November 20, 2024 • 18 mins
Unlock the secrets to transforming HR in the manufacturing sector with Monica Anderton, the Chief Human Resources Officer at DS Smith. Monica takes us through her remarkable journey of revolutionizing HR across various industries, shedding light on the innovative strategies implemented at their Lebanon, Indiana facility. With severe hiring challenges and an intense competition for talent, discover how DS Smith's unique Spanish language interpreter program is breaking barriers and expanding their talent pool. Monica’s insights offer a vivid picture of the current workforce trends and the strategic decisions that have shaped DS Smith's success in a competitive market.
Transitioning to retention strategies, Monica emphasizes the foundational elements of competitive wages, premium benefits, and a strong company culture as pillars to employee satisfaction and growth. Learn about the tangible career development opportunities at DS Smith that not only retain talent but also inspire the future workforce amidst an aging demographic and a vibrant Hispanic labor force. As we navigate future HR trends, Monica shares valuable perspectives on fostering inclusive environments and the necessity of embracing innovative ideas to address the talent gap in manufacturing. Don’t miss this chance to gain invaluable knowledge from a leader at the forefront of HR transformation. Connect with us on LinkedIn to continue this captivating conversation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
most downloaded and sharedpodcasts designed for HR pros,
talent execs, tech enthusiastsand business leaders.
For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom.
And visit hrgazettecom.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is yourhost today, bill Bannam, and
joining me on this episode isMonica Anderton, chro at DS
Smith.
Today's episode is a bit of aspecial one, as we consider an
HR use case from DS Smith, aleader in sustainable packaging
(00:46):
and its unique interpreterprogram.
Faced with severe hiringchallenges back in 2022 and
struggling to fill criticalroles leading to overtime
demands on existing staff and arisk to operational efficiency,
ds Smith pioneered and piloted anovel solution hiring full-time
Spanish interpreters at hisLebanon, indiana facility to
(01:07):
expand its reach.
Monica, it's my pleasure towelcome you to the show today.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Same.
I'm very excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So, monica, beyond my reintroduction there, why don't
you take a couple of minutes,if you don't mind, and tell our
listeners a bit about you, yourcareer background, your role
over at DS Smith and, of course,a bit more about what the
company does?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Perfect, Excited to be here, Bill.
So a little bit about me.
Throughout my career I've foundmyself landing in organizations
that either don't have a strongHR presence or need some
creative rebuilding.
So I guess you could say I tendto be a good fixer and come in
to help rebuild situations thatneed some help.
(01:48):
A little interesting fact aboutme that I don't talk about very
much is I'm a first generationAmerican, as both my parents
were immigrants into the US fromGermany and I really think a
lot of my very strong work ethicand drive comes from both of
them, as they both settled intothe US with nothing and built a
life here.
(02:09):
I've been in the people businessmy entire career and have a
very diverse background in abunch of different industries
that spans retail,telecommunications, banking and
manufacturing in the last couplestints, and to me HR is just
always evolving and touchesreally the heartbeat of the
business, which are its people,and I love the opportunity to
(02:33):
collaborate and partner acrossthe entire organization and
that's really what I likeworking about HR, and I think in
any day or any moment you have,you know, in an hour span I
could be having a conversationwith a CEO and the next minute I
can be talking to one of ourhourly employees on the floor
and it just brings a level ofvariety that's unmatched
(03:05):
opportunity to be mentored bysome incredible leaders in my
career and I really feel likethey've imparted style and
nuggets of golden knowledge thatI find myself using every day
and these folks have reallyshaped who I am and led me on my
progressive career journey.
I'm also really active Bill, inthe Atlanta market and I have
been a past president of theSherm Atlanta mega chapter many
(03:27):
years ago and I'm very active onthe HRLF Human Resources
Leadership Forum, which is thesenior HR group in Atlanta.
I'm on the board of directors.
I do board development for them.
It's a non-for-profit.
I'm a past president of thatorganization.
