April 25, 2023 • 49 mins
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
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joey Strawn (00:00):
Welcome back, everybody to another episode of
the industrial Marketer Podcast,your place for the tips, tech
trends and tactics forindustrials who care about
driving leads and revenue totheir businesses. I am one of
your hosts, your April Joey'sand as always, I am joined by
summertime Nels, how are you myman?
Nels Jensen (00:22):
I'm doing very well. Thank you, Joey.
Joey Strawn (00:24):
I, I'm excited because we you know, we just
finished our whole quarter andour whole series on the
technology and the newtechnology in 2023, about
digital marketing and thetechnology that people can use
and utilize to make theirsystems better and their
processes better. But thisquarter, we are diving into some
(00:44):
topics that have really been athorn in the side of industrials
for a while so we're going totalk about some legacy issues
that honestly, the world of theindustrial marketer may need a
little tough love about. So thisis it, we're gonna dive in this
is going to be some topics thatpeople want to hear if you're
running a marketing channel, oryou're the owner of a business,
(01:05):
and you have problems withworkforce, or knowing where the
markets going, or how to getyour message across. These are
episodes for you. So sit down,listen, as we dive in, and
really dig into some of thesetopics that, quite frankly, we
just need to be honest withourselves about as industrial
marketers. So now, I'm actuallyI'm going to put you on a little
(01:27):
bit of a pedestal this time,because our first topic is one
that is near and dear to yourheart. And honestly one that
you've written about asubstantial amount. So Nelson,
what is our topic for thisepisode? And why are we diving
into this tough love topic?
Nels Jensen (01:43):
Well, we're talking about the tough love of
workforce messaging, I
Joey Strawn (01:50):
Recruitment, ugh Nels.
Nels Jensen (01:53):
Recruitment and workforce and retention and the
whole spectrum of workplaceworkforce. And you know, when we
say tough love, it's like, whatwe 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 whatwe mean by tough love is if, if
(02:13):
you're going through yourreality, in your, you know,
industrial company, and you comeup with something that it's
like, you know, you're asking meto basically make make something
out of not much, you know, weour reality doesn't is not
reflected in this marketing,then it's time to, you know,
(02:35):
share the tough love with othersand say, hey, it would be great
if we could say this about topicA or B or C, how do we get
there, because oftentimes,messaging just reveals other
issues within your company.
Joey Strawn (02:51):
It does. And that's a fantastic point, Nelson, one
of the reasons that we wanted todo this on the industrial
Marketer Podcast is no matterwhere you are, on our listener
spectrum, whether you're in inthe trenches, marketing guy,
whether you're managing amarketing team, for your b2b
industrial, or if you're likethe head of the spear, and
you're really trying to figureout a way to grow your company
and your revenue and your bottomline, this issue of workforce
(03:14):
and recruitment is somethingthat everybody for decades has
struggled with in the industrialsectors, because as the
marketing person, you're gonnaget tested, hey, find me these
jobs, put this out on theinternet and use money to put in
job listings or paid ads to findme jobs, and then you're gonna
be responsible for that, youknow, so everywhere on the
spectrum, this is somethingimportant. So, and yes, just a
(03:38):
lot of stuff that we know is isan issue. I mean, now. So you
had a way of synthesizing this?
Nels Jensen (03:44):
Yeah, yeah, we're, we're gonna we're gonna
basically talk about some, we'lltouch base on some of the issues
that have been with themanufacturing sector for a long
time. But in many ways, thechanges that we've seen in the
past five years have reallyhelped crystallize your
messaging, and your messagingreally is quite simple for
workforce, what is your purpose?
And what is your culture? Whatis the purpose? Why, you know,
(04:06):
young people want to make adifference in the world? Why
should they come to your place?
And how are they going to make adifference? The culture Well,
why do people stay nothingspeaks to your actual workplace
culture, more than retention.
And if you can capture whypeople stay at your firm, why
they stay on the floor at yourfacility for so long, then then
(04:26):
that will be successful in yourmessaging. Why do people want to
why should they want to come in?
Why should they want to stay?
Joey Strawn (04:36):
And I love when when we were talking about this
episode, and you synthesized itthat way it really made me one
it makes me happy that we cantalk about it in a clear and
straightforward way. But this isa problem that has been in
existence for decades. It's nota new thing. It's not something
that the internet created thatthe like, Oh no Now the internet
exists and no one wants, youknow, a manufacturing job it
(04:58):
this is something that's beenaround for a while, so really
trying to figure out what theheart of the issue could be
outside of just oh my goodness,we don't have as much of a
marketing digital marketingbudget as company XYZ
competitor, that's not reallywhere we need to start with
this, we really need tounderstand, for for decades,
there has been amisunderstanding about the, the
(05:22):
work of the industrial, youknow, within the industrial
sector, I mean, now, so you weretelling me about the three Ds
and this has been around for awhile.
Nels Jensen (05:31):
Yeah. And so, you know, this, this evolved,
because it was true that alarge, a very large portion of
manufacturing and industrialjobs were considered to be, you
know, dirty, or dangerous ordrudgery, right? If they're,
yeah, you're you're on yourfeet, you're in a in a dusty,
put sometimes dingy facility, itmight be dangerous in terms of
(05:55):
some of the functions and someof the things on the periphery
of your job, you know, and, andthat that world is still exists.
In some cases, in most cases,it's been addressed. To some
extent, there's tons more safetyfeatures in a manufacturing
plant, they're usually when youwalk through, you'd be surprised
how clean they are. Andautomation has taken care of a
(06:19):
lot of the drudgery things, butit's still different, you're
still on your feet, you're stillworking off in a loud
environment, there's still it'snot an office job by any
stretch. So there still aresome, there are still some
remnants of that, that, youknow, you're dealing with from a
stereotypical perspective.
Joey Strawn (06:37):
I'm glad you said that word stereotype, it's while
it exists, it's more of thenegative stereotype that has
taken hold as a truth. Andthat's really not reality
anymore. Because as you've seen,and as we've seen, factory
tours, like the safety standardsare exponentially better than
(06:57):
they were even 10 years ago,that, you know, the monotony.
And the drudgery has beenhandled by additional systems
that now require oversight andmanagement, which is more of a
technical job or a, you know, ahigh computing job. So there's a
lot of those opportunities thatare there. But I mean, one of
the things is this is a lastingissue, because even last year, I
(07:19):
think it was the US Chamber ofCommerce was saying that, even
as of July of last year, 45% ofmanufacturing job openings
remained vacant, remained open.
So it's like, that's a largenumber, there is a there is a
definite need still currently tothis day, to find people for
these jobs to find skilled laborfor these jobs, because it
(07:41):
exists and these communitiesneed it.
Nels Jensen (07:45):
Sure. And I, you know, we can, let's touch base
on a couple more of the issuesof why that's still just in
part, yeah, manufacturers havenot done a good job of telling
their own stories, you know,most of us can think
geographically, somewhere, maybewhere we grew up, maybe where we
live, you drive by the big plantjust outside of town, and you
know, oh, well, they havesomething to do with energy and
(08:06):
batteries, but you have no ideawho their market is or what you
know, and yet, you've beendriving by there for 10 years,
right? So, you know, shame onthat company for not doing a
better job of telling even itslocal marketplace, what they do
and why you might want to gowork there. So there's also just
the old the old fashion legacyissues, that it's not unique to
(08:29):
manufacturing, it's in theinsurance business, it's been in
the accounting business, it'swhere it's just, you know, you
just sort of bring people onboard and just sort of assume
they're going to learn thetricks of the trade. And, yeah,
just operate this machine for acouple of weeks, and you'll get
the hang of it, and you'll befine. You know, it's, you know,
if the if the pandemic in thepost, I'm going to call it post
(08:50):
pandemic, though, I don't know,we could argue about whether
it's gone or not, whatever, butthe sort of the post shutdown
world, you know, people havedifferent expectations. And they
have lower, I'm going to justsay tolerance levels, you know,
there's, you know, people inthe, in the manufacturing world
(09:10):
talk about, you know, it's,there's, there's not quite the
same stick to just get throughit, figure it out, you know,
it's just, it's just a differententryway into the workforce. And
I think that's hurt, that'schanged a lot of jobs, a lot of
retail jobs, a lot ofentertainment, jobs like that.
But yes, you just can't assumeanymore that people are going
(09:34):
to, you know, tolerate the firstcouple of weeks of a job while
they figure out if it's theright fit or not.
Joey Strawn (09:41):
I'm happy. Again, you said a word that I'm happy
you did, because I think onethis issue in, in its whole is a
lot about false assumption, likethe company itself has a false
assumption that hey, people arejust gonna come in and have to
have this job and they're gonnastick around and just figure it
out and I Don't have to trainthem. But on the flip side, the
(10:02):
communities just have anassumption of, hey, there's that
big bland beige building that Iknow the big blue sign. And I
don't know what happens there, Idon't know that that is a job
of, you know, a technicalprowess job or, or a people
focused job could be availableto me there, because that's not
being told. So there's a lot ofhurt being happening in that
(10:22):
realm of just false assumption.
