The Key Elements of Workforce Recruitment Messaging

Your industrial workforce recruitment messaging is actually pretty simple: Tell people why they should want to work at your company, and tell them why people stay. The hard part is ensuring your company can articulate its purpose and has an “employer of choice” culture.

Here are the great articles mentioned in the podcast:

What those new hires who don’t work out running from

What it means to be an employer of choice

Why you should rethink your old hiring rules

Transcript

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Joey Strawn: 0:00

Welcome back, everybody to another episode of the industrial Marketer Podcast, your place for the tips, tech trends and tactics for industrials who care about driving leads and revenue to their businesses. I am one of your hosts, your April Joey's and as always, I am joined by summertime Nels, how are you my man?

Nels Jensen: 0:22

I'm doing very well. Thank you, Joey.

Joey Strawn: 0:24

I, I'm excited because we you know, we just finished our whole quarter and our whole series on the technology and the new technology in 2023, about digital marketing and the technology that people can use and utilize to make their systems better and their processes better. But this quarter, we are diving into some topics that have really been a thorn in the side of industrials for a while so we're going to talk about some legacy issues that honestly, the world of the industrial marketer may need a little tough love about. So this is it, we're gonna dive in this is going to be some topics that people want to hear if you're running a marketing channel, or you're the owner of a business, and you have problems with workforce, or knowing where the markets going, or how to get your message across. These are episodes for you. So sit down, listen, as we dive in, and really dig into some of these topics that, quite frankly, we just need to be honest with ourselves about as industrial marketers. So now, I'm actually I'm going to put you on a little bit of a pedestal this time, because our first topic is one that is near and dear to your heart. And honestly one that you've written about a substantial amount. So Nelson, what is our topic for this episode? And why are we diving into this tough love topic?

Nels Jensen: 1:43

Well, we're talking about the tough love of workforce messaging, I

Joey Strawn: 1:50

Recruitment, ugh Nels.

Nels Jensen: 1:53

Recruitment and workforce and retention and the whole spectrum of workplace workforce. And you know, when we say tough love, it's like, what we mean and relates, relation to marketing is what's the cliche, you know, you're asking me to put lipstick on a pig, right. And in some cases, when we what we mean by tough love is if, if you're going through your reality, in your, you know, industrial company, and you come up with something that it's like, you know, you're asking me to basically make make something out of not much, you know, we our reality doesn't is not reflected in this marketing, then it's time to, you know, share the tough love with others and say, hey, it would be great if we could say this about topic A or B or C, how do we get there, because oftentimes, messaging just reveals other issues within your company.

Joey Strawn: 2:51

It does. And that's a fantastic point, Nelson, one of the reasons that we wanted to do this on the industrial Marketer Podcast is no matter where you are, on our listener spectrum, whether you're in in the trenches, marketing guy, whether you're managing a marketing team, for your b2b industrial, or if you're like the head of the spear, and you're really trying to figure out a way to grow your company and your revenue and your bottom line, this issue of workforce and recruitment is something that everybody for decades has struggled with in the industrial sectors, because as the marketing person, you're gonna get tested, hey, find me these jobs, put this out on the internet and use money to put in job listings or paid ads to find me jobs, and then you're gonna be responsible for that, you know, so everywhere on the spectrum, this is something important. So, and yes, just a lot of stuff that we know is is an issue. I mean, now. So you had a way of synthesizing this?

Nels Jensen: 3:44

Yeah, yeah, we're, we're gonna we're gonna basically talk about some, we'll touch base on some of the issues that have been with the manufacturing sector for a long time. But in many ways, the changes that we've seen in the past five years have really helped crystallize your messaging, and your messaging really is quite simple for workforce, what is your purpose? And what is your culture? What is the purpose? Why, you know, young people want to make a difference in the world? Why should they come to your place? And how are they going to make a difference? The culture Well, why do people stay nothing speaks to your actual workplace culture, more than retention. And if you can capture why people stay at your firm, why they stay on the floor at your facility for so long, then then that will be successful in your messaging. Why do people want to why should they want to come in? Why should they want to stay?

Joey Strawn: 4:36

And I love when when we were talking about this episode, and you synthesized it that way it really made me one it makes me happy that we can talk about it in a clear and straightforward way. But this is a problem that has been in existence for decades. It's not a new thing. It's not something that the internet created that the like, Oh no Now the internet exists and no one wants, you know, a manufacturing job it this is something that's been around for a while, so really trying to figure out what the heart of the issue could be outside of just oh my goodness, we don't have as much of a marketing digital marketing budget as company XYZ competitor, that's not really where we need to start with this, we really need to understand, for for decades, there has been a misunderstanding about the, the work of the industrial, you know, within the industrial sector, I mean, now, so you were telling me about the three Ds and this has been around for a while.

