Recruiting in manufacturing in 2023

The past few years have been a turbulent time for the talent market. From the Great Resignation to quiet quitting, it feels like there’s a new phrase to describe the latest trend every few months. Yet many news stories tend to focus on the tech industry, which is only one small slice of the working world.

In this new series, we’re doing a deep dive into several industries—financial services, manufacturing, and life sciences—to understand how they’re approaching recruiting in 2023. What sets them apart from other industries? What are some of their specific challenges and opportunities? And how can technology support them as they strive to meet their hiring goals?

For this post on recruiting in manufacturing, we spoke with experienced talent acquisition (TA) pros to identify the top trends and themes in this industry. A big thank you to everyone who participated, including Daniel Pugh (Recruiting & Talent Sourcing Leader @ WestRock), a VP of Talent Acquisition @ a Fortune-500 beverage company, and a Director of Global HR Operations & Talent Management @ a global automotive parts manufacturer. 

Looking for a high-level overview of our findings? Here are some of the key takeaways:

• The manufacturing industry has seen strong job growth over the past few years (due to international supply chain challenges and legislation like the CHIPS Act), but filling all those open roles and dealing with turnover are top challenges for manufacturing employers.

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is a major area for improvement. Women only account for about one third of manufacturing employees; and the proportion of Black, Asian, and Latinx employees is even lower. 

• Many manufacturing companies are increasingly competing with other sectors, including well-known retail, service sector, and technology brands. 

• Digital transformation has altered the type of jobs that are available in manufacturing, but the majority of candidates are not aware of this and still have outdated perceptions of manufacturing jobs.

• While work in manufacturing has traditionally been rigid in regard to work location and hours, employers are looking for ways to innovate and become more flexible to remain competitive.

Ready to dive into our findings and hear what the TA professionals had to say? Keep reading to discover the recruiting challenges, opportunities, and software requirements for manufacturing TA teams.

Recruiting challenges in the manufacturing industry

Manufacturing employers face many challenges when it comes to recruiting, including inflation, a high volume of candidates and requisitions, overcoming negative perceptions of the industry, and an increased focus on DE&I. Let’s take a closer look at each factor. 

Inflation is driving compensation up

One of the biggest challenges for recruiting in manufacturing is inflation: it’s driving up compensation and eating up company profits. Employers are experimenting with a range of tactics—from starting and retention bonuses to shift premiums and part-time hours—to appeal to candidates. Some employers are even considering taking more of a “gig economy” approach to work to remain competitive. 

Speaking of competition, it’s not just other manufacturing companies that employers are competing against. Workers can now consider a range of employers across several industries since wages have gone up across the board. 

Recruiters are typically full-cycle or HR generalists—meaning they’re spread thin

It’s rare for manufacturing organizations to have dedicated sourcers. The majority of their TA staff are full-cycle recruiters or HR generalists who have to do everything. Tasks aren’t broken out by different stages of the funnel and assigned to different people—there’s one talent person who does everything from scheduling interviews to running background checks. And they’re being asked to do all of this for a large volume of both candidates and reqs. In some cases, the HR person is also responsible for safety on site. 

It’s no exaggeration to say that recruiters in manufacturing are overwhelmed and stretched thin. In these cases, it’s easy for recruiters to drop the ball, whether that means not following up with candidates or forgetting whom they’ve already engaged with. There’s very little opportunity for proactive, thoughtful recruiting or building relationships with candidates. 

Talent attraction and perception of the industry

Attracting talent and building a positive employer brand can feel like an uphill battle in the manufacturing industry. It’s not just about overcoming negative perceptions of the industry as a whole—recruiters must also convince candidates that a job in manufacturing is the right fit for them personally. Many job seekers don’t ever consider manufacturing as a career, primarily because they hold an outdated image of the industry. 

There are several hurdles to overcome—especially among younger talent—including the perception that manufacturing work is boring, lacks creativity, and is harmful to the environment. Women also tend to see manufacturing as unappealing since the industry is predominantly male. 

