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Boost Your Line’s Performance Today – Manufacturing Workforce Management

Raza Rauf on May 24, 2013

The manufacturing industry is not dead; it’s thriving despite predictions from economic sources. However, there has been slower than normal growth in this market due to the higher than average cost of materials and transportation. Manufacturing staffing has also suffered somewhat, with less than 9,000 factory jobs added last summer and approximately 3.5 million job openings being advertised as of the beginning of 2013 according to a US News report. That’s in sharp contrast compared to the 11 million unemployed people currently saturating the job market. On the other side, experts are also predicting a sharp rise in consumer spending this summer which should drive up demand for a wide variety of manufactured goods.

Yet, with all the uncertainty right now for this year, there are still some ways to develop your manufacturing business strategy to maximize the staff you have on board now. This will have a positive effect on your production rates and additional revenues that can help support the addition of new temporary and permanent manufacturing workers.  Here are some suggested ways to boost your line’s performance, to reach these goals.

  1. Streamline all of your manufacturing and inventory systems into one well-managed computerized product.
  2. Cross-train and mentor your current employees so that they can support peak production cycles and improve their efficiency and skills.
  3. Look to employee incentive programs and wellness campaigns to improve motivation and overall morale.
  4. Partner with vendors to provide integrated ordering, shipping and receiving of goods to reduce time and costs.
  5. Carefully manage your staff to spot signs of burnout or stress, then promptly provide support or paid time off.
  6. Contract with a staffing service onsite to manage all your recruitment, screening, hiring and training needs at a cost savings.

While the summer’s manufacturing trends are yet to be seen, preparing now can help you to boost your overall performance and raise productivity levels in your lines. Advance Staffing Solutions can help you design a staffing management plan that includes the use of temporary workers, trainers, and employee recruitment and screening services. Look to our recruitment experts for ongoing manufacturing staff support.

Attract the Best Talent to Your Business with a Defined Brand

Raza Rauf on April 4, 2013

Your business thrives because of the good people you employ. But have you given much thought to how your company brand may be affecting the experience of candidates who walk through your doors? This is something you must plan for because of several factors taking place in the job market.

  1. Specialized skill sets are getting harder to find in the candidate pool.
  2. Baby boomers are retiring at the rate of 10,000 employees per day.
  3. Industries need talent with advanced technology skills to maintain innovation.

A brand is the message that you communicate to the rest of the world about your business, what it stands for, and the culture of the workplace. Do this right and your business can attract top performance candidate. Do this wrong, and you’ll encounter an overflow of unqualified candidates.

In a special report released in the third-quarter of 2012, LinkedIn ‘s The State of Employer Brand indicated that many employers are concerned with their employer brand as a way to attract better talent. The figures in this report, gathered from over 3,000 global employers, revealed a recruitment brand strategy.

  • 83 percent of the polled employers said that a well-defined corporate brand can attract higher quality candidates.
  • The leading factor in the decision to invest in corporate branding is efficient candidate acquisition 61 percent of the time.
  • More than half of all employers in the report are actively taking steps now to improve their corporate brand strategy to attract candidates.

There are several ways to define your brand so that it becomes an effective candidate magnet. These social branding methods can give you access to the cream of the crop in terms of future employees, which can give your business a leading edge in your industry.

Create consistency with your brand – Your brand should be the same across all outreach methods and online marketing campaigns. Keeping a brand message consistent proves that you are in touch with candidates and the objectives of your company.

Establish your brand as the best – A well-defined brand also speaks volumes about your company leadership as the experts in your industry. Make sure all corporate communications reflect this to impress high performance candidates.

Demonstrate your corporate culture – One of the ways your brand influences targeted talent pools is by giving a glimpse into what daily life is like within your business. This is especially important as new generations of workers are looking for fun and collaborative workplaces to build a career.

The Candidate Experience – Why It’s Important | Recruiting Best Practices

Raza Rauf on March 29, 2013

Now that the marketplace is seeing some signs of life and businesses are hiring once again, it’s important for business owners to position themselves in a manner that appeals to the top quality candidates. Your business may still receive hundreds of applications and resumes for available positions.

However, if you’re after employees that represent the cream of the crop, understand that these top candidates are in a better position to be more selective in their job search activities. You’re going to have to impress them with the entire candidate experience if you want to successfully recruit them to work for you.