Nels Jensen: 5:31

Yeah. And so, you know, this, this evolved, because it was true that a large, a very large portion of manufacturing and industrial jobs were considered to be, you know, dirty, or dangerous or drudgery, right? If they're, yeah, you're you're on your feet, you're in a in a dusty, put sometimes dingy facility, it might be dangerous in terms of some of the functions and some of the things on the periphery of your job, you know, and, and that that world is still exists. In some cases, in most cases, it's been addressed. To some extent, there's tons more safety features in a manufacturing plant, they're usually when you walk through, you'd be surprised how clean they are. And automation has taken care of a lot of the drudgery things, but it's still different, you're still on your feet, you're still working off in a loud environment, there's still it's not an office job by any stretch. So there still are some, there are still some remnants of that, that, you know, you're dealing with from a stereotypical perspective.

Joey Strawn: 6:37

I'm glad you said that word stereotype, it's while it exists, it's more of the negative stereotype that has taken hold as a truth. And that's really not reality anymore. Because as you've seen, and as we've seen, factory tours, like the safety standards are exponentially better than they were even 10 years ago, that, you know, the monotony. And the drudgery has been handled by additional systems that now require oversight and management, which is more of a technical job or a, you know, a high computing job. So there's a lot of those opportunities that are there. But I mean, one of the things is this is a lasting issue, because even last year, I think it was the US Chamber of Commerce was saying that, even as of July of last year, 45% of manufacturing job openings remained vacant, remained open. So it's like, that's a large number, there is a there is a definite need still currently to this day, to find people for these jobs to find skilled labor for these jobs, because it exists and these communities need it.

Nels Jensen: 7:45

Sure. And I, you know, we can, let's touch base on a couple more of the issues of why that's still just in part, yeah, manufacturers have not done a good job of telling their own stories, you know, most of us can think geographically, somewhere, maybe where we grew up, maybe where we live, you drive by the big plant just outside of town, and you know, oh, well, they have something to do with energy and batteries, but you have no idea who their market is or what you know, and yet, you've been driving by there for 10 years, right? So, you know, shame on that company for not doing a better job of telling even its local marketplace, what they do and why you might want to go work there. So there's also just the old the old fashion legacy issues, that it's not unique to manufacturing, it's in the insurance business, it's been in the accounting business, it's where it's just, you know, you just sort of bring people on board and just sort of assume they're going to learn the tricks of the trade. And, yeah, just operate this machine for a couple of weeks, and you'll get the hang of it, and you'll be fine. You know, it's, you know, if the if the pandemic in the post, I'm going to call it post pandemic, though, I don't know, we could argue about whether it's gone or not, whatever, but the sort of the post shutdown world, you know, people have different expectations. And they have lower, I'm going to just say tolerance levels, you know, there's, you know, people in the, in the manufacturing world talk about, you know, it's, there's, there's not quite the same stick to just get through it, figure it out, you know, it's just, it's just a different entryway into the workforce. And I think that's hurt, that's changed a lot of jobs, a lot of retail jobs, a lot of entertainment, jobs like that. But yes, you just can't assume anymore that people are going to, you know, tolerate the first couple of weeks of a job while they figure out if it's the right fit or not.

Joey Strawn: 9:41

I'm happy. Again, you said a word that I'm happy you did, because I think one this issue in, in its whole is a lot about false assumption, like the company itself has a false assumption that hey, people are just gonna come in and have to have this job and they're gonna stick around and just figure it out and I Don't have to train them. But on the flip side, the communities just have an assumption of, hey, there's that big bland beige building that I know the big blue sign. And I don't know what happens there, I don't know that that is a job of, you know, a technical prowess job or, or a people focused job could be available to me there, because that's not being told. So there's a lot of hurt being happening in that realm of just false assumption. And one of the things that you mentioned that I want to layer on is because this is something that I think the world of digital media has layered on is, it's really put a lot more of the power into the hand of the applicant. So in the past, you know, there's a job fair you go people need the job, they need the money, they get it. But nowadays, people can check online and see testimonials about other people who have worked there, they can do research on the company, they can look at their financials, and see what trajectory that company is on, or if any of their CEOs have, you know, made big public snack foods or whatever it is. So there's a lot more power that the applicant has to know, quickly, more about, you know, making the table more even if you will, upon entry. Correct. That's something what is the world of AI, the internet is just thrown into the mix.

