train
The approach for effectively recruiting workers has changed and the employees you need to find are anywhere—but not everywhere. The days of running an ad in the paper (read by thousands, responded to by as many as a hundred from which perhaps ten resumes are considered, four interviewed, one hired) are waning as are the number of available workers declines. The tendency for some employers is to cast a wider net in an attempt to keep the funnel full at the top. Using hundreds of temp workers to find those that can be a permanent asset is costly. One manufacturer spent nearly a million dollars with a temp service last year and gained just two permanent employees. Spending five hundred thousand dollars per hire is not a sustainable model!
The new paradigm for recruiting, retaining, and advancing a workforce requires a targeted approach. It begins by asking the right questions:
How do you identify characteristics and skills needed by job candidates?
- How do you manage effective career progression for all employees?
- How do employee education and training contribute to achieving business results goals?
- How do you organize and manage work and jobs to promote cooperation and ensure knowledge transfer?
- How do you accomplish effective succession planning for leadership and management positions?
Wrestling with these questions will allow you to target your recruiting efforts and dollars for new hires and incumbent worker advancement. You'll know exactly what you need in an employee, and exactly how your work systems function to cultivate that employee.
The 
new strategy is selective recruitment.
You can see the work ethic, habits and competencies of your potential new hire everywhere you go. You can observe them at their current job and can make assessments about their fit into your organization. Is the bagboy at your grocer a sharp kid? Does the night manager at the corner convenience store consistently deliver customer service? Who is the most industrious at the detail car wash? Who at the full service gas station? Now your recruiting lens is focused on fewer, yet more likely prospects from the broader spectrum of the labor pool. The same holds true as you evaluate who on your front line can move into higher levels of responsibility and management.
Follow the methodology contained in your responses to the questions posed earlier to determine an internal or external candidate's employability in your organization. Where there is a gap in skills and education, provide support and resources. Target training for immediate needs and plan training for future needs. Make ongoing training the bedrock of employee recruitment and retention. Instill in your workforce culture that ongoing training will be supported by you, and that the responsibility lies with each employee to advance and enhance their own career options within your organization. The smaller your workforce, the larger looms this necessity. Instead of competing for machinists, find people to train as machinists.
Training and development can come from traditional sources such as your community college or state university, from online instruction like that of Tooling U, and from structured on-the-job training and apprenticeships. Look for training offered by industry associations, community education programs, regional WorkForce Centers and the U of M Extension Services and College of Continuing Education .
Some of Minnesota's own solutions for recruiting and training have been showcased at national events. These best practices include those provided by State-funded programs, in the K-12 education system, and those to address immediate training needs. Find out how you can put these programs to work as part of your new strategy of select, recruit and train.-DKB
Debra Bultnick is the Manufacturing Industry Liaison for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).
Debra.Bultnick@state.mn.us
612.298.2592