Yet that’s not the whole story. For many Americans, there’s a considerable nostalgia for manufacturing as a profession. In fact, a 2017 study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute found that eight in ten Americans have a high opinion of manufacturing, seeing it as essential to economic prosperity and a high living standard. The same study found that three in four Americans think we should invest more in manufacturing.

One of the major obstacles for recruiters involves reconciling the public’s perceptions of the industry with the current reality. The 2022 edition of the Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute study found that most people don’t understand the current level of technological advancement, benefits, and salary levels offered by manufacturers, which discourages many job seekers from considering careers in manufacturing: “Many Americans are not aware of the increasingly high-tech nature of manufacturing, which is improving employee productivity and providing cutting-edge, transferable skills. This perception gap is likely contributing to the current shortage of applicants.” 

Location doesn’t appeal to workers

Location is another challenge for manufacturing employers. It can be difficult to hire talent—especially younger employees—in rural areas. And even when offering higher pay, many manufacturers are struggling to fill positions that require a daily commute or relocation. 

In response to this situation, some employers are experimenting with new approaches to shifts, such as working 3 days a week with 12-hour shifts or 4 days a week with 10-hour shifts. Some companies are also offering employees opportunities to work from the nearest location to their homes and to take advantage of fluid shift timings. 

Recruiting for both high-volume and niche roles

There’s a huge demand for workers across the manufacturing industry. Job openings are hovering near all-time highs at 800,000 according to Deloitte’s 2023 manufacturing industry outlook. 

Recruiters in manufacturing are often hiring for both high-volume and niche roles, which each require different strategies. The high-volume roles tend to be needed right away and experience higher turnover, while niche roles require more personalization and touchpoints. 

Some of the common roles across manufacturing include:

• Salaried skilled trade: plant/production supervisors, engineering, operations managers, electricians, and controls engineers

• Hourly trade: entry-level roles like product associates, warehouse workers, factory line assembly workers, and floor operators

• Home office/corporate: sales, marketing, ops, finance

• Early in career: college interns and graduates across all departments

With the digital transformation in manufacturing, many employers are now looking for talent with niche skill sets like IT architecture and cybersecurity. And finding candidates with these skills who want to work in manufacturing adds another layer of challenge to recruiting. Recruiters find that these highly-skilled candidates have a strong bias against manufacturing that’s difficult to overcome. 

Diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I)

Like employers across many other industries, manufacturers face increased pressure when it comes to DE&I. The perception of manufacturing as a traditionally white, male-dominated industry is rooted in reality—only 33% of manufacturing roles are held by women and only 27% of women say they feel confident about their career advancement opportunities. And nearly 80% of manufacturing employees are white. 

The population of manufacturing employees is aging quickly, which gives more urgency to the need to diversify the workforce. And with the majority of workers saying a diverse workforce is an important factor when considering a job, this presents a significant challenge to manufacturing employers. How can they attract diverse talent from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds if they haven’t been able to attract these types of candidates in the past? 

To commit to DE&I, manufacturing employers are looking at several aspects of background and identity and considering how they can appeal to other populations, such as people with hearing impairments or workers over age 50. 

Manufacturing recruiting opportunities

While it’s clear that recruiting in the manufacturing industry has its fair share of challenges, there are also plenty of opportunities—including changing brand perception and employer branding, digital transformation, and accessing early-in-career talent. 

Changing brand perception

Manufacturing employers have a real opportunity to tap into people’s sense of pride for homegrown manufacturing. If they’re able to connect this sentiment to a modern employer brand, they’ll be setting themselves up to recruit the diverse talent they need. 

Highlighting cutting-edge technologies and emphasizing values like taking pride in what you produce, supporting local communities, and putting safety first will be key to changing brand perception. There’s also work to be done to educate candidates about the highly-skilled roles. rich opportunities, and benefits that are available in this industry. Manufacturing roles can be compelling and attractive, but many candidates are simply unaware of this. 

To help accelerate this brand perception, manufacturing employers can focus on streamlining the hiring experience so candidates feel they’re being treated with care and respect. They can also invest in employer branding efforts to further amplify their updated employee experience.