Nels Jensen: 11:16

Right? What is the employer done to see? You know, that good content right there? Yeah, you made you made the point that we can all go online and research anything, right. So yeah, if somebody is gonna, what is your online? What is your digital footprint look like when people are checking out your jobs? Yeah, when they're checking out, not just the obviously, the wording of a job posting makes a big difference. People have figured that out over the years that you need to make it attractive and things like that. But, you know, the, it's this is not also, what I'm what we're going to talk about next here is just sort of the whole process, right, you've talked about the process of finding a job is different. So is the process of accepting a job and onboarding a job. And it's not unique to manufacturing, but manufacturers have been slow to evolve, in some cases, you know, with the digital world. And here's a great example, in talking with these experts that I have, especially with the manufacturing, extension, partnership, you know, the the onboarding is proving to be a much, you know, you talked about we talked about drop off points in the funnel, you know, of prospects, whenever the the early hires, there is a very quick decision points that new employees have you talked about there, you know, the prospect is in charge in this in terms of what job they take whatever, there are other jobs out there for them, if they don't like this one, there's a term for people, all manufacturers nowadays, have experienced this, somebody shows up for the first day of work. And at some point, they just don't come back. It's they don't come back from the first break. They don't come back from the first lunch hour, they don't come back after the first day. They're referred to in the manufacturing world as runners.

Joey Strawn: 13:07

Yeah, you would told me that when we were putting this episode together, and you shared an article that we can link it in the article, or post about this, but it's so funny, I had friends in college who did this, you're like, Yeah, went to work at a big box store. And by lunchtime, I was out of there. And you're like, Yeah, on the factory floor are doing

Nels Jensen: 13:25

that same thing. I like what was so the but the reality is, again, this is not unique to manufacturing. Right? It's, you know, if your first instinct is how did we think they would be, you know, a good worker? And then where did we fall down in matching that somehow this was a good fit. But the reality is, if you've had any runners in your workplace, maybe the question is not about them. Maybe the question is, what are they running from? You know, what is it about your process that leads to this and so it's, you know, it's not as simple as go to HR sign some paperwork, and go out to machine where somebody's going to show you how the machine works, right. So I think, you know, and we're a little bit getting

Joey Strawn: 14:17

I was gonna say, that's a perfect segue into what I want to talk about next. Now, it's because we've talked about, you know, we know this is an issue everyone's listening is like, Yes, this is an issue. How do I fix this? And so we actually want to dive into three topics like so. Okay, if we're gonna address this, what do we really need to know? Like, let's figure out one, who do we need to hire and where they are. So finding our audience of potential hires, you can't hire everybody, nine year olds exists. So you know, you can't hire those for your factory floor. So we're gonna find the right people. And then the second part is that second question now, so you talked about is how do you build that culture where it's actually somewhere that they want to work and it doesn't mean you have to have like nap pods everywhere, but what does it actually mean to build a culture To make people want to stay at your job. And then finally, if you have those pieces, how do you actually communicate that out and tell those truths to the people that need to hear them. So we that's what we're going to talk about now. And now it's I'm, again, I, again, I'm going to kind of lean on your expertise, you've done a lot of writing a lot of research, and you've lived in this realm for a while. So when we're looking at our audience, I mean, there are things that we've been trying for years, like everyone's like, we need to expand from our local geographies, we need to find veterans and we need to put stuff on job boards, like, there's a lot of stuff that does work that people have tried, but what does it really mean when a company is looking for their audience to know who to hire?

Nels Jensen: 15:39

Yeah, and, and so, yeah, I'm just going to touch on veterans real quickly, just to illustrate one of the challenges that everybody has been working with the veteran, the people who are, you know, coming out of the military transitioning out of the military, as they have a lot of awesome experience, and they make great employees, you know, but they don't have specific related experience to yours. So there, it's the dilemma of, do you pay them based on their overall experience, in which case they might have, you know, match, they will not match the pay of what you're gonna get somebody who has, say, five years into the business. So it's, it's just sort of what are you actually paying for specific experience, or overall work ethic and preparedness? So that, you know, that's one of those things where there's frequently is a mismatch? Like, well, they don't have three years of experience with x or y. And then it's like, so why should I pay them for that experience? You're paying them for different kinds of experience? But yes, but the point is, look outside your normal world, if you think about, you know, and this is this has already been taking place, we don't want people to think, oh, Joey Niles just discovered they have to look at new places, you know, we get it. Right. It's, but if you're looking for certain I would, I would say that the job boards, the traditional things you've used can still work, right? The challenge is expanding into new areas. So one of the things that you and I have talked about before, too, is the technology match. Right? So what is it? What is it that you need in your shop? And in many cases, it's going to be software engineering, in some cases, it's going to be processed engineering. And you know, all right, so where where do those skills exist? And so yes, you might be talking about, maybe you used to be able to just recruit at the big university nearby that had an engineering program. Now, maybe you need to reach out and, you know, use different social channels and look at some more specialty secondary education or trade school or, you know, there's lots of skills out there that don't come out of big school engineering department. Right? Well, and

