The biggest manufacturing recruitment challenge cited by HR is "finding the right technical skills", but based on why employees fail that may be misguided.
The biggest recruiting challenge for manufacturing companies is finding candidates with the right technical skills, according to the 2014 McQuaig Global Talent Recruitment Survey. That’s not surprising, but those same companies also said that lack of skills are not the problem 47% of the time.
That makes me wonder if manufacturers are focusing their recruiting efforts in the wrong area, or if they’re not supporting those efforts with investments in onboarding and employee development.
At manufacturing companies surveyed, 63% of HR professionals identified “finding the right technical skills” as one of their top three challenges. That’s compared to 41% for all industries globally.
Now, manufacturers are losing more new employees because they lack the skills to do their job (42% of manufacturers said skills were the reason versus 31% for all industries). That can be seen as a good reason for manufacturers to worry about finding the right skills, but 47% of HR professionals at manufacturers said lack of skills was not the reason for losing new hires. That means that, in nearly half of all instances when a new hire doesn’t work out, it’s not because the company misjudged their skills.
Those same HR professionals also told us that finding a cultural fit is hard (53% agreed with this). That could be pointing to a problem understanding how to measure cultural fit and a lack of investment in onboarding.
When we look at where manufacturers told us they’re planning to invest this year, the top three investments were:
The top two will help manufacturers in addressing their challenge of finding the right skills, but if that’s not the reason for their turnover, address the root problem. Investing in onboarding (which was #4 on the list) may be a better place to put their money. Behavioral assessments will help with finding a better fit beyond skills, including a cultural fit.
To see how your company stacks up against other manufacturers, download the complete Manufacturers version of the 2014 McQuaig Global Talent Recruitment Survey.
You can also download the complete, all-industry version of the survey report here.
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