And one of the things that youmentioned that I want to layer
on is because this is somethingthat 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 theapplicant. So in the past, you
know, there's a job fair you gopeople need the job, they need
the money, they get it. Butnowadays, people can check
(10:43):
online and see testimonialsabout other people who have
worked there, they can doresearch on the company, they
can look at their financials,and see what trajectory that
company is on, or if any oftheir CEOs have, you know, made
big public snack foods orwhatever it is. So there's a lot
more power that the applicanthas to know, quickly, more
about, you know, making thetable more even if you will,
(11:09):
upon entry. Correct. That'ssomething what is the world of
AI, the internet is just throwninto 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 thepoint that we can all go online
and research anything, right. Soyeah, if somebody is gonna, what
is your online? What is yourdigital footprint look like when
people are checking out yourjobs? Yeah, when they're
checking out, not just theobviously, the wording of a job
posting makes a big difference.
(11:39):
People have figured that outover the years that you need to
make it attractive and thingslike that. But, you know, the,
it's this is not also, what I'mwhat we're going to talk about
next here is just sort of thewhole process, right, you've
talked about the process offinding a job is different. So
is the process of accepting ajob and onboarding a job. And
(12:02):
it's not unique tomanufacturing, but manufacturers
have been slow to evolve, insome cases, you know, with the
digital world. And here's agreat example, in talking with
these experts that I have,especially with the
manufacturing, extension,partnership, you know, the the
onboarding is proving to be amuch, you know, you talked about
(12:25):
we talked about drop off pointsin the funnel, you know, of
prospects, whenever the theearly hires, there is a very
quick decision points that newemployees have you talked about
there, you know, the prospect isin charge in this in terms of
what job they take whatever,there are other jobs out there
(12:46):
for them, if they don't likethis one, there's a term for
people, all manufacturersnowadays, have experienced this,
somebody shows up for the firstday of work. And at some point,
they just don't come back. It'sthey don't come back from the
first break. They don't comeback from the first lunch hour,
they don't come back after thefirst day. They're referred to
in the manufacturing world asrunners.
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 collegewho did this, you're like, Yeah,
went to work at a big box store.
And by lunchtime, I was out ofthere. 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 notunique to manufacturing. Right?
It's, you know, if your firstinstinct is how did we think
they would be, you know, a goodworker? And then where did we
fall down in matching thatsomehow this was a good fit. But
(13:45):
the reality is, if you've hadany runners in your workplace,
maybe the question is not aboutthem. Maybe the question is,
what are they running from? Youknow, what is it about your
process that leads to this andso it's, you know, it's not as
simple as go to HR sign somepaperwork, and go out to machine
(14:08):
where somebody's going to showyou how the machine works,
right. So I think, you know, andwe'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 anissue everyone's listening is
like, Yes, this is an issue. Howdo I fix this? And so we
actually want to dive into threetopics like so. Okay, if we're
gonna address this, what do wereally need to know? Like, let's
figure out one, who do we needto hire and where they are. So
finding our audience ofpotential hires, you can't hire
(14:39):
everybody, nine year oldsexists. So you know, you can't
hire those for your factoryfloor. So we're gonna find the
right people. And then thesecond part is that second
question now, so you talkedabout is how do you build that
culture where it's actuallysomewhere that they want to work
and it doesn't mean you have tohave like nap pods everywhere,
but what does it actually meanto build a culture To make
(15:00):
people want to stay at your job.
And then finally, if you havethose pieces, how do you
actually communicate that outand tell those truths to the
people that need to hear them.
So we that's what we're going totalk about now. And now it's
I'm, again, I, again, I'm goingto kind of lean on your
expertise, you've done a lot ofwriting a lot of research, and
you've lived in this realm for awhile. So when we're looking at
(15:21):
our audience, I mean, there arethings that we've been trying
for years, like everyone's like,we need to expand from our local
geographies, we need to findveterans and we need to put
stuff on job boards, like,there's a lot of stuff that does
work that people have tried, butwhat does it really mean when a
company is looking for theiraudience 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 toillustrate one of the challenges
that everybody has been workingwith the veteran, the people who
are, you know, coming out of themilitary transitioning out of
the military, as they have a lotof awesome experience, and they
make great employees, you know,but they don't have specific
(16:01):
related experience to yours. Sothere, it's the dilemma of, do
you pay them based on theiroverall experience, in which
case they might have, you know,match, they will not match the
pay of what you're gonna getsomebody who has, say, five
years into the business. Soit's, it's just sort of what are
you actually paying for specificexperience, or overall work
(16:21):
ethic and preparedness? So that,you know, that's one of those
things where there's frequentlyis a mismatch? Like, well, they
don't have three years ofexperience with x or y. And then
it's like, so why should I paythem for that experience? You're
paying them for different kindsof experience? But yes, but the
point is, look outside yournormal world, if you think
(16:41):
about, you know, and this isthis has already been taking
place, we don't want people tothink, oh, Joey Niles just
discovered they have to look atnew places, you know, we get it.
Right. It's, but if you'relooking for certain I would, I
would say that the job boards,the traditional things you've
used can still work, right? Thechallenge is expanding into new
(17:04):
areas. So one of the things thatyou and I have talked about
before, too, is the technologymatch. Right? So what is it?
What is it that you need in yourshop? And in many cases, it's
going to be softwareengineering, in some cases, it's
going to be processedengineering. And you know, all
right, so where where do thoseskills exist? And so yes, you
(17:28):
might be talking about, maybeyou used to be able to just
recruit at the big universitynearby that had an engineering
program. Now, maybe you need toreach out and, you know, use
different social channels andlook at some more specialty
secondary education or tradeschool or, you know, there's
lots of skills out there thatdon't come out of big school
(17:50):
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, veryclear line here between
something we've talked about inthe past, which is marketing
personas, is to understand thetypes of jobs and roles that you
need to fill. And then wherethose specific hiring universes
are going to be. So you know, toyour point, as if you're hiring
(18:14):
a software engineer, or a dataanalyst, that might be a better
search on something like anindeed, or a LinkedIn. But if
you're searching for, you know,machinists or engineers, that
may be more local unions, localgroups, community colleges,
specific niche job boards, whichyou can find online, their
(18:34):
engineering only job boards, andyou can find those. So coming up
with an idea of the types ofpeople and the types of hires
and capabilities you need isgoing to be really important.
One of the things that I'll eventhrow in here is their specific
technology. And there's, there'sa big brand around it, but it's
essentially called matchingtechnology. And there's a lot of
(18:54):
ATS or applicant trackingsystems that will do this. But
essentially, what it is, is youput in multiple parameters, and
then quizzes and assessments.
And the system will use AI andmatching technology to go
through and match people whohave the skill sets to their
actual job. So you know, it'svery common for people to lie
and say, Oh, I have a lot ofexperience with Excel, and on my
(19:16):
resume, but then if you givethem an assessment through a
matching technology, you canfind that that skill is actually
accessible to the talent thatyou need saving time and money.
So I mean, it's studies havedone like, I think the Harvard
Business Review did a studywhere people who are well
matched with their capabilitiesto their jobs are 2.5 times more
productive. Those types oflittle improvements of making
(19:42):
sure that the people you'regoing after actually match the
job role they're going to do,can really down the line, help
strengthen this team andlengthen the tail of your search
efforts. So that's one thingthat I want to make sure of is
in today's world with the dataWe have one benefit is being
able to really focus on the jobcapabilities and the experience
(20:05):
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'reright. 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 ais an ATS that does manage his
handful of these. There arerecruitment ones that are that
are larger, that but again,every industry in every segment
has these types of HR applicantmatching technology systems. And
if you if you don't, you know,just reach out to a marketing
(20:46):
agency or, you know, shoot us anemail, and we can recommend a
couple. But yeah, she doesn'temail at an email at industrial
marketer.com. But yes, sothat's, that's going to be once
you know, your audience, youneed to get them that message.
Now. Now, you mentioned thisearly on, I want to take a
minute here, and let's talkabout actually building a
(21:07):
culture that makes people wantto stay now everybody knows,
every company in the world isthe best company that's ever
been in the world. And no onehas any problems with any
company ever. Buthypothetically, if a company had
some issues, or company cultureissues they needed to address,
what would that look like? Andwhat benefits would they have
from addressing some of thosehealth?
Nels Jensen (21:29):
Yeah, so you know, people want to have a say in
their job, and they want to berespected. Right? So it's, there
has to be some active listeninggoing on in this workplace
culture, if you want to be anemployer of choice, right. And
there's ways to there's, there'sways to have you know, your
frontline managers are drivingsort of the continued learning
(21:53):
and the process improvements,people feel like, hey, if here's
here might be a better way to dothings. So right, the people who
are heard on those kinds ofissues, it's like, Yes, this is
quality control. Yes, we shouldlook 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 assumingthat onboarding is going to
happen. But one element of theculture is really focusing on
those programs in those firstfew hours that introduce people
to the realm that they'rewalking into.
Nels Jensen (22:32):
Yes, if you have, you ought to be able to your
messaging ought to be able totell people that, hey, we have a
very purposeful retention plan.
Right? Yeah, we have a plan foryour first day, we have a plan
for your first week, we have aplan for your first 90 days.