Joey Strawn: 17:52

what I'll add on to this is i There's, there's a very clear delineation, very clear line here between something we've talked about in the past, which is marketing personas, is to understand the types of jobs and roles that you need to fill. And then where those specific hiring universes are going to be. So you know, to your point, as if you're hiring a software engineer, or a data analyst, that might be a better search on something like an indeed, or a LinkedIn. But if you're searching for, you know, machinists or engineers, that may be more local unions, local groups, community colleges, specific niche job boards, which you can find online, their engineering only job boards, and you can find those. So coming up with an idea of the types of people and the types of hires and capabilities you need is going to be really important. One of the things that I'll even throw in here is their specific technology. And there's, there's a big brand around it, but it's essentially called matching technology. And there's a lot of ATS or applicant tracking systems that will do this. But essentially, what it is, is you put in multiple parameters, and then quizzes and assessments. And the system will use AI and matching technology to go through and match people who have the skill sets to their actual job. So you know, it's very common for people to lie and say, Oh, I have a lot of experience with Excel, and on my resume, but then if you give them an assessment through a matching technology, you can find that that skill is actually accessible to the talent that you need saving time and money. So I mean, it's studies have done like, I think the Harvard Business Review did a study where people who are well matched with their capabilities to their jobs are 2.5 times more productive. Those types of little improvements of making sure that the people you're going after actually match the job role they're going to do, can really down the line, help strengthen this team and lengthen the tail of your search efforts. So that's one thing that I want to make sure of is in today's world with the data We have one benefit is being able to really focus on the job capabilities and the experience in general that you need.

Nels Jensen: 20:09

And and there is a cool way to do that technology match through gamification, right? It's not, it's not take our assessment to see if you're right. It's, Hey, see if you can build this thing and whatever, and

Joey Strawn: 20:26

do this and send it back. Yeah, there are a lot of tools like jazz HR, I know is a is an ATS that does manage his handful of these. There are recruitment ones that are that are larger, that but again, every industry in every segment has these types of HR applicant matching technology systems. And if you if you don't, you know, just reach out to a marketing agency or, you know, shoot us an email, and we can recommend a couple. But yeah, she doesn't email at an email at industrial marketer.com. But yes, so that's, that's going to be once you know, your audience, you need to get them that message. Now. Now, you mentioned this early on, I want to take a minute here, and let's talk about actually building a culture that makes people want to stay now everybody knows, every company in the world is the best company that's ever been in the world. And no one has any problems with any company ever. But hypothetically, if a company had some issues, or company culture issues they needed to address, what would that look like? And what benefits would they have from addressing some of those health?

Nels Jensen: 21:29

Yeah, so you know, people want to have a say in their job, and they want to be respected. Right? So it's, there has to be some active listening going on in this workplace culture, if you want to be an employer of choice, right. And there's ways to there's, there's ways to have you know, your frontline managers are driving sort of the continued learning and the process improvements, people feel like, hey, if here's here might be a better way to do things. So right, the people who are heard on those kinds of issues, it's like, Yes, this is quality control. Yes, we should look at doing this. So there's even you know, the retention, you know, programs, if you will,

Joey Strawn: 22:13

right, well, being consistent. So you have robust follow about your onboarding, like you were mentioning earlier, is not just assuming that onboarding is going to happen. But one element of the culture is really focusing on those programs in those first few hours that introduce people to the realm that they're walking into.

Nels Jensen: 22:32

Yes, if you have, you ought to be able to your messaging ought to be able to tell people that, hey, we have a very purposeful retention plan. Right? Yeah, we have a plan for your first day, we have a plan for your first week, we have a plan for your first 90 days. Okay, so if you don't, right, you can't say that. Right? You talk a lot about the transparency and truth in advertising. But yes, if a good retention program, that's kind of thing, where you might, you know, kind of go back to somebody and say, hey, you know, how can we improve our first 90 days, you know, maybe there's a retention bonus, you know, you see lots of advertisements for Hey, come work for us, you know, sign on bonus up to whatever, you know, if you're smart, you're not giving everybody the whole sign on bonus for the first day, you're splitting it over, hey, here's, here's some now here's some in a month, and here's some in 90 days, or even the the bonus for referrals, it's like, hey, if everybody is incentivized to make their, you know, help their friends stick around, then yeah, then maybe they get a bonus when you show up, but they also get a bonus when you reach 90 days. So there's, there's definitely, you know, elements of your workplace culture and your workforce culture

Joey Strawn: 23:47

that will pay off in the long run. And we'll go through some examples later kind of in our on the shop floor segment about people who have done different things about this, but really thinking creatively about what it takes to get the job done at your business is our is it you know, the shift hours and people's availability on floor that can be fluctuated? You know, now, so you mentioned a lot of, you mentioned a lot of financial benefits. But we mentioned gamification earlier in this episode, if you look outside of finance are things you know, you've got emotional security or security rewards, you've got you know, prestige, awards and access so you could give people access to, you know, company resources, or you know, things that they would make their lives or jobs easier or better and really thinking about what it is like on on the brake side or on the timing side or on the, you know, family security side that you can make changes around, you know, it's like, hey, everyone who hires is guaranteed a job for two years outside of these criminal activities or whatever it is.