If you'd like, I'll give you alittle bit about Dia Smith.
(03:49):
Dia Smith is headquartered inLondon.
It operates in 34 countries.
We have 30,000 employees, wehave 16 sites in North America
and Atlanta is our headquartersfor the North America business.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat
Podcast.
If you enjoy the audio contentwe produce, you'll love our
articles on the HR Gazette.
Learn more at hrgazettecom.
And now back to the show.
Okay, wunderbar, danke schön,monika.
Let's focus a little bit on themanufacturing sector before we
(04:31):
then get into the DS Smith usecase.
Today, can you share some keyworkforce trends that you're
seeing within the manufacturingsector?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, we believe that the US labor market really
remains very, very tight,particularly in the
manufacturing space which we arein, and we have really had to
be ahead of the curve when itcomes to staffing in these
extremely tight labor markets,especially following the
pandemic, the ongoingcompetition for these workers,
(05:03):
especially manufacturing, hasbecome really intense.
The plant I think that we'regoing to talk about today, just
to give you a for instance, Bill, is located in Lebanon, Indiana
, and the US Chamber of Commercetells us that in Lebanon, where
we're trying to hire folks forour plant, there is a severe
(05:24):
worker shortage and there areonly 72 available workers for
every 100 jobs.
So we've really been focused onacross North America with this
challenge how do we implementand maintain our staffing levels
and some creative, innovativeprograms to bring in and recruit
the right talent in this very,very tight labor market?
(05:47):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Thank you very much.
So I understand that themanufacturing labor market is
quite tight at the moment, ofcourse, and you are implementing
some unique HR tactics at yourfacility in Lebanon, Indiana.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat's happening there and why
DS Smith has chosen that site inparticular?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, our Lebanon site is our first greenfield
site in North America and it's astrategic location in the
Midwest and can serve us a verygreat geographic footprint.
And we focused there because itwas a greenfield site and it
was opening up in 2019 and wewere having major issues trying
(06:32):
to find talent, and so it becameour focal point as we were
trying to staff up a three-shiftoperation and we're having just
massive issues finding theright people or getting people
to stay, because it is verycompetitive and what we found is
you could hire somebody andthey would leave the next day
(06:54):
because they were going to thefacility across the street for a
25 cent pay increase.
So really, really had to focuson what are some unique ideas
that we could do to get talentin the door.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I read that one of the ways, Monica, you were
trying to address the shortageis by establishing a Spanish
language interpreter program inLebanon.
Tell us more about that.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, this is a great one.
So we have bilingual resourcesacross our entire network in
North America.
But again back to that labormarket shortage and the highly
competitive headwinds that wewere facing in Lebanon.
We really challenged the localHR team.
What are some innovativesolutions we can do to attract
additional talent?
(07:38):
And we did all kinds of things.
We had job fairs, we had radioDJs, we had billboards, we had
all kinds of stuff.
What we finally figured out isthat we needed to cast a wider
net in recruiting and find anunderutilized workforce that we
weren't hitting, and we neededto get three shifts fully
(08:00):
staffed.
And so what we ended up doing istapping the Hispanic labor
market in the Lebanon area, andin doing that, because their
English skills were very limited, if not non-existent, we hired
three interpreters that we puton each shift because we run a
(08:23):
three shift operation so that wecould have the interpreters
help us translate for thecandidates from the very
beginning, from the candidateapplication to the interviewing
process, to onboarding, toongoing training.
And what this ended up doingfor us, bill, was it allowed us
to garner just an entirely newpopulation of employees that we
(08:47):
hadn't tapped, and the netresult of it was our
applications increased.
They started referring theirfriends.
We started this in about 2022.
And our plan at that time justto give you a sense, the
demographic for Hispanicworkforce was 6% and today we're
(09:07):
at 42% Hispanic.
So it's had a huge impact onour hiring ability and one of
the gaps that we were reallystruggling with is we couldn't
fully staff a third shift andwith implementing this program
with the Spanish interpreters,we were able to fully staff the
third shift.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Once in a while, an event series is born that shakes
things up, it makes you thinkdifferently and it leaves you
inspired.
