There’s no question that the manufacturing industry is booming. But the industry finds itself in a challenging spot. Filling open positions and finding qualified employees is tough. According to the U.S. Labor Department, there were a total of 477,000 open jobs as of October of 2019. What does this mean for your manufacturing recruiting strategy?

It means that recruiting manufacturing employees is much more competitive than it used to be. How is your business supposed to compete and attract quality manufacturing candidates? Building a successful manufacturing recruiting strategy starts by getting to know the job seeker’s journey.

The gap in the manufacturing workforce is real. But luckily, you can get a head start on your recruiting. In this post, we’ll walk you through the basics of manufacturing recruiting strategy. You’ll also discover how knowing the job seeker’s process can help your recruiting.

Understanding the Job Seeker’s Journey

Think about the last time you were looking for a job. There was a process that you went through to find your next opportunity. Well, many people looking for manufacturing jobs are going through something similar. By knowing more about their journey, you’ll be able to build a manufacturing recruitment strategy that attracts more qualified candidates.

Step 1: Awareness

This is where it all begins. The candidate becomes aware of your job opening. Why is this important? This step sets the stage for the rest of the journey. For people in the manufacturing industry, this is the stage where they are first starting to think about a career change. Think of it as them dipping their toes in the water.

Coming on too strong or bombarding them with follow ups at this stage can scare them away. Patience is a virtue here. Trying to force someone into moving to the next step often backfires. In the awareness stage, it’s important to have honest information that piques interest. This is your elevator pitch to get candidates thinking about your open position.

Step 2: Consideration

You’ve gotten the candidate’s interest, now it’s time for them to move onto the consideration stage. They’re thinking about applying to your manufacturing job, but still need some convincing. This is where their research comes in. Candidates will go on your company website, look for employee reviews and reach out to current employees for their opinion.

Many companies like to try and get contact information at this stage to follow up with candidates directly. But people who work in the manufacturing industry value their own judgment. Make information available that builds the credibility of your company, instead. Some examples include:

• Having employee testimonials on your website.
• Including a link to any videos about your company’s culture on job postings.
• Engaging with the manufacturing job seeker community on social media.
• Creating resources that provide guidance on how to face some of the challenges of the manufacturing industry, such as work-life balance.
• Making it easy for people to apply for open positions online and provide information about what it’s like working at your company.

Step 3: Application Process

Candidates have seen the open position and liked what they found when researching your company. Now it’s time for them to apply. But how does the application process fit into your manufacturing recruitment strategy? It all comes down to the application experience. There’s a balance between making sure they’re qualified and making the process too long or not engaging.

Many manufacturing companies out there like to include a lengthy personality test in their applications. The goal is to find out if the candidate is a good fit for the company. The problem is that they can take a while.

A good way to make your application process shorter and more engaging is to put in a judgment test. It’s a question that gets the candidate to talk about how they would handle a specific situation at your company. It gives you great insight and the applicant gets a first-hand look at what’s it like to work at your company.

Make Recruiting Manufacturing Employees Easy with Labor Systems

As the number of open manufacturing positions continues to grow, recruiting manufacturing employees will get more competitive. But what if you had a partner that could give you access to a pool of qualified candidates? Labor Systems is a staffing agency that specializes in the manufacturing industry.

We have decades of experience helping companies like yours find the right employees. By learning how to recruit blue collar workers, we gained unique insight into the industry. At Labor Systems, we understand the job seeker journey and know how to attract top talent. Learn more about the value we can provide to your manufacturing recruitment strategy by contacting our team today.