Nels Jensen: 24:50

Yeah, maybe that one but the

Joey Strawn: 24:53

moon and back, but you know what I mean? It's like, be creative. Think about what you could do and still get the job done. And because the truth is, and whatever, you look for research a lot, and a majority of turnover is due to just bad hiring decisions, hiring because people getting hired because they need a job and not right for it or people being pursued and hired for the wrong intentions and the wrong seats. So, you know, making sure that you're not only knowing who you're going after, but that you're putting them into a culture and a seat that's going to be comfortable for them and actually allows them to be successful. Because yeah, that's ultimately what the culture boils down to, is a supportive framework for individual success, whatever that looks like in their role.

Nels Jensen: 25:46

100% and the career path development is a big piece of why young people want they, they want to make a difference, but they also want to have a career path. Right? Well, and there's a theory here all the time about, we hear stats about, you know, oh, you know, I'm a baby boomer, right, I'm, uh, only was going to have two careers over the course of my lifetime, you know, and somebody else now is gonna have 10. And yes, well, I'll say

Joey Strawn: 26:15

I'm a millennial can I've had to? Yeah, they're, they're not

Nels Jensen: 26:19

looking people aren't looking to change jobs every year or two, you know, it's more about, you're not showing them the successful path for them to develop a career, make more money, find the purpose that they're they're looking for. So, yes, it's incumbent on the company to, you know, if you can't describe multiple career paths to somebody coming to work at your place, then think about it, why should they come to work there them? You know, it's not? Well, it's a good steady job, you know, alright, so for the next year, they can put some money in the bank and pay their bills. That's good. It's not, it's great.

Joey Strawn: 27:00

Yeah, on the pyramid of need. And, and honestly, you know, it comes down. And I don't want to say that this is all about the the touches and the feelings and the and the oh, we have to have purpose, because sometimes the machine has job as a machinist job. And sometimes a controller is a controller, and an accounting department, but every one has, what their purpose is. And if that purpose is to lead a life of adventure, then your job can be the the backbone of that support. And that job doesn't need to be the purpose of the life, but the support of one. And so understanding where those live, and so everyone's going to come with this with their purpose, it may be that specific role, or it may be that role supporting something else, but they will come and give themselves to that role, if it is in support of their personal purpose. Now, that's a bitter, no touchy feely and in the clouds, more than we'd like to get on the show. But I do think it's important, because those are merging. And that's one thing that we're seeing nowadays, and we talk all the time about the age gap, like the skilled labor age gap that's coming, that exists. And this is a reality in the whole universe of audience that is coming up at the other side of that age gap does have a more mentally aligned merger of those two purpose and function in life. And so you know, it's important to adjust those company missions, messages and thoughts about how you communicate those truths to those audiences, not saying you have to be like, Well, every machine has job has to come with the promise that you're going to change the world. That's not what we're talking about. But you can change the individuals world. And that makes a difference. Yep. So the final thing here is we're talking we've got the we know who our audience is, let's say we've got all the personas, we know the roles, we've talked about that as a company. And we know that there's some areas of company culture that we need to address, we're working on those, we're trying to make it better. So you got to get those truths out there, you actually have to communicate that. And you have to communicate it with the purpose. And so that's where it comes to is going to depend on your industry. If you're looking at specific job boards, if you're sending out emails to local unions, or you're, you know, launching a job fair in your local community, those are going to be the ways that you then have to communicate not only your mission, and your and your values and the company culture we talked about previously, but you need to do that, specifically to those audiences we talked about and in the first part, so that's really where it comes together of saying now we know who it is. We need this to work in this job, because they're going to stay and we know what it is that's really going to be valuable to them when we tell them this and that's where that kind of comes together of you got to build in those to the job specifics. When you're building out job listings, taken all the way back around. And as to what you talked about the beginning, as we know, you gotta be on job boards, we know that the specifics of what a person is going to do, how much they're going to make, and all that is important. And we know the best practices around those. So you have to be those have to be there. And they have to be honest.

