HR Foundrymen Focus on Workforce Recruitment, Retention.

By utilizing group discussions and analysis, this conference provided foundrymen with a forum to develop strategies to combat labor shortages and relations issues.

Often stated as the greatest problem facing metalcasters today, worker attraction and retention has become a focus of every foundry operation. For the 65 foundrymen in attendance at the AFS Labor Relations & Human Resource Conference held January 23-26 in Marco Island, Florida, one of the goals was to gain some insight into possible strategies that could ease this ever-increasing burden.

Through two presentations, foundry human resource personnel were updated on some of the current methods of recruitment and retention methods used throughout manufacturing. During one of the presentations a breakout group session was held in which the attendees brainstormed with their peers about the reasons the foundry industry is in its current labor-shortage predicament and developed strategies to improve their overall human resource programs with a specific emphasis on employee retention.

The conference also hosted discussions on internet and email in the workplace and employee privacy issues. In addition, there was a group breakout session that focused on the current labor relations issues facing the industry as they pertain to both union and union-free plants.

This article will focus on the portions of the conference that discussed the labor shortage issue and provide human resource foundrymen with "food-for-thought" as they tackle their own workforce issues.

Creating the Future

"Eighty percent of what you need to know to make your business successful is outside your field of expertise and your industry as you know it today," said Edward D. Barlow, Jr., Creating the Future, Inc., in his discussion on creating the organization of the future. "You aren't in the foundry industry anymore, you are in an industry creating and supporting people's lifestyle choices, your customers and successful business practices for your customers."

Barlow's goal in his presentation was to make the audience at the conference "think outside the box" in trying to solve the workforce-related problems that face the metalcasting industry. He stressed that good workers leave jobs for the following reasons: limited advancement potential (40% of the time), lack of recognition (25%), low salary/benefits (15%) and unhappiness with management (10%). "It isn't the paycheck that keeps people happy," Barlow said. "There is so much more to employee satisfaction and employers are responsible for it all."

Barlow focused on two specific issues--supervision and benefits.

"When employees can walk out of one job and into a better-paying job the next day, bosses can no longer be authoritarian. They know they should nurture their staff," said Barlow. Supervisors need as much training as employees, he said. "Just because an employee is a good worker doesn't mean he is a good supervisor."

In terms of benefits, according to Barlow, firms are offering everything from pet insurance and onsite clothing alteration and medical and dental care to adoption subsidies, job sharing and cash for a first time home to entice employees. "Everything is on the table in today's hiring world," said Barlow.

Barlow then facilitated the attendees as they broke out into several groups and discussed two issues--global competition and the lack of skilled workers. The goal during these group discussions was to perform an analysis of these problems and provide some strategies for the foundry industry in tackling these issues in the next 5 years.

On the issue of a lack of a skilled workforce for the foundry industry, the definition for the problem ranged from foundries' inability to attract and retain workers as well as their ability to train them. The workforce, according to the groups, is less motivated and inclined to work in a manufacturing environment.

Some of the strategies the groups developed to tackle this worker shortage problem included:

* increasing the assistance with developing an employee's career path through education;

* increasing the promotion of the foundry industry to the local communities with a focus on the technical skills and technology that can be learned by working in foundries;

* developing further in-house training programs to increase the upward mobility of each employee;

* increasing the level of benefits (health, vacation, etc.) being offered;

* increasing the reliance on nontraditional employees such as foreign refugees;

* improving the overall work environment of the plant to make it more employee friendly;

* improving the relationships with local grade, high and trade schools including searching out teaching opportunities;

* developing further technical support programs to train workers on the core skills required to work in a foundry;

* developing a greater advertising and marketing program promoting the benefits of the metalcasting industry;

* determining what the best practices of other manufacturing industries are.

On the issue of global competition, the groups defined it as the casting process competition coming from developing nations whose labor costs and environmental regulatory policies aren't as strict. The strategies the groups developed to counteract this problem included:

* foundries becoming a partner with customers to provide more value-added services that competition can't provide;

* increasing the education effort to young people about the importance of the foundry industry;

* improving the lobbying effort on Capitol Hill to educate government regulators and lawmakers about the importance of the U.S. foundry industry;

* increasing the technology and productivity of U.S. foundries to reduce costs;

* increasing the effort to attract higher skilled workers to improve plant efficiencies and reduce costs.

On both of these issues, the groups understood that it must be a total industry effort to implement these strategies.

Employee Retention

Michael Haid, Development Dimensions International, Inc., spoke about the changing workforce facing all manufacturing firms and provided strategies to improve employee retention. According to Haid, recruiting, retaining and training a new employee costs 1.5-3 times that person's salary, however most firms are not effectively working to retain these employees.

Haid stressed the following retention strategies:

* provide workers with meaningful work that is linked to the organizational strategy and gives the employee ownership and empowerment;

* issue regular forms of recognition and reward;

* practice an effective performance management system;

* provide regular supervisor training and monitoring to ensure their effectiveness;

* ensure a safe and positive employee environment.

Haid also discussed the importance of regular feedback (positive and negative) to employees. However, in this feedback, it is critical to focus on the facts, respect and support others in the organization and clarify the motives behind the feedback. "This feedback helps employees achieve peak results and lets them know the organization respects them," he said.