That event is Disrupt HR.
The format is 14 speakers, 5minutes each and slides rotate
every 15 seconds.
If you're an HR professional, aCEO, a technologist or a
community leader and you've gotsomething to say about talent,
(09:53):
culture or technology, disruptis the place.
It's coming soon to a city nearyou.
Learn more at disrupthrco.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Okay, thank you very much.
So you've highlighted some ofthe benefits in terms of the
recruitment process.
What about the retention sideof things?
Are you guys now finding iteasier to retain workers on the
back of this initiative?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
We've seen the retention get better but, to be
honest with you sorry, easier toretain workers on the back of
this initiative.
We've seen the retention getbetter but to be honest with you
, bill, we're still competing ina very dense market for talent.
What we find is the Hispanicpopulation is not having as much
turnover as the non-Hispanicpopulation and they also are
very keen to refer co-workers,friends and other people they've
(10:45):
worked with, because they findthe culture in DS Smith and the
environment very welcoming.
So it's become a real niche forus because we're doing employee
referrals and these folks areso happy.
I think it's really had animpact on why you see the worker
population shift from 6% to 42%, so it's a positive impact.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Okay, so you mentioned just a moment ago that
you've got a pretty strongcompany culture Congratulations.
Can you tell us a bit moreabout that?
What makes you guys stand outas a company culture?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Great question, I know we are.
I'll talk to it maybe from adiversity perspective, because
we're.
Our approach to diversity comesfrom the understanding that we
really believe people fromdiverse backgrounds come, that
come together, bring a widerrange of perspectives and
(11:57):
experiences.
And we really feel like thisprogram has created just not
only between Dia outreach, ourbrand in the community and just
really driven an overall senseof who is DS Smith and why do
you want to come work here.
And we are very, very active incommunity engagement.
(12:17):
We do stuff with Boone County,we do stuff with Boone County,
we do stuff with local charities.
So we're really, reallycommitted to making sure that we
embed inclusion sort of ineverything we do and we want to
make sure that people feel likethey belong and they have a
voice and they can meaningfullycontribute.
And we feel like thisinterpreter program has really
(12:39):
just created a natural bridgefor us to, you know, share not
only our culture but eachother's culture with one another
, and so I think it's just had ahuge impact.
But it really goes to the rootof our value system of caring
and it's demonstrated in thisbond that we've created with the
(13:00):
teams that we've hired.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Okay, so let's go into that a bit more if you
don't mind.
You mentioned earlier on itremains a pretty competitive
landscape within manufacturing.
Beyond that company culturepiece, how do you guys compete
with your competitors to retainas many employees as possible?
Is that through higher wages,flexible hours, more employee
benefits?
Can you give us an idea of that?
(13:23):
Can?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
you give us an idea of that.
So I think our pay is reallycompetitive, Bill, with the
marketplace.
We are located in a very densemanufacturing park so we can't
get into wage wars, but we'revery fair and we're very
competitive.
Our benefits are premium it'sin the upper quartile and our
(13:49):
benefits are available day one,which is a real draw for a
candidate to come in.
And so I think we'recompetitive in the marketplace
and we keep pace with what'saround us in this manufacturing
park and in Boone County,Indiana.
But I think at the end of theday, it's how we treat people
and the culture that we create.
That really is what I alwayscall the sticky factor of why
people want to join us and thenwhy they want to stay.
And I think one more otherniche that's been really neat is
(14:12):
we're really big on careerdevelopment and growth, and so
we have a lot of stories of thefacility because it's brand new
and it'll be about 250 peoplewhen it's fully staffed.
There's lots of opportunitiesto start as an operator and
progress through careerdevelopment.
And we have lots of storiesthat we can show where we've had
(14:32):
an operator that's now asupervisor or an operator that's
a lead.