Nels Jensen: 30:15

Yes, and it's, it's all in the, it's all in the framing, right, you're, you know, you're looking for a machine operator. But it's a different story, if you're looking for a machine operator, to help, you know, use technology, you know, digital twins, as we say, so you can figure out how to advance manufacturing faster, so that we can build drive trains for electric vehicles, that will not only help support, you know, a whole new industry, but will help reduce carbon footprint and emissions. So all of a sudden, now, it's, it's, it's not just a machine operating giant part of, you're part of something larger in terms of changing the dynamic of our culture, and in terms of helping save the planet. And, yeah, you're not, you know, you're not an environmentalist. But as a machine operator, if you're working on something that has that kind of impact on an industry, you are making a difference. So, you know, it's, it's thinking a little bit larger than just the task at hand. But what is it that you're doing, if you're making medical devices that helps save people, you know, I mean, there's, it's, it's taking a broader look at your mission and your purpose, and then being able to translate to what people are looking for in terms of what they do with, you know, for for a job.

Joey Strawn: 31:40

I agree. And I think that was the best way to state that. So let's, let's wrap this kind of solution segment and head on down to the shop floor, and actually talk about some ways that we've seen this in practice, because a lot of this so far has been theory. And we do want to make sure that these episodes are helpful. So we're going to talk about some ways that we've seen people put these theories into action. And, and you know, maybe it's inspiring, maybe you get glean some ideas from it. But all right, now let's head on down to the shop

Nels Jensen: 32:11

floor. Okay,

Joey Strawn: 32:14

we're here. I want to go back. Now, would you mind repeating what you said at the beginning? Like, we'll talk about like, what the purpose is synthesize this again? So we remember what the core of what we're trying to accomplish today

Nels Jensen: 32:29

is? Yes. So the the keys for our messaging, right? If you want to think about what are the key elements of workforce messaging for industrials. Right? What is what is the purpose? Two things? What is the purpose? Why should someone come to your place? How can they make a difference in the world? And then the culture, nothing speaks to your actual workplace culture, more than retention? Why do people stay? So your workplace messaging really should revolve around your purpose, and your culture? And that's, that's great.

Joey Strawn: 33:10

And we have four examples that we have found kind of real life examples. And Nelson, you shared this first one with me, and I think it's really neat. And so I want you to talk about these classes that some have started.

Nels Jensen: 33:23

Yeah. So there's, there's a pilot program going on in the state of New York, we'll link to it in the show notes. But basically, it's there's, you know, we deal with assumptions all the time. And what a lot of manufacturers have experienced in the past couple of years, is that new new employees, first time, full time job. You know, if you think about it, I'm just gonna say younger folks, these younger folks have come out of weird world where, you know, the pandemic and remote classes, virtual classes, and they may not have experienced traditional eight, here's a summer job, you know, where you were, you're responsible for, you know, similar things over the course of the

Joey Strawn: 34:07

economy, they probably had 37 summer jobs on their phone,

Nels Jensen: 34:11

maybe so right. And so, anyway, the whole and that doesn't make somebody just because somebody isn't aware of what a 40 hour workweek is, like, that's not really their fault. That's just they don't know what they don't know. So there's a pilot program basically, about having starting out your workforce, your new workforce with a class on full time work. And if you think about it, if there's a lot of manufacturers, midsize manufacturers out there who are hiring 40 people a quarter hoping eight or nine or 10, stay on, that's an awful retention rate for new employees. So if you put 30 people in a class for two days, and you talk about expectations, and you talk about you know what The goals are and how you fit into the you can talk about the mission of your company while you're doing this. And you can listen to these folks. And you can, okay, what about this or that? And you can have other younger employees come in and talk to them. And what was the transition like? And so yes, is that it's, it is a lift to have that class. And well, and even from my

Joey Strawn: 35:23

perspective, the idea of, Hey, guys, we are very specifically and purposely setting expectations with you on what is thought of as this job's needed activities, like it is good lead into guys, we're gonna soft walk you into expectations, and it's a great onboarding actor. That's why I thought it was so neat. It was, Oh, they're doing a class about what is expected at this full time job. So that everyone's on the same

Nels Jensen: 35:53

So right, some of it is yes, 40 hours a week is page. something they might not have done. And yes, we have, you know, might be, here's why we need fixed hours. And it might be here's the flexibility we offer. But it's, it's it's, it's a chance to talk about work in general. And yes, you can customize it to your workplace. But we can't assume anymore that somebody shows up at your workplace and has the same ideas of what work is that you had, when you started your career, whether and this is a million years ago for me or right more recently foryou right now,