Taking advantage of the digital transformation

The majority of manufacturing firms are focused on digital transformation—a process that’s often referred to as “Industry 4.0.” This involves bringing big data, systems integration, and cloud computing into their infrastructure. But digital transformation doesn’t just affect the way these companies operate when it comes to manufacturing—it can also transform the way they approach recruiting. Employers that upgrade their TA tech stack will have a competitive advantage to support this transformation.  

More flexible and attractive working conditions

The high demand for workers is leading manufacturing employers to consider how they can become more attractive—not just in terms of the overall purpose and narrative of the work, but in employees’ day-to-day working conditions. They’re discovering that the traditional rigid approach to working hours is unappealing to younger workers. 

Taking a page from retail employers’ books, manufacturing companies are considering how to take a more flexible approach to shifts, making it easier for workers to choose convenient working hours or swap shifts. Forward-thinking manufacturing employers are experimenting with tactics like retention bonuses, additional pay for picking up shifts, and part-time roles in addition to extended time off and enhanced parental leave. 

Tapping into the possibilities of recruitment marketing

Manufacturing employers have an opportunity to shape the narrative around their career options through recruitment marketing activities. This often involves recruiting events: participating in career fairs and trade shows to get in front of candidates and increase awareness. Other popular recruitment marketing activities involve leveraging local outreach to educate and attract community members. Manufacturing employers are also offering internships, apprenticeships, and tours of facilities to attract young talent. Spending time in the community and participating in or donating to community events is another popular approach. But some employers are also adapting their marketing to the digital age by adding online advertising into the mix. 

Focusing on early-in-career talent

With the traditional manufacturing workforce reaching retirement age, employers have an opportunity to identify and shape early-in-career talent. By offering training and learning to young workers, they can create a pipeline of future talent for their workforce. This can involve forming partnerships with local high schools, trade programs, and community colleges as well as offering internships or apprenticeships. 

While many programs have typically focused on home office roles, employers are also seeing a growing need to develop the pipeline of technical talent. This might involve working with technical schools and universities to fund upskilling programs.  

Recruiting software requirements for manufacturing TA teams

As the manufacturing industry undergoes a digital transformation, manufacturing TA teams feel an increasing need for modern recruiting software that allows them to take a data-driven approach to recruiting, source more efficiently and effectively, and build relationships with candidates.  

Data & metrics/analytics

Within manufacturing, TA teams don’t generally have a dedicated recruiting operations or analytics role, which makes it hard to be data-driven. And without access to basic metrics or passthrough rates, it’s nearly impossible for TA teams to be strategic. Another challenge is that company leadership doesn’t necessarily care about recruiting metrics in the way they might in other industries. Manufacturing recruiters say business leaders’ primary concern is how much money they spend on recruiting agencies and whether a role is filled when it needs to be. They see everything else as unnecessary information. 

TA professionals in manufacturing are looking for better data and sourcing analytics to help them identify which channels work and which positions are harder to fill so they can take actions like allocating ad budget accordingly. They’d like to have access to data that allows them to be more predictive about average time to hire, pipeline health, and sourcing analytics. 

The good news is: the technology is out there to give these teams what they need. Tools like Gem allow recruiters to drill into their different outreach channels to see what’s most effective. 

Sourcing

Just as it’s rare in manufacturing to have dedicated recruiting operations or analytics roles, it’s typically uncommon to have dedicated sourcers. Most TA professionals are expected to do full-cycle recruiting. But some companies are beginning to see the opportunity to develop their sourcing capabilities—this reduces agency spend and is the key to promoting DE&I. Plus, many companies have massive databases of talent they haven’t really tapped into. 

Long-term nurturing with talent candidate relationship management (CRM)

Manufacturing employers are beginning to realize the value of nurturing relationships with candidates over the long term by using a candidate relationship management (CRM) tool that can automate and streamline this type of communication. This approach is especially beneficial with younger talent like high school or college students who may apply for internships but won’t be ready for full-time opportunities for several months or years. It’s also a powerful way to continue to engage with people who’ve applied for roles in the past and may be open to exploring other opportunities in the future. 

Curious to hear what other industries are facing when it comes to TA in 2023? Stay tuned for the next post in our series!