We had a supervisor that wejust promoted to a continuous
improvement manager, so we'realso really good about career
growth and development and arevery proud of sort of the
opportunities we afford at theplant.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
OK, very good, Thank you very much.
We are already coming towardsthe end of this particular
conversation, monica.
Just a couple more questionsfor you before we wrap up.
You are a seasoned senior HRpro, so it would be remiss of me
not to ask you what do you seeas the future of HR, what are
some of the trends that you seeoccurring over the next, say,
(15:12):
three to five years within HRleadership?
And I'm going to challenge youto answer that in 90 seconds or
less.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Tough one, okay, so I'm going to focus more on the
manufacturing side, because Ithink we could go for hours on
AI, but I think over the nextdecade in the manufacturing
space in North America, there'sabout 3.8 million jobs that are
going to be needed in the US andthere is a statistic that says
that only 1.9 million areexpected to be unfilled if we
(15:43):
don't inspire more people topursue manufacturing careers.
And we've got an agingpopulation that's leaving the
manufacturing as they go toretire.
And we really got to innovateand be the leader that challenge
and create programs thatembrace the shift in skilled
labor and the growing Hispanicworkforce and the need for
(16:06):
inclusive environments thatcelebrates diversity.
I think innovative programs thatwe invoked in Lebanon, as DS
Smith, are really going to bethe kind of critical thinking
and ideas that we have to comeup with to figure out how we're
going to create and shorten thisgap in manufacturing talent.
And I think we've got to createnew and innovative ways to keep
(16:29):
developing, retaining andattracting the talent so that we
can be successful.
And I think that, as aleadership group and as senior
HR person, I've got to be opento new things that my team
brings to me and that's how wegot this interpreter program.
My HR manager there came upwith this creative idea and
we've got to keep pushing ourteams that there are new and
(16:51):
different things we can try, andwe need to be able to do that
to be able to work on this gapin in manufacturing openings
that we need to fill okay, thankyou, and just finally for today
, monica.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
How can folks connect with you?
Is that through LinkedIn?
Do you want to share your emailaddress?
Are you super cool and all overInstagram and TikTok and places
?
Tell us more.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I am not all over Instagram and TikTok and you're
probably glad of that, but I amon LinkedIn.
It's Monica Z Anderton and gocheck me out, and it's been a
real pleasure to be here today,bill.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Awesome.
Well, that just leaves me tosay for today Monica, you
superstar, Thank you very muchfor being my guest.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Awesome.
Thank you so much, bill, it'sbeen a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And listeners as always.
Until next time, happy working.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show.
If you enjoyed this episode,why not subscribe and listen to
some of the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work?
Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom.
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
most downloaded and sharedpodcasts designed for HR pros,
talent execs, tech enthusiastsand business leaders.
For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom.
And visit hrgazettecom.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is yourhost today, bill Bannam, and
joining me on this episode isMonica Anderton, chro at DS
Smith.
Today's episode is a bit of aspecial one, as we consider an
HR use case from DS Smith, aleader in sustainable packaging
(00:46):
and its unique interpreterprogram.
Faced with severe hiringchallenges back in 2022 and
struggling to fill criticalroles leading to overtime
demands on existing staff and arisk to operational efficiency,
ds Smith pioneered and piloted anovel solution hiring full-time
Spanish interpreters at hisLebanon, indiana facility to
(01:07):
expand its reach.
Monica, it's my pleasure towelcome you to the show today.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Same.
I'm very excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So, monica, beyond my reintroduction there, why don't
you take a couple of minutes,if you don't mind, and tell our
listeners a bit about you, yourcareer background, your role
over at DS Smith and, of course,a bit more about what the
company does?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Perfect, Excited to be here, Bill.
So a little bit about me.
Throughout my career I've foundmyself landing in organizations
that either don't have a strongHR presence or need some
creative rebuilding.
So I guess you could say I tendto be a good fixer and come in
to help rebuild situations thatneed some help.
