Workforce News

Lack of flexibility is a top workforce challenge for employees, according to a recent report released by the MI. To address this concern and help employees attract and retain more workers, the MI has been convening manufacturing leaders to discuss flexibility solutions, identify what’s working and share insights. Here are some of the key takeaways.

The shop floor challenge: Flexible work arrangements for shop floor workers are different from those offered to office staff or remote workers, as manufacturers must fulfill in-person production requirements and timelines.

• Companies have gotten creative, testing out different options including compressed work weeks, rotating schedules, flex scheduling, shift swapping and phased retirements.

A data-driven approach: Participants in the MI’s working group conducted surveys to gauge the types of flexibility their employees wanted. Companies then assessed production needs before determining what flexibility options they would test, sometimes with the help of a consultant.

• One company collected data on recruitment and retention as part of their pilot to help evaluate its effectiveness.
• Other companies utilized employee engagement surveys to assess the success of their pilots.

Support system: Companies in the working group talked about the importance of creating support structures for flexibility plans.

• For example, one company hired a training and scheduling coordinator to manage their new systems. Others employed technology platforms to organize shifts.
• Supervisors also needed to be trained to handle new systems and manage flexibility requests while meeting production demands, the participants noted.

Stay tuned: The MI is planning to release a white paper based on the working group discussions in the fall.