These are just a few of the reasons the candidate experience is so important for the sake of recruitment today.

Business is Happening and Businesses are Hiring as a Result

For the first time in nearly a decade, we’re seeing real growth in the job market. Companies are finally hiring again. That means that your competitors are probably competing for the top talent in the same limited pool of qualified workers.

While candidates today may be willing to work for less pay and even fewer perks than yesterday, they are still focused on finding positions that offer a good work environment. Their experiences as candidates provide them with a quick glimpse into what life will be like as an employee with your company compared to all the other companies out there that are hiring as well.

It’s Easier to Encourage Your Employees to Recommend Talented Friends

Employee references are one of the best ways to bring bright, talented people on board. Chances are your employees aren’t going to recommend people who aren’t going to pull their load and do their fair share of the work. More importantly, as your employees, they have a vested interest in the success of your business. They’re going to recommend people who will help make your company as successful as possible. However, they’ll only recommend their friends to come work for you if they are confident that you’re going to provide a welcoming candidate experience for them.

First Impressions Only Happen Once

There’s a lot of truth to the saying that “you only get one chance to make a first impression”. Those are words to live by when it comes to your impression on candidates as much as it is true about any given candidate’s first impression on you.

You can provide a seamless process for candidates to apply for positions within your organization, letting them know you run your company like a well-oiled machine. Or, you can create a process with many fits and starts along with no clear-cut directions concerning what comes next. These are all things that reflect poorly upon your business. Take care that you’re providing the first impression you intend to with job candidates.

You don’t have to go out of your way to change the way you operate business in order to improve your opportunities to make a favorable first impression. However, if you take a little time to show job candidates that you’ve put a fair amount of thought into the application and selection process it will prove to be a much better overall system for you both. This will honor the candidate experience.

Enjoy our related post on the topic of recruitment for success.

What is Your Competitor Doing? | Employee Compensation

What is Your Competitor Doing? | Employee Compensation

Raza Rauf on March 22, 2013

When it comes to boosting employee compensation, it’s a good idea for businesses today to be very aware of what the competition is offering their employees. The labor market is growing tighter by the hour and if you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need to be bringing top talent into your fold without concerns over losing them to your competitors who have sweeter compensation packages.

The rub in all this is that most businesses today still aren’t ahead of the recession enough to have endless reserves of money and benefits to throw at candidates. More importantly, uncertainty over taxes and health care coverage has many businesses reluctant to overextend themselves by offering too much in the way of compensation and benefits.

So, where does that leave you as a business owner? The bottom line is that you need to find out what your competitor is offering so that you can remain competitive without getting into an outright wage war that only damages both businesses. But, how can you learn this information?

Consider Third-Party Salary Survey Resources

These resources offer a wide range of options to research when checking out your competition. What you’re looking for, in this particular situation, relates completely to the compensation your competition is offering employees in the way of pay and incentives. Don’t forget, however, to factor in other considerations that can impact the salary, job satisfaction, and total compensation such as these:

  • Job Description – in some cases this is the game changer that takes someone from a five-figure to a six-figure salary without a fancy title to go along with it. Companies use tactics such as this all the time in order to tilt the compensation scale wildly in their favor. That’s why it’s so important that you’re making apples to apples comparisons when comparing jobs and salaries.
  • Commitment Expectations – some companies prefer so many hours of work each week at a minimum. These expectations are factored into salary offerings rather than offering overtime pay and keeping records of the hours worked. This practice is something else that can make the compensation packages of competitors seem so much more than what they really are.
  • Localized Salary Figures – some companies include salaries from around the world in their facts and figures as well. While that may work in your favor if your office is located in one of the traditionally higher paying regions (California, Hawaii, or New York City, for example) this could actually work in your favor. However, for most of the country, the averages make the companies look like they’re offering larger salaries and/or compensation packages.

Employee compensation is so much bigger than salary alone. It’s always in your best interest to avoid trying to create a dollar for dollar match of other company’s compensation plans. Keep in mind that there are too many additional ways your business can be the superior company to work for. For more information about employee compensation planning and providing the best to your staff, be sure to review our previous posts on this topic here.