(01:48):
A little interesting fact aboutme that I don't talk about very
much is I'm a first generationAmerican, as both my parents
were immigrants into the US fromGermany and I really think a
lot of my very strong work ethicand drive comes from both of
them, as they both settled intothe US with nothing and built a
life here.
(02:09):
I've been in the people businessmy entire career and have a
very diverse background in abunch of different industries
that spans retail,telecommunications, banking and
manufacturing in the last couplestints, and to me HR is just
always evolving and touchesreally the heartbeat of the
business, which are its people,and I love the opportunity to
(02:33):
collaborate and partner acrossthe entire organization and
that's really what I likeworking about HR, and I think in
any day or any moment you have,you know, in an hour span I
could be having a conversationwith a CEO and the next minute I
can be talking to one of ourhourly employees on the floor
and it just brings a level ofvariety that's unmatched
(03:05):
opportunity to be mentored bysome incredible leaders in my
career and I really feel likethey've imparted style and
nuggets of golden knowledge thatI find myself using every day
and these folks have reallyshaped who I am and led me on my
progressive career journey.
I'm also really active Bill, inthe Atlanta market and I have
been a past president of theSherm Atlanta mega chapter many
(03:27):
years ago and I'm very active onthe HRLF Human Resources
Leadership Forum, which is thesenior HR group in Atlanta.
I'm on the board of directors.
I do board development for them.
It's a non-for-profit.
I'm a past president of thatorganization.
If you'd like, I'll give you alittle bit about Dia Smith.
(03:49):
Dia Smith is headquartered inLondon.
It operates in 34 countries.
We have 30,000 employees, wehave 16 sites in North America
and Atlanta is our headquartersfor the North America business.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat
Podcast.
If you enjoy the audio contentwe produce, you'll love our
articles on the HR Gazette.
Learn more at hrgazettecom.
And now back to the show.
Okay, wunderbar, danke schön,monika.
Let's focus a little bit on themanufacturing sector before we
(04:31):
then get into the DS Smith usecase.
Today, can you share some keyworkforce trends that you're
seeing within the manufacturingsector?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, we believe that the US labor market really
remains very, very tight,particularly in the
manufacturing space which we arein, and we have really had to
be ahead of the curve when itcomes to staffing in these
extremely tight labor markets,especially following the
pandemic, the ongoingcompetition for these workers,
(05:03):
especially manufacturing, hasbecome really intense.
The plant I think that we'regoing to talk about today, just
to give you a for instance, Bill, is located in Lebanon, Indiana
, and the US Chamber of Commercetells us that in Lebanon, where
we're trying to hire folks forour plant, there is a severe
(05:24):
worker shortage and there areonly 72 available workers for
every 100 jobs.
So we've really been focused onacross North America with this
challenge how do we implementand maintain our staffing levels
and some creative, innovativeprograms to bring in and recruit
the right talent in this very,very tight labor market?
(05:47):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Thank you very much.
So I understand that themanufacturing labor market is
quite tight at the moment, ofcourse, and you are implementing
some unique HR tactics at yourfacility in Lebanon, Indiana.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat's happening there and why
DS Smith has chosen that site inparticular?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, our Lebanon site is our first greenfield
site in North America and it's astrategic location in the
Midwest and can serve us a verygreat geographic footprint.
And we focused there because itwas a greenfield site and it
was opening up in 2019 and wewere having major issues trying
(06:32):
to find talent, and so it becameour focal point as we were
trying to staff up a three-shiftoperation and we're having just
massive issues finding theright people or getting people
to stay, because it is verycompetitive and what we found is
you could hire somebody andthey would leave the next day
(06:54):
because they were going to thefacility across the street for a
25 cent pay increase.
So really, really had to focuson what are some unique ideas
that we could do to get talentin the door.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I read that one of the ways, Monica, you were
trying to address the shortageis by establishing a Spanish
language interpreter program inLebanon.
Tell us more about that.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, this is a great one.
So we have bilingual resourcesacross our entire network in
North America.
But again back to that labormarket shortage and the highly
competitive headwinds that wewere facing in Lebanon.