Okay, so if you don't, right,you can't say that. Right? You
talk a lot about thetransparency and truth in
(22:53):
advertising. But yes, if a goodretention program, that's kind
of thing, where you might, youknow, kind of go back to
somebody and say, hey, you know,how can we improve our first 90
days, you know, maybe there's aretention bonus, you know, you
see lots of advertisements forHey, come work for us, you know,
sign on bonus up to whatever,you know, if you're smart,
(23:15):
you're not giving everybody thewhole sign on bonus for the
first day, you're splitting itover, hey, here's, here's some
now here's some in a month, andhere's some in 90 days, or even
the the bonus for referrals,it's like, hey, if everybody is
incentivized to make their, youknow, help their friends stick
around, then yeah, then maybethey get a bonus when you show
(23:36):
up, but they also get a bonuswhen you reach 90 days. So
there's, there's definitely, youknow, elements of your workplace
culture and your workforceculture
Joey Strawn (23:47):
that will pay off in the long run. And we'll go
through some examples later kindof in our on the shop floor
segment about people who havedone different things about
this, but really thinkingcreatively about what it takes
to get the job done at yourbusiness is our is it you know,
the shift hours and people'savailability on floor that can
be fluctuated? You know, now, soyou mentioned a lot of, you
(24:11):
mentioned a lot of financialbenefits. But we mentioned
gamification earlier in thisepisode, if you look outside of
finance are things you know,you've got emotional security or
security rewards, you've got youknow, prestige, awards and
access so you could give peopleaccess to, you know, company
resources, or you know, thingsthat they would make their lives
(24:31):
or jobs easier or better andreally thinking about what it is
like on on the brake side or onthe timing side or on the, you
know, family security side thatyou can make changes around, you
know, it's like, hey, everyonewho hires is guaranteed a job
for two years outside of thesecriminal 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 whatyou could do and still get the
job done. And because the truthis, and whatever, you look for
research a lot, and a majorityof turnover is due to just bad
hiring decisions, hiring becausepeople getting hired because
they need a job and not rightfor it or people being pursued
(25:17):
and hired for the wrongintentions and the wrong seats.
So, you know, making sure thatyou're not only knowing who
you're going after, but thatyou're putting them into a
culture and a seat that's goingto be comfortable for them and
actually allows them to besuccessful. Because yeah, that's
ultimately what the cultureboils down to, is a supportive
(25:39):
framework for individualsuccess, 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 acareer path. Right? Well, and
there's a theory here all thetime about, we hear stats about,
you know, oh, you know, I'm ababy boomer, right, I'm, uh,
(26:07):
only was going to have twocareers over the course of my
lifetime, you know, and somebodyelse 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 pathfor them to develop a career,
make more money, find thepurpose that they're they're
looking for. So, yes, it'sincumbent on the company to, you
(26:41):
know, if you can't describemultiple career paths to
somebody coming to work at yourplace, then think about it, why
should they come to work therethem? You know, it's not? Well,
it's a good steady job, youknow, alright, so for the next
year, they can put some money inthe bank and pay their bills.
That's good. It's not, it'sgreat.
Joey Strawn (27:00):
Yeah, on the pyramid of need. And, and
honestly, you know, it comesdown. And I don't want to say
that this is all about the thetouches and the feelings and the
and the oh, we have to havepurpose, because sometimes the
machine has job as a machinistjob. And sometimes a controller
is a controller, and anaccounting department, but every
one has, what their purpose is.
And if that purpose is to lead alife of adventure, then your job
(27:23):
can be the the backbone of thatsupport. And that job doesn't
need to be the purpose of thelife, but the support of one.
And so understanding where thoselive, and so everyone's going to
come with this with theirpurpose, it may be that specific
role, or it may be that rolesupporting something else, but
(27:43):
they will come and givethemselves to that role, if it
is in support of their personalpurpose. Now, that's a bitter,
no touchy feely and in theclouds, more than we'd like to
get on the show. But I do thinkit's important, because those
are merging. And that's onething that we're seeing
nowadays, and we talk all thetime about the age gap, like the
skilled labor age gap that'scoming, that exists. And this is
(28:07):
a reality in the whole universeof audience that is coming up at
the other side of that age gapdoes have a more mentally
aligned merger of those twopurpose and function in life.
And so you know, it's importantto adjust those company
(28:28):
missions, messages and thoughtsabout how you communicate those
truths to those audiences, notsaying you have to be like,
Well, every machine has job hasto come with the promise that
you're going to change theworld. That's not what we're
talking about. But you canchange the individuals world.
And that makes a difference.
(28:48):
Yep. So the final thing here iswe're talking we've got the we
know who our audience is, let'ssay we've got all the personas,
we know the roles, we've talkedabout that as a company. And we
know that there's some areas ofcompany culture that we need to
address, we're working on those,we're trying to make it better.
So you got to get those truthsout there, you actually have to
communicate that. And you haveto communicate it with the
(29:10):
purpose. And so that's where itcomes to is going to depend on
your industry. If you're lookingat specific job boards, if
you're sending out emails tolocal unions, or you're, you
know, launching a job fair inyour local community, those are
going to be the ways that youthen have to communicate not
only your mission, and your andyour values and the company
culture we talked aboutpreviously, but you need to do
(29:33):
that, specifically to thoseaudiences we talked about and in
the first part, so that's reallywhere it comes together of
saying now we know who it is. Weneed this to work in this job,
because they're going to stayand we know what it is that's
really going to be valuable tothem when we tell them this and
that's where that kind of comestogether of you got to build in
(29:54):
those to the job specifics. Whenyou're building out job
listings, taken all the way backaround. And as to what you
talked about the beginning, aswe know, you gotta be on job
boards, we know that thespecifics of what a person is
going to do, how much they'regoing to make, and all that is
important. And we know the bestpractices around those. So you
have to be those have to bethere. 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, youknow, you're looking for a
machine operator. But it's adifferent story, if you're
looking for a machine operator,to help, you know, use
technology, you know, digitaltwins, as we say, so you can
(30:37):
figure out how to advancemanufacturing faster, so that we
can build drive trains forelectric vehicles, that will not
only help support, you know, awhole new industry, but will
help reduce carbon footprint andemissions. So all of a sudden,
now, it's, it's, it's not just amachine operating giant part of,
you're part of something largerin terms of changing the dynamic
(31:00):
of our culture, and in terms ofhelping save the planet. And,
yeah, you're not, you know,you're not an environmentalist.
But as a machine operator, ifyou're working on something that
has that kind of impact on anindustry, you are making a
difference. So, you know, it's,it's thinking a little bit
larger than just the task athand. But what is it that you're
(31:23):
doing, if you're making medicaldevices 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 forin 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 wrapthis kind of solution segment
and head on down to the shopfloor, and actually talk about
some ways that we've seen thisin practice, because a lot of
this so far has been theory. Andwe do want to make sure that
these episodes are helpful. Sowe're going to talk about some
ways that we've seen people putthese theories into action. And,
(32:05):
and you know, maybe it'sinspiring, maybe you get glean
some ideas from it. But allright, 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 thebeginning? Like, we'll talk
about like, what the purpose issynthesize this again? So we
remember what the core of whatwe'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 whatare the key elements of
workforce messaging forindustrials. Right? What is what
is the purpose? Two things? Whatis the purpose? Why should
someone come to your place? Howcan they make a difference in
(32:52):
the world? And then the culture,nothing speaks to your actual
workplace culture, more thanretention? Why do people stay?
So your workplace messagingreally 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. AndNelson, you shared this first
one with me, and I think it'sreally neat. And so I want you
to talk about these classes thatsome have started.
Nels Jensen (33:23):
Yeah. So there's, there's a pilot program going on
in the state of New York, we'lllink to it in the show notes.
But basically, it's there's, youknow, we deal with assumptions
all the time. And what a lot ofmanufacturers have experienced
in the past couple of years, isthat new new employees, first
time, full time job. You know,if you think about it, I'm just
(33:47):
gonna say younger folks, theseyounger folks have come out of
weird world where, you know, thepandemic and remote classes,
virtual classes, and they maynot have experienced traditional
eight, here's a summer job, youknow, 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 justbecause somebody isn't aware of
what a 40 hour workweek is,like, that's not really their
fault. That's just they don'tknow what they don't know. So
there's a pilot programbasically, about having starting
out your workforce, your newworkforce with a class on full
(34:35):
time work. And if you thinkabout it, if there's a lot of
manufacturers, midsizemanufacturers out there who are
hiring 40 people a quarterhoping eight or nine or 10, stay
on, that's an awful retentionrate for new employees. So if
you put 30 people in a class fortwo days, and you talk about
(34:56):
expectations, and you talk aboutyou know what The goals are and
how you fit into the you cantalk about the mission of your
company while you're doing this.
And you can listen to thesefolks. And you can, okay, what
about this or that? And you canhave other younger employees
come in and talk to them. Andwhat was the transition like?
And so yes, is that it's, it isa lift to have that class. And
(35:17):
well, and even from my
Joey Strawn (35:23):
perspective, the idea of, Hey, guys, we are very
specifically and purposelysetting expectations with you on
what is thought of as this job'sneeded activities, like it is
good lead into guys, we're gonnasoft walk you into expectations,
and it's a great onboardingactor. That's why I thought it
(35:45):
was so neat. It was, Oh, they'redoing 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 havedone. And yes, we have, you
know, might be, here's why weneed fixed hours. And it might
be here's the flexibility weoffer. But it's, it's it's, it's
a chance to talk about work ingeneral. And yes, you can
(36:13):
customize it to your workplace.
But we can't assume anymore thatsomebody shows up at your
workplace and has the same ideasof what work is that you had,
when you started your career,whether and this is a million
years ago for me or right morerecently 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 lovethat that we were talking about.