Attract Candidates with Socially Responsible Company Policies

What Workers Want from their Bosses this Summer

Attract Candidates with Socially Responsible Company Policies

Raza Rauf on February 8, 2013

As a hiring manager, you could see more of the top candidates for positions flock to your business by updating your current company policies to be more “socially conscious”. Why’s that?

It comes down to one simple fact. If you want to compete for the best talent, one of the must-do steps is to show that you care about being socially responsible as a business – for both your community and your employees’ benefits. Put aside your business bottom line for a moment and really consider what this means to you.

Know the Facts

Consider a few important facts about being socially conscious as a company as well as what it means to your business’s ability to draw in the best talent.

  • About 66 percent of workers will take a lower salary if this means they will work with a company with more sustainable business practices (according to a study done by Bain and Co.)
  • Social responsibility is the 3rd most important employee engagement driver (according to Towers Perrin).
  • When it comes to your company’s commitment to the community, according to Deloite , a whopping 70 percent of people say that’s important to their decision to work with one company or another.

People want to work for companies that show they care. They don’t want to work for a money-grubbing business that has power suits at the head.

How to Change Your Company Policies

How can you change your company policies, then, to attract these highly talented workers? There are a variety of steps you can take, including the following.

  • Make a commitment to going green. From reducing paper use to installing new lighting fixtures, taking every step you can to reduce the impact on the environment is critical.
  • Become active in your community in some way.  It’s more than just donating something. Do something that makes a difference and impacts those who you work for – the community and customers.
  • Put in place a volunteer program. Find a way to help someone or something in your community and engage your employees in the process.

Perhaps even more important is to put in place a transparent culture. This means ensuring that rather than having the boss locked in the upper offices, he or she is on the floor, interacting. This shows that the boss is not just a number crunching person, but rather someone that the employee can work with, get to know and go into battle with on a regular basis. By putting policies like these in place, the business becomes more socially aware and capable.

Is your business doing everything it can to be socially conscious? If not, put in place new policies that encourage this. When you do, and let the world know about it, you will begin to draw in better talent. Additionally, work with a staffing agency, like Advance Staffing Solutions, to source great candidates and develop a solid recruitment strategy. In many cases, you’ll bring in even better talent than you have had in the past. That can make a big difference in your productivity and bottom line.

Ways Teams are Built for Long Term Success

Raza Rauf on October 15, 2012

Success is the name of the game in the world of business today. It’s more important than ever that companies do their hiring with serious team building in mind. However, companies that are just beginning to embrace a team building atmosphere have to work with the tools they have on hand. It is up to team leaders to pull their teams together and help them realize their potential. Here are a few critical steps that can make your efforts to build a stellar team infinitely more successful.

Take the Time to get to Know the Players

You have to know the players on your team in order to figure out how to motivate them, encourage them, challenge them, and play to the strengths while minimizing the weaknesses of each individual on the team. You also need to know the areas wear a little additional attention and guidance may be needed so that you can give it to them. Don’t rush in and start making plans and setting goals until after you’ve taken a moment to find out what kind of players you’re dealing with—and you know that you’re all playing the same game.

Understand How You Work Best

The most important person on the team for you to understand is yourself. You have to figure out how to do all the things to motivate, cajole, and, sometimes, castigate yourself just as you do for all the members of your team. But you also have to understand how you lead best too. Here are a few of the things you need to know about yourself and your role as the team leader before you even think about trying to lead your team.

  • How well is your team likely to accept your leadership attempts?
  • How qualified are you to lead this team?
  • How do you plan to hold yourself accountable for any problems that may arise with your team?
  • What do you plan to do to correct these problems?

It might not look like much in black and white but these questions can mean a lot as you’re working to build a stronger team and become the leader you need to be to keep them motivated.

Motivate and Reward

Even small praise can mean a lot to the team members that are working so hard under your leadership. It doesn’t take much to let them know they’re appreciated and the reward for doing so is well worth any effort you might have to expend. Acknowledge their contributions, praise their good work, and keep them motivated to continue their successes.

Building a team that will enjoy long term success isn’t always easy. There are tough decisions that will need to be made along the way. However, if you do these things you’re doing your part to make your team work as a formidable and effective unit within the company.

