The Biggest Challenges to Finding Workers for Manufacturing Jobs

June 14, 2021 (Flag Day in the United States)

Good morning! A pair of Cardinals is nesting in the bushes just outside our front door. The little ones are about half grown; they appear to be ceaselessly hungry.

• “Life can only be understood looking backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”  (Kierkegaard)
• A client has a healthy, towering, ramrod-straight 70-foot Red Oak in his front yard.
  • His business is 100-years-old; the Oak is very likely at least twice that age.
  • I marvel at the oak — and at the entrepreneur’s four generation persistence and perseverance.
• Lots and lots of fresh water is what the world needs more of each day — and has less of.
• In The (Washington) Heights:  Go see this movie.  Splendid entertainment!
  • With a kiss of whimsy and nearly the energy of Hamilton it’s maybe a combination of Rent without the Sadness, Westside Story without the tragedy, and Grease without the raunchiness.
• This is counterintuitive:  Deaths from the COVIDs plague in 2021 have already surpassed the total deaths in all of 2020.  (Johns Hopkins)
• The United States and Europe had been leading this race, but now the epicenter seems to have shifted to the continent of South America.
  • Total verified deaths worldwide since the plague began are approaching 4,000,000 but could easily be twice that number due to lots of flawed record keeping.

The Biggest Challenges to Finding Workers for Manufacturing Jobs

• Our friends at Vye recently published research related to regional branding and the search for qualified workers in the manufacturing sector.
  • As reported by employers, the biggest challenges related to finding workers for traditional manufacturing jobs:
    1. The candidate pool is small in our region (47%);
    2. We can’t find qualified candidates for the jobs we have open (45%);
    3. Qualified candidates don’t want to leave their current employer (32%);
    4. Candidates don’t know about us (26%)
    5. Our compensation isn’t competitive with other employers (11%)
  • Vye suggests drawing talent from outside the region; i.e., beyond Central Minnesota, will require addressing a number of issues.  It further suggests a cross-sector collaborative effort among organizations would produce greater results than going it alone. (Richards)
    • Here are a few essential considerations:
      1. Child care options
      2. Appealing to the next generation of workers (by asking what THEY want/ need — YT)
      3. Correcting misperceptions about your industry
      4. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — (where are you at, for real — and be honest — YT)
      5. Intrinsic satisfaction with the work
  • You can explore more on this important topic by researching Clare Richards:  Clare at Vye
• “A leader’s job is to look into the future and see the organization not as it is, but as it should be.”  (Welch)