At the beginning. This is atough love topic, because the
reality is, in many cases, theanswer to why don't people stay
at my company is because itsucks. And I don't like to say
it that way. But that is thetough love true statement. And
(36:50):
these are companies that aretaking active efforts to not
suck, they may not be having itfigured it all out. But they're
taking the steps to say let'swork on this together. The
example that I found was amanufacturing company. And the
reason that I picked this outwas because the manufacturing
company looked at their ourschedule, and they realized,
(37:11):
okay, what we do here is makethese pieces of machinery. And
what we essentially need isthese things running at these
schedules and have consistencyand knowledge around that. So
they worked with their employeesto have flexible schedules for
the individuals like could comein earlier later. But it all
worked out where everyone'sschedule fit in with everybody
(37:33):
else's. And also they were superflexible with like their days
off their PTO. And even duringtougher times started going down
to four day work weeks withlonger hours. So they didn't
have to lay anybody off, it wasoutside of the mindset of we
have three shifts, and everybodystands here, it does this
exactly at this shift at thistime. And then the bell rings
(37:54):
and everybody leaves it was amore, we're going to be people
centric, because we know peoplerun our machines, and people
have their own schedules. Andultimately, at the end of the
day, what matters is our outputand our success rate. And that's
what they focused on. And thatto me was was I loved their
approach to a very old thoughtfor a new frame of mind.
Nels Jensen (38:17):
Sure. And that's what you also get from
listening, what is it thatpeople want, and then being
trying to be flexible? Not everywork manufacturing industrial
facility can do that kind offlexible scheduling, but you
might be able to pull it off theNo. The other common thing with
those two is transparency. Sothe full time working class too,
it's like Okay, so we've all hadtimes where okay, if somebody
(38:39):
just tells you, all right, yourfirst day, in fact, let's just
have you come in at 10 Insteadof nine, because there's going
to be nothing for the firsthour. And if somebody tells you
you know what the first two daysof next week, are not going to
be very busy. You're going to belearning it's going to be
boring, the next few days aregoing to be better and Friday is
like when the fun stuff starts.
Okay, so at least you have someexpectations and least somebody
(39:01):
has been kind enough to tell youthat. Yes, there's there's
nothing exciting on Tuesday, youknow, but it does help to know,
right? It's you're beingtransparent, and you're you're
providing expectations forpeople so that they begin to
understand, if you're goingthrough and saying you know
what, we're gonna go to four dayworkweeks and the goal is to
avoid layoffs. It's likealright, I think you're gonna
(39:24):
get more buy in if you're beingtransparent 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 notyou know, we all have a role
here. We all have a purpose. Youknow, one of the we talked about
training and onboarding. I likethis idea you had brought this
to me is saying, like rethinkthe apprenticeships rethink like
ways people are doing modern,you know, apprenticeship is just
a way to learn on the job andget better at a profession, you
(39:52):
know, and usually a technicalprofession, but yeah, my
goodness, we've got Udemy we'vegot online learning.
Nels Jensen (39:59):
Yeah. up. And this, this apprenticeship is being
modeled in Florida. And if youif you stop and think about a
traditional apprenticeship isalright you work 40 hours at an
at a industrial manufacturingfirm. And then every Tuesday,
you might go to the communitycollege where you learn about
this new skill and whatever. Sothere's immediately potential
(40:21):
obstacles for potentialworkforce, it could be the
hours, right? Hey, do I need ifI need a daycare for the 40
hours, and I need more daycarefor, you know, that community
college curriculum might betransportation, I need to be two
places now instead of just one.
So there's a couple key thingsthat the the entities you
mentioned also bring to thetable. Right. So it's competency
(40:44):
based learning instead ofclassroom based learning. As
soon as you master this, youmove on, it might not take a
full week, maybe it just takesan hour and a half and you move
on, on Demand Learning, maybeyou can do this at night after
you put the kids to bed. Youknow, there's lots of ways that
you can train and develop peopleoutside of a traditional
(41:06):
classroom, which just has allsorts of baked in requirements
about transportation about, youknow, buildings and facilities
about time commitments, andthings like that. So, yeah,
there are ways to address thesecareer learnings, and you should
be active in pursuing them.
(41:29):
Because you might be makingthings 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 aboutapprenticeships and moving that
needle forward. And then we hadone 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 thebenefits, perks and benefits. So
if you, if you think about whatreally matters to people,
especially if you think aboutentry level employees, what are
things that are really importantto people, one company has had a
lot of success, because theysupplied mobile phones, we will
(42:12):
pay for your phone, and up tothe first you know, they it's
not the, you know, you geteverything you ever want on your
phone kind of thing. Right?
Right. But we will basicallysupply you with this phone and
pay for the first I'm justmaking this up 50 bucks,
whatever. But the you need thatphone to do remote monitoring at
work, and you can check onthings and you know, they're
(42:35):
they're legitimate phone workfunctions, 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 theirpersonal photos, if this. And at
some point, yes, if you leavethe job, you you lose the phone,
and you probably can gain keepall the photos you have and
whatever. But at some point,right? Oh, I would have to
(42:57):
invest in a phone. It's just aperk that helps. Yes, a
retention per. So let's alsotalk about, you know, you supply
snacks or food or whatever it'syour place. Well, one place
decided that for first shift,they're going to they're going
to provide different food perksby shift. First shift, they
provided breakfast. So if peoplewere expected to be on the line
(43:18):
and working at 8am, theyprovided free breakfast from
seven to 745. And for a lot ofpeople believe it or not. That
was it's like, oh, do I get up Igotta slug into work. Oh, I get
free breakfast. You know, itdoesn't sound like it's a lot.
But it saves somebody if yousleep. But it is a lot though.
It can save you IF to like thefast food breakfast, it saves
(43:41):
you 10 bucks and your way towork. I mean, it saves you from
getting whatever there's lots ofI've heard.
Joey Strawn (43:46):
I've heard of companies that offer gas
stipends for people who have tocommute X number of miles or
more. And so they're thoselittle e's of life, like we see
you, we feel you and we areprotecting you from some of the
the things that are in life, youknow, it's just built. That's
(44:06):
what the culture is. And that'swhy it's so hard to define. But
it's all those little thingsthat a group of people that are
associated with the company dueto ease every everyone's lives
and feel upon us.
Nels Jensen (44:18):
Right. And so transportation and childcare are
two of the biggest hugeobstacles from the workforce.
And so you have companies thatare at least asking, how can we
help you with this? And yeah,maybe you employ, you know, you
have 50 people working on yourfloor at any given time. And you
(44:39):
know, there might be verylegitimate reasons why you don't
have you can't have childcare atyour facility. That would be
like an unbelievable perk if youdid, but you might be able to
maybe there's a place on the waythat you can help with
reimbursements for maybe there Imean, it's that's the kind of
thing ask ask your employees,how can you help them Find out
(45:00):
what are the obstacles that theyface? And is there a low? Is
there a local childcare centerthat you could maybe as a
company, donate to or sponsorfor something and then get a
discount for all of youremployees to give their
childcare to that company?
Joey Strawn (45:14):
They're five benefiting? Yes, organizations
like there are, there are waysto explore outside of the status
quo, to improve to improve thosethings. And so, you know,
looking for those opportunitiesis is critical. And that's kind
of the last, you know, the majorexample any more benefits, like
what are the benefits I thinkpeople even think of?
Nels Jensen (45:35):
Yeah, well, it's that's asked, right. So, you
know, in, in some cases, it'sreimbursement for college or
tuition, whatever it might, yes,it might be, you know, it might
be, you know, additional, theflexible hours, the ability to
work part time. I mean, that'sone of those things where you
won't know what's most importantto your employees, if you don't
(45:56):
ask, but this is also gets backto the tough love where we
started, Joey, you can't? Youknow, it's like, if you're not,
we listed a bunch of out of thebox examples. And if like, you
were to say, well, are any ofthese that we can mark it with
Ken, we message around our greatset of benefits. And your, your
(46:17):
senior leadership is like, wedon'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 nowadayswants to work. It's like, no, no
one wants to work parenthesisfor you. And that is a different
issue. So yeah, and that's, youknow, that's why we wanted to
put this in the tough lovetopics category, because it is
an issue that we know, I mean,that's, we'd be so naive to come
(46:48):
into this episode be like, Guesswhat, guys, we discovered
there's an issue with workforcerecruiting in the industrial
b2b, like supply chains. So weknow that it's out there. And we
know that this is an issue thatwe have been that people have
been tackling and talking aboutfor a long time. But the reality
of it is, is there just somevery simple questions to answer
(47:11):
that just may be reallyuncomfortable? And that's okay,
that isn't okay. conversation tohave is, you know, just I want
to I want to now, synthesize itdown for us one last time,
before we close out today, whatare the two things that they can
really honestly answer forthemselves? They can help them
push past this hurdle ofworkforce. Yes.
Nels Jensen (47:34):
You know, what is your purpose? And what is your
culture? Right? Young peoplewant to make a difference in the
world. Why should they come toyour place? Nothing speaks to
your actual workplace culture,more than retention. Why do
people stay? Use your veteranpeople? You know, the people
have been on your floor for 20years, interview them, talk to
(47:55):
them. Yeah, though. They're yourbest spokespeople. They're your
best salespeople. You know, it'sall 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 forlistening to the industrial
Marketer Podcast. If you havequestions for us, or you want to
share examples, or highlightpeople who have done really cool
things in the world of workforcerecruitment, shoot us an email
at podcast at industrialmarketer.com. We'll share
examples on air that we thinkare really, really neat. So
(48:23):
email us, let us know if youhaven't already follow the show
on social please do industrialmarketer you can find us
everywhere that you listen topodcasts. And we're going to be
talking some more tough topicslater this month. But I mean
later this quarter is gonna getreally really fun. And but send
in your thoughts, send in yourquestions. Let's build a
community where we are safe totalk about these tough topics
(48:45):
and grow together as anindustry. So thank you from the
industrial Marketer Podcast anduntil next time, talk to you
then
Welcome back, everybody to another episode of
the industrial Marketer Podcast,your place for the tips, tech
trends and tactics forindustrials who care about
driving leads and revenue totheir businesses. I am one of
your hosts, your April Joey'sand as always, I am joined by
summertime Nels, how are you myman?
