Streamlining Your Manufacturing Hiring Processes

Guest post by Social Media Strategist Robbi Hess

Owning and operating a manufacturing firm means there will be many times when you are in the market for new employees. What can you do to make certain you’re getting the “best” employee for the plant?

Here are five tips to keep in mind when your company is hiring new employees:

1. Make certain the job is clearly defined. Don’t advertise for a “widget maker” when you really need a “line foreman for widget production.” Clearly defining the job and its inherent duties will draw in the employees that can perform the tasks.
2. Determine where you will do your recruiting. Where will you have the best luck with finding the employees to fill the position you have open? Social media? High school or college recruiting fairs? Do you ask internally whether any of your current (good) employees know of anyone with the skills necessary to fill the job you have available?
3. Have your hiring processes systematized. This will make it a simpler process for finding employees. If you know that you need ABC credential for a particular job then you should always be searching for that particular credential. Consider formulating a pre-screening interview plan; talk with potential candidates on the telephone as a way to save time during face-to-face interviews and to potentially weed out candidates that will not be a good fit. Make a checklist of questions you will ask all potential employees; write down the answers given so you can compare the interviewees once the face-to-face interviews have been complete.
4. Take the time to review and check a potential employees’ references and run a background check if necessary. There are some individuals that can “talk their way” into a job but once they make it to the manufacturing floor, you will find they don’t know a widget from a waffle! 
5. Clearly define the probation period on the job. If both you and the new employee have benchmarks that must be met within certain monthly parameters, it is a way for the two of you to come back together and determine whether the benchmarks are being met an whether the job is a good fit for the two of you. 

What measures do you have in place for hiring at your manufacturing operation?