We really challenged the localHR team.
What are some innovativesolutions we can do to attract
additional talent?
(07:38):
And we did all kinds of things.
We had job fairs, we had radioDJs, we had billboards, we had
all kinds of stuff.
What we finally figured out isthat we needed to cast a wider
net in recruiting and find anunderutilized workforce that we
weren't hitting, and we neededto get three shifts fully
(08:00):
staffed.
And so what we ended up doing istapping the Hispanic labor
market in the Lebanon area, andin doing that, because their
English skills were very limited, if not non-existent, we hired
three interpreters that we puton each shift because we run a
(08:23):
three shift operation so that wecould have the interpreters
help us translate for thecandidates from the very
beginning, from the candidateapplication to the interviewing
process, to onboarding, toongoing training.
And what this ended up doingfor us, bill, was it allowed us
to garner just an entirely newpopulation of employees that we
(08:47):
hadn't tapped, and the netresult of it was our
applications increased.
They started referring theirfriends.
We started this in about 2022.
And our plan at that time justto give you a sense, the
demographic for Hispanicworkforce was 6% and today we're
(09:07):
at 42% Hispanic.
So it's had a huge impact onour hiring ability and one of
the gaps that we were reallystruggling with is we couldn't
fully staff a third shift andwith implementing this program
with the Spanish interpreters,we were able to fully staff the
third shift.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Once in a while, an event series is born that shakes
things up, it makes you thinkdifferently and it leaves you
inspired.
That event is Disrupt HR.
The format is 14 speakers, 5minutes each and slides rotate
every 15 seconds.
If you're an HR professional, aCEO, a technologist or a
community leader and you've gotsomething to say about talent,
(09:53):
culture or technology, disruptis the place.
It's coming soon to a city nearyou.
Learn more at disrupthrco.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Okay, thank you very much.
So you've highlighted some ofthe benefits in terms of the
recruitment process.
What about the retention sideof things?
Are you guys now finding iteasier to retain workers on the
back of this initiative?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
We've seen the retention get better but, to be
honest with you sorry, easier toretain workers on the back of
this initiative.
We've seen the retention getbetter but to be honest with you
, bill, we're still competing ina very dense market for talent.
What we find is the Hispanicpopulation is not having as much
turnover as the non-Hispanicpopulation and they also are
very keen to refer co-workers,friends and other people they've
(10:45):
worked with, because they findthe culture in DS Smith and the
environment very welcoming.
So it's become a real niche forus because we're doing employee
referrals and these folks areso happy.
I think it's really had animpact on why you see the worker
population shift from 6% to 42%, so it's a positive impact.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Okay, so you mentioned just a moment ago that
you've got a pretty strongcompany culture Congratulations.
Can you tell us a bit moreabout that?
What makes you guys stand outas a company culture?
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Great question, I know we are.
I'll talk to it maybe from adiversity perspective, because
we're.
Our approach to diversity comesfrom the understanding that we
really believe people fromdiverse backgrounds come, that
come together, bring a widerrange of perspectives and
(11:57):
experiences.
And we really feel like thisprogram has created just not
only between Dia outreach, ourbrand in the community and just
really driven an overall senseof who is DS Smith and why do
you want to come work here.
And we are very, very active incommunity engagement.
(12:17):
We do stuff with Boone County,we do stuff with Boone County,
we do stuff with local charities.
So we're really, reallycommitted to making sure that we
embed inclusion sort of ineverything we do and we want to
make sure that people feel likethey belong and they have a
voice and they can meaningfullycontribute.
And we feel like thisinterpreter program has really
(12:39):
just created a natural bridgefor us to, you know, share not
only our culture but eachother's culture with one another
, and so I think it's just had ahuge impact.
But it really goes to the rootof our value system of caring
and it's demonstrated in thisbond that we've created with the
(13:00):
teams that we've hired.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Okay, so let's go into that a bit more if you
don't mind.