Nels Jensen (00:22):
I'm doing very well. Thank you, Joey.
Joey Strawn (00:24):
I, I'm excited because we you know, we just
finished our whole quarter andour whole series on the
technology and the newtechnology in 2023, about
digital marketing and thetechnology that people can use
and utilize to make theirsystems better and their
processes better. But thisquarter, we are diving into some
(00:44):
topics that have really been athorn in the side of industrials
for a while so we're going totalk about some legacy issues
that honestly, the world of theindustrial marketer may need a
little tough love about. So thisis it, we're gonna dive in this
is going to be some topics thatpeople want to hear if you're
running a marketing channel, oryou're the owner of a business,
(01:05):
and you have problems withworkforce, or knowing where the
markets going, or how to getyour message across. These are
episodes for you. So sit down,listen, as we dive in, and
really dig into some of thesetopics that, quite frankly, we
just need to be honest withourselves about as industrial
marketers. So now, I'm actuallyI'm going to put you on a little
(01:27):
bit of a pedestal this time,because our first topic is one
that is near and dear to yourheart. And honestly one that
you've written about asubstantial amount. So Nelson,
what is our topic for thisepisode? And why are we diving
into this tough love topic?
Nels Jensen (01:43):
Well, we're talking about the tough love of
workforce messaging, I
Joey Strawn (01:50):
Recruitment, ugh Nels.
Nels Jensen (01:53):
Recruitment and workforce and retention and the
whole spectrum of workplaceworkforce. And you know, when we
say tough love, it's like, whatwe 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 whatwe mean by tough love is if, if
(02:13):
you're going through yourreality, in your, you know,
industrial company, and you comeup with something that it's
like, you know, you're asking meto basically make make something
out of not much, you know, weour reality doesn't is not
reflected in this marketing,then it's time to, you know,
(02:35):
share the tough love with othersand say, hey, it would be great
if we could say this about topicA or B or C, how do we get
there, because oftentimes,messaging just reveals other
issues within your company.
Joey Strawn (02:51):
It does. And that's a fantastic point, Nelson, one
of the reasons that we wanted todo this on the industrial
Marketer Podcast is no matterwhere you are, on our listener
spectrum, whether you're in inthe trenches, marketing guy,
whether you're managing amarketing team, for your b2b
industrial, or if you're likethe head of the spear, and
you're really trying to figureout a way to grow your company
and your revenue and your bottomline, this issue of workforce
(03:14):
and recruitment is somethingthat everybody for decades has
struggled with in the industrialsectors, because as the
marketing person, you're gonnaget tested, hey, find me these
jobs, put this out on theinternet and use money to put in
job listings or paid ads to findme jobs, and then you're gonna
be responsible for that, youknow, so everywhere on the
spectrum, this is somethingimportant. So, and yes, just a
(03:38):
lot of stuff that we know is isan issue. I mean, now. So you
had a way of synthesizing this?
Nels Jensen (03:44):
Yeah, yeah, we're, we're gonna we're gonna
basically talk about some, we'lltouch base on some of the issues
that have been with themanufacturing sector for a long
time. But in many ways, thechanges that we've seen in the
past five years have reallyhelped crystallize your
messaging, and your messagingreally is quite simple for
workforce, what is your purpose?
And what is your culture? Whatis the purpose? Why, you know,
(04:06):
young people want to make adifference in the world? Why
should they come to your place?
And how are they going to make adifference? The culture Well,
why do people stay nothingspeaks to your actual workplace
culture, more than retention.
And if you can capture whypeople stay at your firm, why
they stay on the floor at yourfacility for so long, then then
(04:26):
that will be successful in yourmessaging. Why do people want to
why should they want to come in?
Why should they want to stay?
Joey Strawn (04:36):
And I love when when we were talking about this
episode, and you synthesized itthat way it really made me one
it makes me happy that we cantalk about it in a clear and
straightforward way. But this isa problem that has been in
existence for decades. It's nota new thing. It's not something
that the internet created thatthe like, Oh no Now the internet
exists and no one wants, youknow, a manufacturing job it
(04:58):
this is something that's beenaround for a while, so really
trying to figure out what theheart of the issue could be
outside of just oh my goodness,we don't have as much of a
marketing digital marketingbudget as company XYZ
competitor, that's not reallywhere we need to start with
this, we really need tounderstand, for for decades,
there has been amisunderstanding about the, the
(05:22):
work of the industrial, youknow, within the industrial
sector, I mean, now, so you weretelling me about the three Ds
and this has been around for awhile.
Nels Jensen (05:31):
Yeah. And so, you know, this, this evolved,
because it was true that alarge, a very large portion of
manufacturing and industrialjobs were considered to be, you
know, dirty, or dangerous ordrudgery, right? If they're,
yeah, you're you're on yourfeet, you're in a in a dusty,
put sometimes dingy facility, itmight be dangerous in terms of
(05:55):
some of the functions and someof the things on the periphery
of your job, you know, and, andthat that world is still exists.
In some cases, in most cases,it's been addressed. To some
extent, there's tons more safetyfeatures in a manufacturing
plant, they're usually when youwalk through, you'd be surprised
how clean they are. Andautomation has taken care of a
(06:19):
lot of the drudgery things, butit's still different, you're
still on your feet, you're stillworking off in a loud
environment, there's still it'snot an office job by any
stretch. So there still aresome, there are still some
remnants of that, that, youknow, you're dealing with from a
stereotypical perspective.
Joey Strawn (06:37):
I'm glad you said that word stereotype, it's while
it exists, it's more of thenegative stereotype that has
taken hold as a truth. Andthat's really not reality
anymore. Because as you've seen,and as we've seen, factory
tours, like the safety standardsare exponentially better than
(06:57):
they were even 10 years ago,that, you know, the monotony.
And the drudgery has beenhandled by additional systems
that now require oversight andmanagement, which is more of a
technical job or a, you know, ahigh computing job. So there's a
lot of those opportunities thatare there. But I mean, one of
the things is this is a lastingissue, because even last year, I
(07:19):
think it was the US Chamber ofCommerce was saying that, even
as of July of last year, 45% ofmanufacturing job openings
remained vacant, remained open.
So it's like, that's a largenumber, there is a there is a
definite need still currently tothis day, to find people for
these jobs to find skilled laborfor these jobs, because it
(07:41):
exists and these communitiesneed it.
Nels Jensen (07:45):
Sure. And I, you know, we can, let's touch base
on a couple more of the issuesof why that's still just in
part, yeah, manufacturers havenot done a good job of telling
their own stories, you know,most of us can think
geographically, somewhere, maybewhere we grew up, maybe where we
live, you drive by the big plantjust outside of town, and you
know, oh, well, they havesomething to do with energy and
(08:06):
batteries, but you have no ideawho their market is or what you
know, and yet, you've beendriving by there for 10 years,
right? So, you know, shame onthat company for not doing a
better job of telling even itslocal marketplace, what they do
and why you might want to gowork there. So there's also just
the old the old fashion legacyissues, that it's not unique to
(08:29):
manufacturing, it's in theinsurance business, it's been in
the accounting business, it'swhere it's just, you know, you
just sort of bring people onboard and just sort of assume
they're going to learn thetricks of the trade. And, yeah,
just operate this machine for acouple of weeks, and you'll get
the hang of it, and you'll befine. You know, it's, you know,
if the if the pandemic in thepost, I'm going to call it post
(08:50):
pandemic, though, I don't know,we could argue about whether
it's gone or not, whatever, butthe sort of the post shutdown
world, you know, people havedifferent expectations. And they
have lower, I'm going to justsay tolerance levels, you know,
there's, you know, people inthe, in the manufacturing world
(09:10):
talk about, you know, it's,there's, there's not quite the
same stick to just get throughit, figure it out, you know,
it's just, it's just a differententryway into the workforce. And
I think that's hurt, that'schanged a lot of jobs, a lot of
retail jobs, a lot ofentertainment, jobs like that.
But yes, you just can't assumeanymore that people are going
(09:34):
to, you know, tolerate the firstcouple of weeks of a job while
they figure out if it's theright fit or not.
Joey Strawn (09:41):
I'm happy. Again, you said a word that I'm happy
you did, because I think onethis issue in, in its whole is a
lot about false assumption, likethe company itself has a false
assumption that hey, people arejust gonna come in and have to
have this job and they're gonnastick around and just figure it
out and I Don't have to trainthem. But on the flip side, the
(10:02):
communities just have anassumption of, hey, there's that
big bland beige building that Iknow the big blue sign. And I
don't know what happens there, Idon't know that that is a job
of, you know, a technicalprowess job or, or a people
focused job could be availableto me there, because that's not
being told. So there's a lot ofhurt being happening in that
(10:22):
realm of just false assumption.
And one of the things that youmentioned that I want to layer
on is because this is somethingthat 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 theapplicant. So in the past, you
know, there's a job fair you gopeople need the job, they need
the money, they get it. Butnowadays, people can check
(10:43):
online and see testimonialsabout other people who have
worked there, they can doresearch on the company, they
can look at their financials,and see what trajectory that
company is on, or if any oftheir CEOs have, you know, made
big public snack foods orwhatever it is. So there's a lot
more power that the applicanthas to know, quickly, more
about, you know, making thetable more even if you will,
(11:09):
upon entry. Correct. That'ssomething what is the world of
AI, the internet is just throwninto 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 thepoint that we can all go online
and research anything, right. Soyeah, if somebody is gonna, what
is your online? What is yourdigital footprint look like when
people are checking out yourjobs? Yeah, when they're
checking out, not just theobviously, the wording of a job
posting makes a big difference.
