What’s behind today’s workforce challenges in the manufacturing sector? Many things contribute. The skills gap. The aging workforce. Fewer people entering the trades. And it’s not changing anytime soon. Attracting and retaining talent is one of the top workforce challenges according to a February 2021 Survey “The ‘New Normal’ and Post-Pandemic Workforce Challenges” by The Manufacturing Institute’s Center for Manufacturing Research and BKD. The survey found that more than 77% of small and medium-sized [manufacturing] firms expect to continue struggling to identify talent in 2021 and beyond.
How can manufacturers eliminate common workforce shortage challenges that otherwise impact quality, productivity, and the ability to meet client deadlines? Temporary light industrial or manufacturing staffing from Tradesmen International.
We have been recruiting and retaining industrial trades – from machine operators to maintenance mechanics for nearly 30 years. The size and scope of our workforce database helps mitigate labor shortage challenges for our clients. This means access to all trades, at all skill levels, on a precisely as needed basis. We can fill the need for skilled workers such as electricians, millwrights, welders and press brake operators and other machinists. Although unskilled labor is not our focus, we do provide our manufacturing clients full talent support by regularly providing warehousing, forklift, general maintenance, and assembly workers as needed. Whether “skilled” or “unskilled” these are all workers who have been through a stringent vetting process, are reliable and put a great emphasis on safety.
How Does Tradesmen Stay Ahead of the Labor Shortage?
Other industrial staffing resources rely only on local, skilled workers. In contrast, at Tradesmen International we also source skilled workers through our regional employee databases and mobilize specific trades with talent beyond what is available locally, depending on project size, labor needs and deadlines. And we can do this cost effectively.
We employ nearly 200 full-time, local recruiters who vet, onboard and retain our skilled workforce. They are supported by our national recruiting center, a centralized team of recruitment managers as well as trade-specific and specialized recruiters who support local orders from one to dozens. When you need short-term manufacturing trades or temporary industrial workers, we’re here to support the needs of both plant operations and human resources.
Plant Operations Productivity & Profitability
When plant managers fill positions, not only do they need to find dependable skilled labor, but they also need to increase workforce productivity and project profitability. A particularly effective way to do this, especially in light of the labor shortage, is by running a leaner full-time workforce. As workload is projected to exceed what the lean full-time workforce can handle, the solution is to flex in contract labor. By working closely with Tradesmen, determining labor need in advance of actual start date, manufacturers successfully “flex in” and “flex out” contract workers to sustain a balanced work-to-worker ratio.
Using variable or temporary manufacturing workers can also help to minimize overtime expenditures. Many of our clients add a provisional second or third shift comprised of proven contract workers to meet elevated project workloads and demanding deadlines.
Look to Tradesmen for support related to manufacturing trade staffing, plant shutdown staffing, plant turnaround workers, short-term manufacturing workers, planned outages, preventive maintenance programs and other time-sensitive initiatives – really for anything that requires high-end industrial trade staffing expertise. We can send full crews or individuals to support your plant operations, precisely as needed.
Supporting the Human Resources Team
Human Resources professionals in the manufacturing sector are no doubt challenged by filling manufacturing labor positions thanks to the on-going labor shortage. Tradesmen acts as an extension of internal recruiting resources to help you meet workforce requests from plant operations with reliable, job-ready trades. This also helps you to save time and minimize paperwork.
Additionally, a local industrial service professional is assigned to your account and will work in tandem with you to understand your business and how you need to be serviced. You’ll also have the ability to place an order for labor at any time, 24/7. We endeavor to make the process easy and deliver complete satisfaction with every contingent employee mobilized to your facility.
Strategic Manufacturing Staffing Solutions
It’s interesting to note that at the request of many clients, we attend their labor planning sessions. We’re happy to be a part of both short-term and long-term labor needs planning so we can deliver workers with the specific skill sets and certifications you require.
While the labor we send may be considered temporary industrial trades to you, they are full-time Tradesmen International employees. We provide them with stable work, project diversity, strong benefits opportunities and more. As a result, our employee retention percentage is strong and enables us to more readily deliver skilled, safety-minded, reliable and productive contract employees.
In addition to benefits, Tradesmen handles payroll, unemployment and workers’ compensation costs for our employees. This enables manufacturers to consistently realize overall labor cost reductions above 10%, using our manufacturing staffing and light industrial staffing strategies.
Let us know if you have a need for reliable and skilled manufacturing trades. Or to learn more, contact your local office.