You mentioned earlier on itremains a pretty competitive
landscape within manufacturing.
Beyond that company culturepiece, how do you guys compete
with your competitors to retainas many employees as possible?
Is that through higher wages,flexible hours, more employee
benefits?
Can you give us an idea of that?
(13:23):
Can?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
you give us an idea of that.
So I think our pay is reallycompetitive, Bill, with the
marketplace.
We are located in a very densemanufacturing park so we can't
get into wage wars, but we'revery fair and we're very
competitive.
Our benefits are premium it'sin the upper quartile and our
(13:49):
benefits are available day one,which is a real draw for a
candidate to come in.
And so I think we'recompetitive in the marketplace
and we keep pace with what'saround us in this manufacturing
park and in Boone County,Indiana.
But I think at the end of theday, it's how we treat people
and the culture that we create.
That really is what I alwayscall the sticky factor of why
people want to join us and thenwhy they want to stay.
And I think one more otherniche that's been really neat is
(14:12):
we're really big on careerdevelopment and growth, and so
we have a lot of stories of thefacility because it's brand new
and it'll be about 250 peoplewhen it's fully staffed.
There's lots of opportunitiesto start as an operator and
progress through careerdevelopment.
And we have lots of storiesthat we can show where we've had
(14:32):
an operator that's now asupervisor or an operator that's
a lead.
We had a supervisor that wejust promoted to a continuous
improvement manager, so we'realso really good about career
growth and development and arevery proud of sort of the
opportunities we afford at theplant.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
OK, very good, Thank you very much.
We are already coming towardsthe end of this particular
conversation, monica.
Just a couple more questionsfor you before we wrap up.
You are a seasoned senior HRpro, so it would be remiss of me
not to ask you what do you seeas the future of HR, what are
some of the trends that you seeoccurring over the next, say,
(15:12):
three to five years within HRleadership?
And I'm going to challenge youto answer that in 90 seconds or
less.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Tough one, okay, so I'm going to focus more on the
manufacturing side, because Ithink we could go for hours on
AI, but I think over the nextdecade in the manufacturing
space in North America, there'sabout 3.8 million jobs that are
going to be needed in the US andthere is a statistic that says
that only 1.9 million areexpected to be unfilled if we
(15:43):
don't inspire more people topursue manufacturing careers.
And we've got an agingpopulation that's leaving the
manufacturing as they go toretire.
And we really got to innovateand be the leader that challenge
and create programs thatembrace the shift in skilled
labor and the growing Hispanicworkforce and the need for
(16:06):
inclusive environments thatcelebrates diversity.
I think innovative programs thatwe invoked in Lebanon, as DS
Smith, are really going to bethe kind of critical thinking
and ideas that we have to comeup with to figure out how we're
going to create and shorten thisgap in manufacturing talent.
And I think we've got to createnew and innovative ways to keep
(16:29):
developing, retaining andattracting the talent so that we
can be successful.
And I think that, as aleadership group and as senior
HR person, I've got to be opento new things that my team
brings to me and that's how wegot this interpreter program.
My HR manager there came upwith this creative idea and
we've got to keep pushing ourteams that there are new and
(16:51):
different things we can try, andwe need to be able to do that
to be able to work on this gapin in manufacturing openings
that we need to fill okay, thankyou, and just finally for today
, monica.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
How can folks connect with you?
Is that through LinkedIn?
Do you want to share your emailaddress?
Are you super cool and all overInstagram and TikTok and places
?
Tell us more.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I am not all over Instagram and TikTok and you're
probably glad of that, but I amon LinkedIn.
It's Monica Z Anderton and gocheck me out, and it's been a
real pleasure to be here today,bill.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Awesome.
Well, that just leaves me tosay for today Monica, you
superstar, Thank you very muchfor being my guest.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Awesome.
Thank you so much, bill, it'sbeen a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And listeners as always.
Until next time, happy working.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show.
If you enjoyed this episode,why not subscribe and listen to
some of the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work?
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hrgazettecom.
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