The manufacturing sector is changing fast.

Technology is becoming more important. Automation, machine learning, and IoT are streamlining processes and replacing repetitive work.

Manufacturing workers are in demand more than ever before. The industry expects to add millions of jobs over the next decade. These new jobs will require expertise in areas popularized by corporate digital transformations – data science, analytics, engineering, etc.

Manufacturers often run HR using dated, manual technologies and processes. HR staff handle employee inquiries on an ad-hoc basis, and opportunities for learning and development are minimal.

And their employee experience suffers.

To attract and retain workers, manufacturing organizations must improve employee experience and create rewarding career paths.

Focus on learning and development

As the industry grows and baby boomers retire, manufacturing employees will need more technical skills. Industry growth plus skill gaps will mean millions of unfilled jobs.

Organizations must invest in continual digital learning and development opportunities to keep existing employees and attract new ones.

Employees need defined learning pathways with the chance to grow their skills.

Digitize payroll and time/attendance

A quick way to make employees feel disenfranchised with their position is to make errors with their payroll or time and attendance. If you lack digital tools – which can offer overarching insights regarding time, attendance, and payroll – it’s challenging to improve the process.

It’s also easy for inefficiencies to creep in and impact the experience of individual workers. Workers who frequently face issues with their pay tend to seek employment elsewhere.

Deliver end-to-end experiences for employees

For an employee to remain loyal, they need to feel that their needs are met and understood at every stage of the employment lifecycle. However, without sophisticated digital HR tools in place, it’s easy for HR staff to overlook employees’ concerns. Many HR solutions serve as filing cabinets for record-keeping and don’t provide insights to deliver broader impact.

Your HR software should offer a central view of your manufacturing workers, with support for:

  • Qualifications and certifications
  • Personal data
  • Time off and payroll data
  • Full employee lifecycle process support

The system should help you digitize and simplify your processes to improve efficiency and compliance with relevant laws.

Streamline the onboarding process

First impressions count.

Delivering a positive employee experience doesn’t start when employees have their first day. It’s about everything leading up to that point.

Employees need to hit the ground running when they join a manufacturing company. Manual paperwork and getting onboarded into payroll, scheduling, and rostering systems can be inefficient.

Investing in a digital solution to automate this process can pay dividends in the quality of the onboarding experience.

Improve workplace health and safety

Working in manufacturing can be risky. The manufacturing industry is the third most dangerous in the US for job-related injuries and illnesses.

Even when an organization has workplace health and safety regulations in place, individual workers may not be aware of their responsibilities. Information on the latest applicable laws may not be accessible. In many firms, lodging an injury-related workers’ compensation claim is a complex manual process.

Organizations need digital tools to optimize the employee experience to manage and monitor safety incidents. The workplace culture should encourage employees to report incidents immediately.

Download the White Paper

For a deeper look at how improving the employee experience can help your manufacturing firm, download our white paper:

Empowering and Rewarding Manufacturing Workers to Enable Growth and Stability