(11:39):
People have figured that outover the years that you need to
make it attractive and thingslike that. But, you know, the,
it's this is not also, what I'mwhat we're going to talk about
next here is just sort of thewhole process, right, you've
talked about the process offinding a job is different. So
is the process of accepting ajob and onboarding a job. And
(12:02):
it's not unique tomanufacturing, but manufacturers
have been slow to evolve, insome cases, you know, with the
digital world. And here's agreat example, in talking with
these experts that I have,especially with the
manufacturing, extension,partnership, you know, the the
onboarding is proving to be amuch, you know, you talked about
(12:25):
we talked about drop off pointsin the funnel, you know, of
prospects, whenever the theearly hires, there is a very
quick decision points that newemployees have you talked about
there, you know, the prospect isin charge in this in terms of
what job they take whatever,there are other jobs out there
(12:46):
for them, if they don't likethis one, there's a term for
people, all manufacturersnowadays, have experienced this,
somebody shows up for the firstday of work. And at some point,
they just don't come back. It'sthey don't come back from the
first break. They don't comeback from the first lunch hour,
they don't come back after thefirst day. They're referred to
in the manufacturing world asrunners.
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 collegewho did this, you're like, Yeah,
went to work at a big box store.
And by lunchtime, I was out ofthere. 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 notunique to manufacturing. Right?
It's, you know, if your firstinstinct is how did we think
they would be, you know, a goodworker? And then where did we
fall down in matching thatsomehow this was a good fit. But
(13:45):
the reality is, if you've hadany runners in your workplace,
maybe the question is not aboutthem. Maybe the question is,
what are they running from? Youknow, what is it about your
process that leads to this andso it's, you know, it's not as
simple as go to HR sign somepaperwork, and go out to machine
(14:08):
where somebody's going to showyou how the machine works,
right. So I think, you know, andwe'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 anissue everyone's listening is
like, Yes, this is an issue. Howdo I fix this? And so we
actually want to dive into threetopics like so. Okay, if we're
gonna address this, what do wereally need to know? Like, let's
figure out one, who do we needto hire and where they are. So
finding our audience ofpotential hires, you can't hire
(14:39):
everybody, nine year oldsexists. So you know, you can't
hire those for your factoryfloor. So we're gonna find the
right people. And then thesecond part is that second
question now, so you talkedabout is how do you build that
culture where it's actuallysomewhere that they want to work
and it doesn't mean you have tohave like nap pods everywhere,
but what does it actually meanto build a culture To make
(15:00):
people want to stay at your job.
And then finally, if you havethose pieces, how do you
actually communicate that outand tell those truths to the
people that need to hear them.
So we that's what we're going totalk about now. And now it's
I'm, again, I, again, I'm goingto kind of lean on your
expertise, you've done a lot ofwriting a lot of research, and
you've lived in this realm for awhile. So when we're looking at
(15:21):
our audience, I mean, there arethings that we've been trying
for years, like everyone's like,we need to expand from our local
geographies, we need to findveterans and we need to put
stuff on job boards, like,there's a lot of stuff that does
work that people have tried, butwhat does it really mean when a
company is looking for theiraudience 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 toillustrate one of the challenges
that everybody has been workingwith the veteran, the people who
are, you know, coming out of themilitary transitioning out of
the military, as they have a lotof awesome experience, and they
make great employees, you know,but they don't have specific
(16:01):
related experience to yours. Sothere, it's the dilemma of, do
you pay them based on theiroverall experience, in which
case they might have, you know,match, they will not match the
pay of what you're gonna getsomebody who has, say, five
years into the business. Soit's, it's just sort of what are
you actually paying for specificexperience, or overall work
(16:21):
ethic and preparedness? So that,you know, that's one of those
things where there's frequentlyis a mismatch? Like, well, they
don't have three years ofexperience with x or y. And then
it's like, so why should I paythem for that experience? You're
paying them for different kindsof experience? But yes, but the
point is, look outside yournormal world, if you think
(16:41):
about, you know, and this isthis has already been taking
place, we don't want people tothink, oh, Joey Niles just
discovered they have to look atnew places, you know, we get it.
Right. It's, but if you'relooking for certain I would, I
would say that the job boards,the traditional things you've
used can still work, right? Thechallenge is expanding into new
(17:04):
areas. So one of the things thatyou and I have talked about
before, too, is the technologymatch. Right? So what is it?
What is it that you need in yourshop? And in many cases, it's
going to be softwareengineering, in some cases, it's
going to be processedengineering. And you know, all
right, so where where do thoseskills exist? And so yes, you
(17:28):
might be talking about, maybeyou used to be able to just
recruit at the big universitynearby that had an engineering
program. Now, maybe you need toreach out and, you know, use
different social channels andlook at some more specialty
secondary education or tradeschool or, you know, there's
lots of skills out there thatdon't come out of big school
(17:50):
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, veryclear line here between
something we've talked about inthe past, which is marketing
personas, is to understand thetypes of jobs and roles that you
need to fill. And then wherethose specific hiring universes
are going to be. So you know, toyour point, as if you're hiring
(18:14):
a software engineer, or a dataanalyst, that might be a better
search on something like anindeed, or a LinkedIn. But if
you're searching for, you know,machinists or engineers, that
may be more local unions, localgroups, community colleges,
specific niche job boards, whichyou can find online, their
(18:34):
engineering only job boards, andyou can find those. So coming up
with an idea of the types ofpeople and the types of hires
and capabilities you need isgoing to be really important.
One of the things that I'll eventhrow in here is their specific
technology. And there's, there'sa big brand around it, but it's
essentially called matchingtechnology. And there's a lot of
(18:54):
ATS or applicant trackingsystems that will do this. But
essentially, what it is, is youput in multiple parameters, and
then quizzes and assessments.
And the system will use AI andmatching technology to go
through and match people whohave the skill sets to their
actual job. So you know, it'svery common for people to lie
and say, Oh, I have a lot ofexperience with Excel, and on my
(19:16):
resume, but then if you givethem an assessment through a
matching technology, you canfind that that skill is actually
accessible to the talent thatyou need saving time and money.
So I mean, it's studies havedone like, I think the Harvard
Business Review did a studywhere people who are well
matched with their capabilitiesto their jobs are 2.5 times more
productive. Those types oflittle improvements of making
(19:42):
sure that the people you'regoing after actually match the
job role they're going to do,can really down the line, help
strengthen this team andlengthen the tail of your search
efforts. So that's one thingthat I want to make sure of is
in today's world with the dataWe have one benefit is being
able to really focus on the jobcapabilities and the experience
(20:05):
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'reright. 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 ais an ATS that does manage his
handful of these. There arerecruitment ones that are that
are larger, that but again,every industry in every segment
has these types of HR applicantmatching technology systems. And
if you if you don't, you know,just reach out to a marketing
(20:46):
agency or, you know, shoot us anemail, and we can recommend a
couple. But yeah, she doesn'temail at an email at industrial
marketer.com. But yes, sothat's, that's going to be once
you know, your audience, youneed to get them that message.
Now. Now, you mentioned thisearly on, I want to take a
minute here, and let's talkabout actually building a
(21:07):
culture that makes people wantto stay now everybody knows,
every company in the world isthe best company that's ever
been in the world. And no onehas any problems with any
company ever. Buthypothetically, if a company had
some issues, or company cultureissues they needed to address,
what would that look like? Andwhat benefits would they have
from addressing some of thosehealth?
Nels Jensen (21:29):
Yeah, so you know, people want to have a say in
their job, and they want to berespected. Right? So it's, there
has to be some active listeninggoing on in this workplace
culture, if you want to be anemployer of choice, right. And
there's ways to there's, there'sways to have you know, your
frontline managers are drivingsort of the continued learning
(21:53):
and the process improvements,people feel like, hey, if here's
here might be a better way to dothings. So right, the people who
are heard on those kinds ofissues, it's like, Yes, this is
quality control. Yes, we shouldlook 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 assumingthat onboarding is going to
happen. But one element of theculture is really focusing on
those programs in those firstfew hours that introduce people
to the realm that they'rewalking into.
Nels Jensen (22:32):
Yes, if you have, you ought to be able to your
messaging ought to be able totell people that, hey, we have a
very purposeful retention plan.
Right? Yeah, we have a plan foryour first day, we have a plan
for your first week, we have aplan for your first 90 days.