Ready to start improving your team structure with augmented talent? Have a need to build a new and effective team? Advance Staffing Solutions has highly-skilled contract professionals in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan ready to improve your long term team success.

Lean Manufacturing Is About Your People, Not Tools

Raza Rauf on September 6, 2012

Lean manufacturing may be all that you are hearing about as a manufacturing organization or business owner. Yet, business owners who are putting all of their time and attention into lean tools are missing the fundamental key aspect of this movement. It is not just about putting in place a system for getting the work done on the floor. Rather, businesses need to think people, too.

The Mistake So Many Are Making

Going lean is the big goal. Many businesses are being told that by implementing lean tools in their organizations that they are going to see significant improvement and achieve global competitiveness. In fact, there are dozens of authors promising this type of outcome if we just implement lean. They are basing this on the performance results Toyota has achieved with their TPS production system – known for its effectiveness. However, TPS is not just about lean tools. Without the true connection to people, there’s something major missing that’s going to hold you back.

What Is TPS Really?

Two components make the Toyota Production System so ideal. One element is continuous improvement. The second is respect for all people. Yes, it is a simplistic symptom, but that comes from maintaining these two aspects. For those businesses in the U.S., learning about lean tools, such as value stream mapping, poke yoke, and kanban, there is a huge disconnect from what the TPS methodology really is. For lean technology and methods to be effective, there must be a change in culture within the business, too.

What Does This Mean?

To ensure that a business “going lean” is able to succeed at it, they must change their culture and way of thinking when it comes to people. The business owner must trust people within the manufacturing plant to solve problems regardless of where the problem came from. The goal here is that businesses must focus on obtaining a critical mass of people who will act, think and believe lean and rely on them to push the business forward.

Solve problems with a TPS perspective. Here are some examples.

  • Keep hitting your numbers is the old way of thinking. The new is to product only items that the customer has ordered.
  • Avoid too many problems with unions or vendors is the old thinking. The new is never to skip past a problem.
  • Make sure there is plenty of work in the backlog you say with lean focus the goal is to work to continually improve the processes.

Do not let people handle problems alone. Do skip over something that can be handled right now. This changes the job of the plant manager significantly.

The bottom line is that before manufacturing industries focus on lean tools in their business, they need to teach their employees the way of seeing the operation through lean eyes. Be respectful of the team. Teach them. Learn from them. Adapt together to approach a lean methodology.

Looking for the best manufacturing staffers? Get the right team members for your manufacturing business growth by working with the staffing experts at Advance Staffing Solutions in Michigan and Ohio.

Are You Taking Unnecessary Risks with Your Supply Chain?

Raza Rauf on August 27, 2012

Risks are a part of managing the supply chain in any business. There are going to be situations where taking risks are a good thing, like launching a new product or replacing one item with another. Yet, in order for a business to maintain success, most of the risk needs to come out of this process. More so, there needs to be steps in place to minimize risk and to realize it is there.

What You Can Do

As a business owner, there are steps you can take to minimize the amount of exposure you have to bad risks. Ultimately, you need a way to measure and control risk in order to run your business successfully.

Visibility

To minimize risk to your supply chain, the first step is to know where your blind spots are. Extended supply chains are constantly growing and changing and this inevitably leads to potential problems associated with areas you cannot see as risky. Improve your ability to handle risk by knowing what risk factors are affecting your business on a regular basis. A good way to do this is to look at events as they are happening rather than just using historical data.

Know and Trust Your Professionals

The next step in minimizing risk is to put trust in your people. You have vetted them. They know their job. Now, it is your job to trust them. Use technology to help enable your team to respond to concerns right away. To mitigate risk, you need to know how well your human assets are able to respond to the situation and handle it. Of course, training and preparation will help here.

Practice

The only way to know the outcome of any what if situation is to practice. If you plan a process to follow for various scenarios that could occur, your people will know how to react and will be able to do so faster. While scenario planning is not a given, it can reduce risk factors significantly.

 Maintain your supply chain with quality staff from Advance Temporary. Get in touch with us today!

How to be an Eco-Conscious Manufacturer

Raza Rauf on August 6, 2012

Investing in a green manufacturing initiative may be at the top of your list of goals for this year. There is no doubt about it, this does offer various benefits. For one, it is great PR in a world where consumers love a company’s efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. It can also save the company millions of dollars over its lifetime in many instances.

