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How to Reduce Workforce Turnover in Manufacturing?

Aug 12, 2022

Manufacturing organizations are working hard to reduce employee turnover in light of the current labor shortages and skill gaps. When employees leave and temporary workers don't return, it is expensive and may harm productivity, customer happiness, and overall company morale.


According to a survey from a top provider of industrial training solutions, voluntary employee turnover costs firms millions of dollars annually. The first step in developing a long-term and productive workforce is understanding the causes and costs of employee turnover.

 

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Workforce turnover in manufacturing


What Is The Turnover Rate?

A company's manufacturing turnover rate may be calculated by taking the total number of employees who left the company within a given period. A company's labor force experiences an annual average turnover rate of roughly 18 percent, making it difficult and expensive to hire new employees. Firms must know their employee turnover in manufacturing industry to design retention tactics that save them money in the long run. The following types of employee turnover are included in this calculation:

  • Separation voluntarily (Retirements, Resignations)

  • Involuntary Dislocations (Performance dismissals, Downsizing, Layoffs)

  • Transfers Internal

 

How to Reduce Employee Turnover

Prioritize the methods that directly address the root causes of high turnovers, such as those listed above. These are the approaches:

 

1. Give incentives

Incentive programs can help you achieve your company's goals while making employees feel heard and appreciated. There should be rewards commensurate with the amount of effort required to acquire them. Doing more than the bare minimum should be rewarded more strongly than achieving a problematic goal like exceeding the weekly output target.


As a reward, an employee may be placed on a company scoreboard, receive a one-time bonus or enjoy other privileges that would inspire them to work more. An incentive should be clearly stated in terms of how it will be earned and when it will be granted.


There is no need to discover the perfect reward as long as you're committed to recognizing excellent performance.


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Flexible working


2. Offer flexible hours

Flexible working arrangements can be achieved in the following ways:

  • Employees should be able to swap the tasks of starting and cleaning up the workday. The shifts can be created and stopped at different times if necessary.

  • Encourage staff to manage shift swaps, including any paperwork and clearances that may be needed.

  • As a result of split shifts, employees might take a break between their shifts to deal with personal issues.

 

3. Find out why people leave their jobs

First, it's a good idea to invest some time and money in figuring out why these people are leaving the manufacturing company in the first place. Exit interviews with departing employees should be conducted to understand their reasons for leaving the organization.


To better understand what employees enjoy and dislike about their positions and the organization, human resources and administrators should speak with employees frequently. This may not be easy at first, but it will show your employees that you care about them and value their opinions and voices. This is a positive impression to make.

 

4. Set up an efficient employee training program

Many factors influence the performance of an industrial business, but production workers are the most important. A lack of sufficient training and certification will lead to poor performance and low productivity in the industrial area. Employee morale and motivation will eventually suffer as a result of this.


Good training programs for manufacturing workers should be a priority for any company looking to boost its workforce's technical proficiency and ability to interact with others and grow as a human being. Employees, supervisors, and managers benefit from a well-run mentorship program that fosters a sense of trust and cooperation. Loyalty is a result of faith and camaraderie.

 

5. Construct an on-demand workforce

With an on-demand workforce, you may reduce over time and develop reserves for your workers at the same time. Reducing your reliance on full-time staff by utilizing on-demand labor as part of your operational plan (FTEs). Because demand is expected to be high, you should only employ the number of full-time employees (FTEs) necessary to fulfill that need and then use on-demand labor to handle any additional demand.


To put it another way, you can no longer require your staff to work overtime. Your on-demand labor pool would be able to provide you with more resources when you need them. To fill a vacancy, you might publish the job opportunity to your labor pool, where workers compete for the job. They're gone as soon as they're done until the next opportunity presents itself. Repeat this approach and add more on-demand workers to your facility to establish a network of familiar operators that don't need to be trained and can operate just when required.

 

As a result, you and your current staff will benefit. Because of callouts and turnover, you don't have to worry as much about overworking your employees or missing orders.

 

6. Use of ESL

Adding electronic shelf labels takes advantage of existing assumptions about technology to lessen the effort of staff and improve work efficiency. For example:

 

DZ026

An ultra-thin ESL, the DZ026, at 2.6 inches, may fully suit the requirements of a tiny installation. It's also possible to make price changes remotely using our ESL solution, which is implemented using the ESL Cloud Platform and CloudTag APP. It also uses a 2.5D screen protector glass, giving customers a more transparent display effect.

 

DZ026 showcase video


The Bottom Line

Workers in the manufacturing industry play a critical role in their success. Because of this, there is a high level of complexity in the work environment, process flow, and other elements that harm employee morale and productivity. This can lead to high manufacturing industry turnover rate, damaging the bottom line due to increased costs, poorer productivity, and a decrease in overall business performance.