Joey Strawn: 36:30

This is kind of like one of the this is this is a little bit of that tough love that that we were talking about. At the beginning. This is a tough love topic, because the reality is, in many cases, the answer to why don't people stay at my company is because it sucks. And I don't like to say it that way. But that is the tough love true statement. And these are companies that are taking active efforts to not suck, they may not be having it figured it all out. But they're taking the steps to say let's work on this together. The example that I found was a manufacturing company. And the reason that I picked this out was because the manufacturing company looked at their our schedule, and they realized, okay, what we do here is make these pieces of machinery. And what we essentially need is these things running at these schedules and have consistency and knowledge around that. So they worked with their employees to have flexible schedules for the individuals like could come in earlier later. But it all worked out where everyone's schedule fit in with everybody else's. And also they were super flexible with like their days off their PTO. And even during tougher times started going down to four day work weeks with longer hours. So they didn't have to lay anybody off, it was outside of the mindset of we have three shifts, and everybody stands here, it does this exactly at this shift at this time. And then the bell rings and everybody leaves it was a more, we're going to be people centric, because we know people run our machines, and people have their own schedules. And ultimately, at the end of the day, what matters is our output and our success rate. And that's what they focused on. And that to me was was I loved their approach to a very old thought for a new frame of mind.

Nels Jensen: 38:17

Sure. And that's what you also get from listening, what is it that people want, and then being trying to be flexible? Not every work manufacturing industrial facility can do that kind of flexible scheduling, but you might be able to pull it off the No. The other common thing with those two is transparency. So the full time working class too, it's like Okay, so we've all had times where okay, if somebody just tells you, all right, your first day, in fact, let's just have you come in at 10 Instead of nine, because there's going to be nothing for the first hour. And if somebody tells you you know what the first two days of next week, are not going to be very busy. You're going to be learning it's going to be boring, the next few days are going to be better and Friday is like when the fun stuff starts. Okay, so at least you have some expectations and least somebody has been kind enough to tell you that. Yes, there's there's nothing exciting on Tuesday, you know, but it does help to know, right? It's you're being transparent, and you're you're providing expectations for people so that they begin to understand, if you're going through and saying you know what, we're gonna go to four day workweeks and the goal is to avoid layoffs. It's like alright, I think you're gonna get more buy in if you're being transparent about that than otherwise. Right.

Joey Strawn: 39:29

And again, it's that building a culture of we're all in this together. It's not you know, we all have a role here. We all have a purpose. You know, one of the we talked about training and onboarding. I like this idea you had brought this to me is saying, like rethink the apprenticeships rethink like ways people are doing modern, you know, apprenticeship is just a way to learn on the job and get better at a profession, you know, and usually a technical profession, but yeah, my goodness, we've got Udemy we've got online learning.

Nels Jensen: 39:59

Yeah. up. And this, this apprenticeship is being modeled in Florida. And if you if you stop and think about a traditional apprenticeship is alright you work 40 hours at an at a industrial manufacturing firm. And then every Tuesday, you might go to the community college where you learn about this new skill and whatever. So there's immediately potential obstacles for potential workforce, it could be the hours, right? Hey, do I need if I need a daycare for the 40 hours, and I need more daycare for, you know, that community college curriculum might be transportation, I need to be two places now instead of just one. So there's a couple key things that the the entities you mentioned also bring to the table. Right. So it's competency based learning instead of classroom based learning. As soon as you master this, you move on, it might not take a full week, maybe it just takes an hour and a half and you move on, on Demand Learning, maybe you can do this at night after you put the kids to bed. You know, there's lots of ways that you can train and develop people outside of a traditional classroom, which just has all sorts of baked in requirements about transportation about, you know, buildings and facilities about time commitments, and things like that. So, yeah, there are ways to address these career learnings, and you should be active in pursuing them. Because you might be making things harder for your potential rising stars than you have to.

Joey Strawn: 41:35

Yeah, I love it. I think that was that was such a cool way to think about apprenticeships and moving that needle forward. And then we had one more what was I lost my notes here or there this?

Nels Jensen: 41:48

Well, we're talking about? Yes, benefits? Well, yeah, just like rethinking the benefits, perks and benefits. So if you, if you think about what really matters to people, especially if you think about entry level employees, what are things that are really important to people, one company has had a lot of success, because they supplied mobile phones, we will pay for your phone, and up to the first you know, they it's not the, you know, you get everything you ever want on your phone kind of thing. Right? Right. But we will basically supply you with this phone and pay for the first I'm just making this up 50 bucks, whatever. But the you need that phone to do remote monitoring at work, and you can check on things and you know, they're they're legitimate phone work functions, right? That's the reason they give you the phone. But it becomes as we all know, and attachment. And if that's where people load up all their personal photos, if this. And at some point, yes, if you leave the job, you you lose the phone, and you probably can gain keep all the photos you have and whatever. But at some point, right? Oh, I would have to invest in a phone. It's just a perk that helps. Yes, a retention per. So let's also talk about, you know, you supply snacks or food or whatever it's your place. Well, one place decided that for first shift, they're going to they're going to provide different food perks by shift. First shift, they provided breakfast. So if people were expected to be on the line and working at 8am, they provided free breakfast from seven to 745. And for a lot of people believe it or not. That was it's like, oh, do I get up I gotta slug into work. Oh, I get free breakfast. You know, it doesn't sound like it's a lot. But it saves somebody if you sleep. But it is a lot though. It can save you IF to like the fast food breakfast, it saves you 10 bucks and your way to work. I mean, it saves you from getting whatever there's lots of I've heard.