Okay, so if you don't, right,you can't say that. Right? You
talk a lot about thetransparency and truth in
(22:53):
advertising. But yes, if a goodretention program, that's kind
of thing, where you might, youknow, kind of go back to
somebody and say, hey, you know,how can we improve our first 90
days, you know, maybe there's aretention bonus, you know, you
see lots of advertisements forHey, come work for us, you know,
sign on bonus up to whatever,you know, if you're smart,
(23:15):
you're not giving everybody thewhole sign on bonus for the
first day, you're splitting itover, hey, here's, here's some
now here's some in a month, andhere's some in 90 days, or even
the the bonus for referrals,it's like, hey, if everybody is
incentivized to make their, youknow, help their friends stick
around, then yeah, then maybethey get a bonus when you show
(23:36):
up, but they also get a bonuswhen you reach 90 days. So
there's, there's definitely, youknow, elements of your workplace
culture and your workforceculture
Joey Strawn (23:47):
that will pay off in the long run. And we'll go
through some examples later kindof in our on the shop floor
segment about people who havedone different things about
this, but really thinkingcreatively about what it takes
to get the job done at yourbusiness is our is it you know,
the shift hours and people'savailability on floor that can
be fluctuated? You know, now, soyou mentioned a lot of, you
(24:11):
mentioned a lot of financialbenefits. But we mentioned
gamification earlier in thisepisode, if you look outside of
finance are things you know,you've got emotional security or
security rewards, you've got youknow, prestige, awards and
access so you could give peopleaccess to, you know, company
resources, or you know, thingsthat they would make their lives
(24:31):
or jobs easier or better andreally thinking about what it is
like on on the brake side or onthe timing side or on the, you
know, family security side thatyou can make changes around, you
know, it's like, hey, everyonewho hires is guaranteed a job
for two years outside of thesecriminal 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 whatyou could do and still get the
job done. And because the truthis, and whatever, you look for
research a lot, and a majorityof turnover is due to just bad
hiring decisions, hiring becausepeople getting hired because
they need a job and not rightfor it or people being pursued
(25:17):
and hired for the wrongintentions and the wrong seats.
So, you know, making sure thatyou're not only knowing who
you're going after, but thatyou're putting them into a
culture and a seat that's goingto be comfortable for them and
actually allows them to besuccessful. Because yeah, that's
ultimately what the cultureboils down to, is a supportive
(25:39):
framework for individualsuccess, 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 acareer path. Right? Well, and
there's a theory here all thetime about, we hear stats about,
you know, oh, you know, I'm ababy boomer, right, I'm, uh,
(26:07):
only was going to have twocareers over the course of my
lifetime, you know, and somebodyelse 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 pathfor them to develop a career,
make more money, find thepurpose that they're they're
looking for. So, yes, it'sincumbent on the company to, you
(26:41):
know, if you can't describemultiple career paths to
somebody coming to work at yourplace, then think about it, why
should they come to work therethem? You know, it's not? Well,
it's a good steady job, youknow, alright, so for the next
year, they can put some money inthe bank and pay their bills.
That's good. It's not, it'sgreat.
Joey Strawn (27:00):
Yeah, on the pyramid of need. And, and
honestly, you know, it comesdown. And I don't want to say
that this is all about the thetouches and the feelings and the
and the oh, we have to havepurpose, because sometimes the
machine has job as a machinistjob. And sometimes a controller
is a controller, and anaccounting department, but every
one has, what their purpose is.
And if that purpose is to lead alife of adventure, then your job
(27:23):
can be the the backbone of thatsupport. And that job doesn't
need to be the purpose of thelife, but the support of one.
And so understanding where thoselive, and so everyone's going to
come with this with theirpurpose, it may be that specific
role, or it may be that rolesupporting something else, but
(27:43):
they will come and givethemselves to that role, if it
is in support of their personalpurpose. Now, that's a bitter,
no touchy feely and in theclouds, more than we'd like to
get on the show. But I do thinkit's important, because those
are merging. And that's onething that we're seeing
nowadays, and we talk all thetime about the age gap, like the
skilled labor age gap that'scoming, that exists. And this is
(28:07):
a reality in the whole universeof audience that is coming up at
the other side of that age gapdoes have a more mentally
aligned merger of those twopurpose and function in life.
And so you know, it's importantto adjust those company
(28:28):
missions, messages and thoughtsabout how you communicate those
truths to those audiences, notsaying you have to be like,
Well, every machine has job hasto come with the promise that
you're going to change theworld. That's not what we're
talking about. But you canchange the individuals world.
And that makes a difference.
(28:48):
Yep. So the final thing here iswe're talking we've got the we
know who our audience is, let'ssay we've got all the personas,
we know the roles, we've talkedabout that as a company. And we
know that there's some areas ofcompany culture that we need to
address, we're working on those,we're trying to make it better.
So you got to get those truthsout there, you actually have to
communicate that. And you haveto communicate it with the
(29:10):
purpose. And so that's where itcomes to is going to depend on
your industry. If you're lookingat specific job boards, if
you're sending out emails tolocal unions, or you're, you
know, launching a job fair inyour local community, those are
going to be the ways that youthen have to communicate not
only your mission, and your andyour values and the company
culture we talked aboutpreviously, but you need to do
(29:33):
that, specifically to thoseaudiences we talked about and in
the first part, so that's reallywhere it comes together of
saying now we know who it is. Weneed this to work in this job,
because they're going to stayand we know what it is that's
really going to be valuable tothem when we tell them this and
that's where that kind of comestogether of you got to build in
(29:54):
those to the job specifics. Whenyou're building out job
listings, taken all the way backaround. And as to what you
talked about the beginning, aswe know, you gotta be on job
boards, we know that thespecifics of what a person is
going to do, how much they'regoing to make, and all that is
important. And we know the bestpractices around those. So you
have to be those have to bethere. 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, youknow, you're looking for a
machine operator. But it's adifferent story, if you're
looking for a machine operator,to help, you know, use
technology, you know, digitaltwins, as we say, so you can
(30:37):
figure out how to advancemanufacturing faster, so that we
can build drive trains forelectric vehicles, that will not
only help support, you know, awhole new industry, but will
help reduce carbon footprint andemissions. So all of a sudden,
now, it's, it's, it's not just amachine operating giant part of,
you're part of something largerin terms of changing the dynamic
(31:00):
of our culture, and in terms ofhelping save the planet. And,
yeah, you're not, you know,you're not an environmentalist.
But as a machine operator, ifyou're working on something that
has that kind of impact on anindustry, you are making a
difference. So, you know, it's,it's thinking a little bit
larger than just the task athand. But what is it that you're
(31:23):
doing, if you're making medicaldevices 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 forin 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 wrapthis kind of solution segment
and head on down to the shopfloor, and actually talk about
some ways that we've seen thisin practice, because a lot of
this so far has been theory. Andwe do want to make sure that
these episodes are helpful. Sowe're going to talk about some
ways that we've seen people putthese theories into action. And,
(32:05):
and you know, maybe it'sinspiring, maybe you get glean
some ideas from it. But allright, 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 thebeginning? Like, we'll talk
about like, what the purpose issynthesize this again? So we
remember what the core of whatwe'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 whatare the key elements of
workforce messaging forindustrials. Right? What is what
is the purpose? Two things? Whatis the purpose? Why should
someone come to your place? Howcan they make a difference in
(32:52):
the world? And then the culture,nothing speaks to your actual
workplace culture, more thanretention? Why do people stay?
So your workplace messagingreally 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. AndNelson, you shared this first
one with me, and I think it'sreally neat. And so I want you
to talk about these classes thatsome have started.
Nels Jensen (33:23):
Yeah. So there's, there's a pilot program going on
in the state of New York, we'lllink to it in the show notes.
But basically, it's there's, youknow, we deal with assumptions
all the time. And what a lot ofmanufacturers have experienced
in the past couple of years, isthat new new employees, first
time, full time job. You know,if you think about it, I'm just
(33:47):
gonna say younger folks, theseyounger folks have come out of
weird world where, you know, thepandemic and remote classes,
virtual classes, and they maynot have experienced traditional
eight, here's a summer job, youknow, 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 justbecause somebody isn't aware of
what a 40 hour workweek is,like, that's not really their
fault. That's just they don'tknow what they don't know. So
there's a pilot programbasically, about having starting
out your workforce, your newworkforce with a class on full
(34:35):
time work. And if you thinkabout it, if there's a lot of
manufacturers, midsizemanufacturers out there who are
hiring 40 people a quarterhoping eight or nine or 10, stay
on, that's an awful retentionrate for new employees. So if
you put 30 people in a class fortwo days, and you talk about
(34:56):
expectations, and you talk aboutyou know what The goals are and
how you fit into the you cantalk about the mission of your
company while you're doing this.
And you can listen to thesefolks. And you can, okay, what
about this or that? And you canhave other younger employees
come in and talk to them. Andwhat was the transition like?
And so yes, is that it's, it isa lift to have that class. And
(35:17):
well, and even from my
Joey Strawn (35:23):
perspective, the idea of, Hey, guys, we are very
specifically and purposelysetting expectations with you on
what is thought of as this job'sneeded activities, like it is
good lead into guys, we're gonnasoft walk you into expectations,
and it's a great onboardingactor. That's why I thought it
(35:45):
was so neat. It was, Oh, they'redoing 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 havedone. And yes, we have, you
know, might be, here's why weneed fixed hours. And it might
be here's the flexibility weoffer. But it's, it's it's, it's
a chance to talk about work ingeneral. And yes, you can
(36:13):
customize it to your workplace.
But we can't assume anymore thatsomebody shows up at your
workplace and has the same ideasof what work is that you had,
when you started your career,whether and this is a million
years ago for me or right morerecently 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 lovethat that we were talking about.
