Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce

"That place looks like a prison!" — Comment from a Michigan-based production worker after viewing a plastics company website.

In an Oct. 5 story on PlasticsNews.com, a number of Michigan business owners were interviewed about challenges in attracting production workers and having to compete with Wendy's for talent. In 2013, the Oct. 29 issue of Crain's Chicago Business ran similar-themed article about finding skilled talent challenges. And dozens of other articles addressed the same thing.

Seven years ago: Same complaints and few changes visible. And Wendy's is still looking appealing, like it or not.

As COVID world continues to drive more people to be influenced by website impressions, every move a company makes in marketing their company is magnified. Too many manufacturing company business owners are not listening to the experts, to employees, to their HR departments or to outside staffing firms regarding recruitment strategies. Owners are not investing in upgrading website marketing opportunities to attract the next generation of talent.

With outdated images that overemphasize stark images of shop floor; rows of big, noisy presses; unattractive lighting; employees in uniforms next to stacks of boxes or standing at a machine — all inside windowless metal buildings, with fencing and gates, in some cases. An American flag flies in front of the building, void of signs of human life. No less than 40 candidates in the past five years have said to me, after they reviewed a typical plastics OEM website, "That place looks like a prison!" And they're right.

In an attempt to demonstrate to customers that your company has capacity and equipment to make the stuff, you are also creating disinterest in young workers looking for an engaging, enticing and promising place to work. There is a way for companies to demonstrate both production capabilities, as well as show that they are an employer that invests in and understands the new generation of workers that have to be attracted. Yes, it is true: You are a manufacturer and can't make it appear you are a open-concept campus like Facebook. You can, however, create a more compelling presentation to attract more talent.

So, in the meantime, what can you do to secure better and more talent now? Placing all the blame on the lack of talent due to baby boomers retiring, or young people not being interested in vocational programs, is like blaming the basketball for not going through the hoop: It's the person holding the ball that is the issue.

As a professional deeply involved in the talent acquisition world of manufacturing, I would propose a number of immediate ideas and observations (as shared over the past 10 years) to fix many of the challenges to attract talent. By taking a "right now" approach, there are many ways to overcome the challenges of securing talent in our present economy.

• Overhaul your website. People believe you have a building. Show them what's going on inside the building. That's what people want to know. Create a blend of customer and worker facing homepage.

• Listen to your hiring managers, HR and outside recruiting firms. They are your ears to what candidates in a tight market need to see to be interested in your company.

• Video content is more believable. Reduce paragraphs of text. Create a professionally produced video to run on your site and on YouTube. Tell a story of success and fun. Show employees, create new interviews, add testimonials from your good customers (or call your old customers to be on camera, and they'll want to be new customers again).

• Show faces of workers, not tools. Show people having fun — not bent over a worktable. Show parties in the backyard — not white shirts around a conference table looking "fake interested."

• If you make a lot of parts, prove it. What does a million parts per day look like? Can you create a video, a picture, a story around a million of something to engage the viewer or potential candidate? They want to have fun, not just job security.

• If your people are inventors, have patents or design awards — show them on camera. Let them tell their story.

• Show finished products you helped build — not just the parts you make piled in a big box or in a display case.

• Update your lobby to be hip and inviting to young workers. Older manufacturing building lobbies still smell like cigarettes and are not appealing.

• Remove the sign reading: "Job Applicants, Go to Back Door." Welcome all applicants at the front door instead of having to go to a dented, rusted metal door in back, near the loading dock, to apply for a job. It's depressing and immediately makes a statement of a lower-class job.

• Take down the "NOT HIRING" sign in the front grass. Invite all people to fill out an application. You never know who will find you.

• Paint the front door. Upgrade the company signage to be current, lighted and visible.

• Deliver professional interview training to all your hiring managers in the next 30 days. Less than 80 percent of all managers have ever received this kind of training. The reality is that great talent is walking and driving by all the time, but managers are not trained to spot hidden talent.

• Improve your onboarding and training programs. Managers' default is to hire talent "with experience in the industry" because the training programs are weak or nonexistent. If you have a great product training program, you'll be able to hire stronger intellect in candidates that can learn the processes faster. Product training is the easiest and cheapest to deliver.

• Replace the old lab coats or standard issue shirts with a current style — bright colors that actually fit the employee.

• Don't talk culture — show culture. Saying your culture is about family, then allowing unproductive, troublesome employees continue to work for you is not a good culture.

Today's next generation of workers want to work, are glad to work hard, if they believe their employer understands the importance of a positive work environment, engaging culture and evidence of a path of growth.

Russell Riendeau is senior partner of New Frontier Search Co. and a frequent speaker at plastics industry conferences. Contact him at [email protected].