Joey Strawn: 43:46

I've heard of companies that offer gas stipends for people who have to commute X number of miles or more. And so they're those little e's of life, like we see you, we feel you and we are protecting you from some of the the things that are in life, you know, it's just built. That's what the culture is. And that's why it's so hard to define. But it's all those little things that a group of people that are associated with the company due to ease every everyone's lives and feel upon us.

Nels Jensen: 44:18

Right. And so transportation and childcare are two of the biggest huge obstacles from the workforce. And so you have companies that are at least asking, how can we help you with this? And yeah, maybe you employ, you know, you have 50 people working on your floor at any given time. And you know, there might be very legitimate reasons why you don't have you can't have childcare at your facility. That would be like an unbelievable perk if you did, but you might be able to maybe there's a place on the way that you can help with reimbursements for maybe there I mean, it's that's the kind of thing ask ask your employees, how can you help them Find out what are the obstacles that they face? And is there a low? Is there a local childcare center that you could maybe as a company, donate to or sponsor for something and then get a discount for all of your employees to give their childcare to that company?

Joey Strawn: 45:14

They're five benefiting? Yes, organizations like there are, there are ways to explore outside of the status quo, to improve to improve those things. And so, you know, looking for those opportunities is is critical. And that's kind of the last, you know, the major example any more benefits, like what are the benefits I think people even think of?

Nels Jensen: 45:35

Yeah, well, it's that's asked, right. So, you know, in, in some cases, it's reimbursement for college or tuition, whatever it might, yes, it might be, you know, it might be, you know, additional, the flexible hours, the ability to work part time. I mean, that's one of those things where you won't know what's most important to your employees, if you don't ask, but this is also gets back to the tough love where we started, Joey, you can't? You know, it's like, if you're not, we listed a bunch of out of the box examples. And if like, you were to say, well, are any of these that we can mark it with Ken, we message around our great set of benefits. And your, your senior leadership is like, we don't do any of these. It's sort of like, okay, the problem.

Joey Strawn: 46:25

The problem, that may be the tough conversations, like, oh, man, no one nowadays wants to work. It's like, no, no one wants to work parenthesis for you. And that is a different issue. So yeah, and that's, you know, that's why we wanted to put this in the tough love topics category, because it is an issue that we know, I mean, that's, we'd be so naive to come into this episode be like, Guess what, guys, we discovered there's an issue with workforce recruiting in the industrial b2b, like supply chains. So we know that it's out there. And we know that this is an issue that we have been that people have been tackling and talking about for a long time. But the reality of it is, is there just some very simple questions to answer that just may be really uncomfortable? And that's okay, that isn't okay. conversation to have is, you know, just I want to I want to now, synthesize it down for us one last time, before we close out today, what are the two things that they can really honestly answer for themselves? They can help them push past this hurdle of workforce. Yes.

Nels Jensen: 47:34

You know, what is your purpose? And what is your culture? Right? Young people want to make a difference in the world. Why should they come to your place? Nothing speaks to your actual workplace culture, more than retention. Why do people stay? Use your veteran people? You know, the people have been on your floor for 20 years, interview them, talk to them. Yeah, though. They're your best spokespeople. They're your best salespeople. You know, it's all about purpose, and culture.

Joey Strawn: 48:03

And I love it. And so that's where we'll end today. Guys, thank you so much for listening to the industrial Marketer Podcast. If you have questions for us, or you want to share examples, or highlight people who have done really cool things in the world of workforce recruitment, shoot us an email at podcast at industrial marketer.com. We'll share examples on air that we think are really, really neat. So email us, let us know if you haven't already follow the show on social please do industrial marketer you can find us everywhere that you listen to podcasts. And we're going to be talking some more tough topics later this month. But I mean later this quarter is gonna get really really fun. And but send in your thoughts, send in your questions. Let's build a community where we are safe to talk about these tough topics and grow together as an industry. So thank you from the industrial Marketer Podcast and until next time, talk to you then