Some companies are taking big steps, and making big investments, to be an environmentally conscious company and it is paying off in spades.

What’s Behind the Push?

For many companies, it is all about the demands of the consumer. Companies are making significant changes to their investment plans to fill the demands of the consumer. The consumer is demanding eco-friendly, environmentally-focused products. This is driving manufacturers to invest in newer technology that is more environmentally friendly. The immediate cost is simply worth it in the long-term.

Solar Installation

Diamond Wipes is a good example of this extreme investing for the payout to the company. The company installed a 3360 panel solar system on top of its new manufacturing facility in California. It cost the company $1.6 million to do, which is about 8 percent of their annual earnings. In doing so, the company is creating enough power to fill virtually all of its needs or even to exceed them.

The company’s investment may be a wise one. With 35 to 40 percent of it coming back to them over time through federal and state rebate programs. For the total payback, it could take seven to eight years to realize their investment and break even. Considering this, it could take the company a decade to break even. It may not sound financially wise, but for the company it’s all about good business.

The benefit, the company says, comes from the PR value found in both the consumer and the corporate customers. This particular company is mainly a business-to-business provider, and the green model it is taking will appeal to those companies they operate with over the entire supply chain.

Beyond the Solar Panels

Environmentally friendly initiative extends beyond solar panels. Companies are investing in methods that reduce emissions. Another option is to improve shipping and warehousing to ensure they are efficient. Moving to biodegradable products is also a key benefit some companies are enjoying. Some are also looking to cut packaging costs to reduce waste. Others are demanding greener base products from manufacturers, all with the goal of creating a more eco-conscious end product for the consumer.

The initial investment may not pay off for some time, but for many companies, it is worth it just to do good business. Meeting the consumer’s demands and fulfilling corporate customer’s needs is worth the investment.

Advance Staffing Solutions in the central states of Ohio and Michigan can help your manufacturing program to become more eco-friendly. Find out how temporary staffing can support a more green manufacturing model.

Engage your Front Line Employees to Drive Growth

Raza Rauf on July 26, 2012

In a scenario in which management and front line employees remain distant to each other, there’s an increasing gap present in the ability to drive a business. In short, numerous studies, various research programs, and reports teach that a top-down strategy within the business environment is not a quality substitute for engaging employees and managers who operate the business at the customer-point. If this is the case, why is it still happening so often?

It’s a Tough Road

One of the reasons why so many businesses fail to take on this type of advice, of working in a front-line centered element, is that, for most situations, it is a game of staying at the top. The problem is, in a capitalism drive society, many businesses fail and even those that do not only remain at the top of their game for a short period of time. In a 2006 study conducted by John Stubbart and Michael Knight, the two looked at various firms and their history. The study found that of the six million firms included, only 10 percent were still in existence at their 40th anniversary. That study was done in 2006.

In many cases, businesses miss growth opportunities because they fail to engage the front-line worker and the managers on the scene. In fact, innovation is often unpredictable and based on unplanned connections within a business. In other words, some of the best people for finding these growth opportunities are those who work with customers on a regular basis, not top of the line (and often out of touch) management.

Think Like the Military

The U.S. military is a perfect example. While it may look like a top-down management style, it is just the opposite. Leadership and management within the military is dependent on a bottom-up design – the communication and learning within the troops comes from those men on the front lines, not those sitting in the offices. While the organizational chart displays a very complex method of managing these individuals, it is really the people on the ground that makes the biggest difference in the decision making and running of the organization.

In fact, in today’s military scenario, front line troops are given cyber technology to allow them to remain in constant communication with their leaders. These individuals have access to the top levels within the military. That is something that is not often easy to see within today’s management structure.

What does this mean for a business? It means CEOs need to create more points of interaction with their front-line workers. This type of leadership not only helps to grow a business, but it can also help to sustain it well past that 40-year anniversary so many do not make it to.

To build your team of front line employees, you need pre-screened and quality employees who can get the job done. Advance Staffing Solutions in the Toledo, Ohio and Michigan regions are there to help.