At the beginning. This is atough love topic, because the
reality is, in many cases, theanswer to why don't people stay
at my company is because itsucks. And I don't like to say
it that way. But that is thetough love true statement. And
(36:50):
these are companies that aretaking active efforts to not
suck, they may not be having itfigured it all out. But they're
taking the steps to say let'swork on this together. The
example that I found was amanufacturing company. And the
reason that I picked this outwas because the manufacturing
company looked at their ourschedule, and they realized,
(37:11):
okay, what we do here is makethese pieces of machinery. And
what we essentially need isthese things running at these
schedules and have consistencyand knowledge around that. So
they worked with their employeesto have flexible schedules for
the individuals like could comein earlier later. But it all
worked out where everyone'sschedule fit in with everybody
(37:33):
else's. And also they were superflexible with like their days
off their PTO. And even duringtougher times started going down
to four day work weeks withlonger hours. So they didn't
have to lay anybody off, it wasoutside of the mindset of we
have three shifts, and everybodystands here, it does this
exactly at this shift at thistime. And then the bell rings
(37:54):
and everybody leaves it was amore, we're going to be people
centric, because we know peoplerun our machines, and people
have their own schedules. Andultimately, at the end of the
day, what matters is our outputand our success rate. And that's
what they focused on. And thatto me was was I loved their
approach to a very old thoughtfor a new frame of mind.
Nels Jensen (38:17):
Sure. And that's what you also get from
listening, what is it thatpeople want, and then being
trying to be flexible? Not everywork manufacturing industrial
facility can do that kind offlexible scheduling, but you
might be able to pull it off theNo. The other common thing with
those two is transparency. Sothe full time working class too,
it's like Okay, so we've all hadtimes where okay, if somebody
(38:39):
just tells you, all right, yourfirst day, in fact, let's just
have you come in at 10 Insteadof nine, because there's going
to be nothing for the firsthour. And if somebody tells you
you know what the first two daysof next week, are not going to
be very busy. You're going to belearning it's going to be
boring, the next few days aregoing to be better and Friday is
like when the fun stuff starts.
Okay, so at least you have someexpectations and least somebody
(39:01):
has been kind enough to tell youthat. Yes, there's there's
nothing exciting on Tuesday, youknow, but it does help to know,
right? It's you're beingtransparent, and you're you're
providing expectations forpeople so that they begin to
understand, if you're goingthrough and saying you know
what, we're gonna go to four dayworkweeks and the goal is to
avoid layoffs. It's likealright, I think you're gonna
(39:24):
get more buy in if you're beingtransparent 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 notyou know, we all have a role
here. We all have a purpose. Youknow, one of the we talked about
training and onboarding. I likethis idea you had brought this
to me is saying, like rethinkthe apprenticeships rethink like
ways people are doing modern,you know, apprenticeship is just
a way to learn on the job andget better at a profession, you
(39:52):
know, and usually a technicalprofession, but yeah, my
goodness, we've got Udemy we'vegot online learning.
Nels Jensen (39:59):
Yeah. up. And this, this apprenticeship is being
modeled in Florida. And if youif you stop and think about a
traditional apprenticeship isalright you work 40 hours at an
at a industrial manufacturingfirm. And then every Tuesday,
you might go to the communitycollege where you learn about
this new skill and whatever. Sothere's immediately potential
(40:21):
obstacles for potentialworkforce, it could be the
hours, right? Hey, do I need ifI need a daycare for the 40
hours, and I need more daycarefor, you know, that community
college curriculum might betransportation, I need to be two
places now instead of just one.
So there's a couple key thingsthat the the entities you
mentioned also bring to thetable. Right. So it's competency
(40:44):
based learning instead ofclassroom based learning. As
soon as you master this, youmove on, it might not take a
full week, maybe it just takesan hour and a half and you move
on, on Demand Learning, maybeyou can do this at night after
you put the kids to bed. Youknow, there's lots of ways that
you can train and develop peopleoutside of a traditional
(41:06):
classroom, which just has allsorts of baked in requirements
about transportation about, youknow, buildings and facilities
about time commitments, andthings like that. So, yeah,
there are ways to address thesecareer learnings, and you should
be active in pursuing them.
(41:29):
Because you might be makingthings 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 aboutapprenticeships and moving that
needle forward. And then we hadone 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 thebenefits, perks and benefits. So
if you, if you think about whatreally matters to people,
especially if you think aboutentry level employees, what are
things that are really importantto people, one company has had a
lot of success, because theysupplied mobile phones, we will
(42:12):
pay for your phone, and up tothe first you know, they it's
not the, you know, you geteverything you ever want on your
phone kind of thing. Right?
Right. But we will basicallysupply you with this phone and
pay for the first I'm justmaking this up 50 bucks,
whatever. But the you need thatphone to do remote monitoring at
work, and you can check onthings and you know, they're
(42:35):
they're legitimate phone workfunctions, 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 theirpersonal photos, if this. And at
some point, yes, if you leavethe job, you you lose the phone,
and you probably can gain keepall the photos you have and
whatever. But at some point,right? Oh, I would have to
(42:57):
invest in a phone. It's just aperk that helps. Yes, a
retention per. So let's alsotalk about, you know, you supply
snacks or food or whatever it'syour place. Well, one place
decided that for first shift,they're going to they're going
to provide different food perksby shift. First shift, they
provided breakfast. So if peoplewere expected to be on the line
(43:18):
and working at 8am, theyprovided free breakfast from
seven to 745. And for a lot ofpeople believe it or not. That
was it's like, oh, do I get up Igotta slug into work. Oh, I get
free breakfast. You know, itdoesn't sound like it's a lot.
But it saves somebody if yousleep. But it is a lot though.
It can save you IF to like thefast food breakfast, it saves
(43:41):
you 10 bucks and your way towork. I mean, it saves you from
getting whatever there's lots ofI've heard.
Joey Strawn (43:46):
I've heard of companies that offer gas
stipends for people who have tocommute X number of miles or
more. And so they're thoselittle e's of life, like we see
you, we feel you and we areprotecting you from some of the
the things that are in life, youknow, it's just built. That's
(44:06):
what the culture is. And that'swhy it's so hard to define. But
it's all those little thingsthat a group of people that are
associated with the company dueto ease every everyone's lives
and feel upon us.
Nels Jensen (44:18):
Right. And so transportation and childcare are
two of the biggest hugeobstacles from the workforce.
And so you have companies thatare at least asking, how can we
help you with this? And yeah,maybe you employ, you know, you
have 50 people working on yourfloor at any given time. And you
(44:39):
know, there might be verylegitimate reasons why you don't
have you can't have childcare atyour facility. That would be
like an unbelievable perk if youdid, but you might be able to
maybe there's a place on the waythat you can help with
reimbursements for maybe there Imean, it's that's the kind of
thing ask ask your employees,how can you help them Find out
(45:00):
what are the obstacles that theyface? And is there a low? Is
there a local childcare centerthat you could maybe as a
company, donate to or sponsorfor something and then get a
discount for all of youremployees to give their
childcare to that company?
Joey Strawn (45:14):
They're five benefiting? Yes, organizations
like there are, there are waysto explore outside of the status
quo, to improve to improve thosethings. And so, you know,
looking for those opportunitiesis is critical. And that's kind
of the last, you know, the majorexample any more benefits, like
what are the benefits I thinkpeople even think of?
Nels Jensen (45:35):
Yeah, well, it's that's asked, right. So, you
know, in, in some cases, it'sreimbursement for college or
tuition, whatever it might, yes,it might be, you know, it might
be, you know, additional, theflexible hours, the ability to
work part time. I mean, that'sone of those things where you
won't know what's most importantto your employees, if you don't
(45:56):
ask, but this is also gets backto the tough love where we
started, Joey, you can't? Youknow, it's like, if you're not,
we listed a bunch of out of thebox examples. And if like, you
were to say, well, are any ofthese that we can mark it with
Ken, we message around our greatset of benefits. And your, your
(46:17):
senior leadership is like, wedon'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 nowadayswants to work. It's like, no, no
one wants to work parenthesisfor you. And that is a different
issue. So yeah, and that's, youknow, that's why we wanted to
put this in the tough lovetopics category, because it is
an issue that we know, I mean,that's, we'd be so naive to come
(46:48):
into this episode be like, Guesswhat, guys, we discovered
there's an issue with workforcerecruiting in the industrial
b2b, like supply chains. So weknow that it's out there. And we
know that this is an issue thatwe have been that people have
been tackling and talking aboutfor a long time. But the reality
of it is, is there just somevery simple questions to answer
(47:11):
that just may be reallyuncomfortable? And that's okay,
that isn't okay. conversation tohave is, you know, just I want
to I want to now, synthesize itdown for us one last time,
before we close out today, whatare the two things that they can
really honestly answer forthemselves? They can help them
push past this hurdle ofworkforce. Yes.
Nels Jensen (47:34):
You know, what is your purpose? And what is your
culture? Right? Young peoplewant to make a difference in the
world. Why should they come toyour place? Nothing speaks to
your actual workplace culture,more than retention. Why do
people stay? Use your veteranpeople? You know, the people
have been on your floor for 20years, interview them, talk to
(47:55):
them. Yeah, though. They're yourbest spokespeople. They're your
best salespeople. You know, it'sall 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 forlistening to the industrial
Marketer Podcast. If you havequestions for us, or you want to
share examples, or highlightpeople who have done really cool
things in the world of workforcerecruitment, shoot us an email
at podcast at industrialmarketer.com. We'll share
examples on air that we thinkare really, really neat. So
(48:23):
email us, let us know if youhaven't already follow the show
on social please do industrialmarketer you can find us
everywhere that you listen topodcasts. And we're going to be
talking some more tough topicslater this month. But I mean
later this quarter is gonna getreally really fun. And but send
in your thoughts, send in yourquestions. Let's build a
community where we are safe totalk about these tough topics
(48:45):
and grow together as anindustry. So thank you from the
industrial Marketer Podcast anduntil next time, talk to you
then
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.