If you pay attention to worker productivity, the 80/20 rule seems to play out when you let things alone. 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people and vice versa. But if you manage individual employee productivity, that is, work with each team member to learn their career goals and understand how to harness their acute skills, then you can build a 50/50 high performance team where everyone contributes nearly an equal share of effort and output.
If “just showing up is 80%,” staying the course is infinitely better!
Finding and keeping good people remains one of the biggest challenges for manufacturers. Most employers are familiar with the new employee who shows great promise during the onboarding phase. They seem like a keeper, only to leave when a personal issue or a perceived better offer comes along.
While not every new hire works out, at GMFCo, we continually strengthen our core and enjoy watching employees we consider to be “keepers” build great lives and families over the years. In fact, 15 employees have been with us for over 10 years and six are still here after 30+ years! They’ve had secure positions with us through several significant recessions including the current pandemic.
Every Department is an HR Department
Our strategy has been to build a strong and loyal team over time by getting to know each of our people as individuals and what makes them tick. They support our business success as we support their career success. If we expect employee engagement and loyalty, we must be loyal and nurturing as an organization throughout every department.
Our goal for every team member is for them to feel the confidence of having a great job with opportunities to learn and grow. We’ve achieved this with our core team and strive to discover the career goals and special skills of every employee, offering a career success path that starts right where they are.
Getting the word out about being a great place to work can be a challenge when skilled people tend to have plenty of choices and recruiters are competing for their attention. Essentially, we’re always hiring for positions with upward mobility and offer this message to people in our market who want to apply their skills in meaningful ways.
The Business We Are Really In
What does all this HR and recruiting talk have to do with large metal fabricating and machining? In two words, commitment and skills. Again, ask any manufacturer today about their top 3 priorities and we’ll bet they include finding and keeping good people as one of them.
We’re proud of our industry and grateful for the opportunities to bring tangible, solid results to our customers. To make the things that make our world work, our industry needs committed people who enjoy working with their minds and applying it with their hands. We need motivated individuals who like seeing their work form into key components for important defense, municipal and industrial projects.