What Workers Want from their Bosses this Summer

Raza Rauf on July 13, 2012

What can employers do to enable employees to be happier on the job? One thing they can do is to realize that summer is not when most workers want to put in long hours. Rather, a study found that in the summer, employees long for long weekends where they can cut out of work early on Fridays and flexible schedules to accommodate mid-week breaks. Is that outrageous? The same study found that employers are happy to offer these benefits.

Controlling the Schedule

There are many benefits to having some control over their schedule, employees note. A survey of 400 employees and more than 500 human resource managers provided the information. In the survey it was found that many employees expect these types of concessions during the warmer months.

  • 41 percent of all workers participating in the study desire flexible schedules during the summer months.
  • 28 percent of those who participated want the ability to leave early on Fridays.
  • Some employees desire company picnics and a more laid-back dress code during the warmer months, too.

It used to be that summer was time to roll up your sleeves and get down to business. It could be the fact that workers are putting in longer hours or it could be that more employers are hoping to accommodate the needs of their employees. In either case, employers are on board with providing such incentives.

Employers Offer Incentives

Employers who responded to the same survey were more than happy to extend some benefits to their employees during the warmer months. About 75 percent of them allowed for flexible schedules, which is the most commonly requested feature from employees. As far as Friday’s go, employers understand this need too. Accordingly, about 63 percent of them will allow employees to leave early on Fridays to get a bigger weekend in.

As for the other requests from employees, employers want to provide help there, too. About 50 said they reduced their dress code requirements and about 25 percent stated that they offered some type of picnic or outing during the summer for employees. About 6 percent stated they offered no benefits for this time of the year.

Should You?

A big question to ask then is should you be offering some type of incentive to your employees? It is a good idea to accommodate the needs of employees when it fits within your schedule and your abilities. However, it is critical to do so properly and that often means that there should be some level of supervision involved. While most will be more committed to their job when you offer incentives like this, there may be the one or two people who take advantage of it. That is why it is important to have monitoring in place.

5 Ways to Make Your Seasonal Hiring More Efficient

Raza Rauf on June 26, 2012

Hiring seasonal employees can be quite the challenge at times. The competition among businesses to attract top talent is fierce and heats up early during peak seasons. But, there are things you can do that will help you be more efficient and effective at finding those talented individuals to add to your roster of seasonal workers.

1)   Start the hiring process earlier than your competitors. This might seem like overkill; but it is the most effective way to ensure that you’re getting the employees that are forward thinking and ready to roll once the season begins. The most important aspect of this is that it doesn’t leave you scrambling to find workers at the last minute.

2)   Hire more workers, initially, than you believe you’ll need. For whatever reasons, most companies lose a lot of seasonal workers throughout the season. Some workers meet their personal goals and no longer need the work, others find permanent positions, and still others find that they really aren’t as suited for the work as they believed they would be. You need to be prepared for this ahead of time and have contingencies in place, such as a workforce that’s sufficient to lose at least two-thirds of its numbers throughout the season or a handy list of backup candidates to call in if needed. Some companies continue hiring throughout the season in order to replenish their numbers as well.

3)   Invite previous employees to come back. In fact, if you’ve had people who have worked well for you in the past you might want to not only invite them to come back but also to ask them for referrals. They know what the job entails and that they’ll be the ones “picking up the slack” if they don’t recommend hard workers. They are often better able to pick out and refer good, solid employees for you than most HR staff members could easily identify from a stack of applications.

4)   Hire your customers. The people who buy your product day after day and year after year are often the people who are best suited to get excited about working for your company—even if it’s in a seasonal capacity. They know your brand. They use your brand. They are in an ideal situation to help promote your brand as well. If you really want to reel them in, consider letting them know about any employee discounts or other perks you have to offer.

5)   Develop a reputation for respecting your employees. There are few things that can go further to help you get good employees, seasonal or otherwise, than developing a reputation that says you show your employees respect. It can overcome many workplace deficiencies such as only offering seasonal work, paying less than some competitors, and even offering fewer employee benefits because it’s become such a rarity in today’s businesses. Be that business and you’ll be much better able to entice talented seasonal workers to your business.

The above ways can make a big difference in your efforts to hire the cream of the crop when it comes to hiring seasonal workers. For even more success with recruiting seasonal temporary workers, Advance Staffing provides many excellent candidates year round.

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