How to Recruit for Manufacturing Positions: 4 Strategies Beyond Job Boards
When you need to hire a maintenance technician, manufacturing engineer, or production supervisor, posting the position on a major job board is an obvious first step. But it shouldn’t be your entire recruiting strategy.
Some of the best candidates aren’t searching job boards. If you’re wondering how to recruit for manufacturing positions beyond posting another job ad, try these four strategies to expand your talent pool.
1. Build a Silver Medalist Pipeline
Think about the last five positions you filled. What happened to the candidates who made it to the final round but didn’t get the offer?
Those “silver medalists” can be some of your best prospects for future openings. You already know they’re interested in your company, and you’ve already invested time in evaluating their experience. Don’t let that relationship disappear when the position is filled by someone who was a slightly better fit for that particular opportunity.
Start by creating a searchable list of strong previous candidates. Record the roles they interviewed for, relevant skills, location, and why they weren’t selected. Then, stay in touch. A quarterly email with new opportunities is enough to keep the relationship warm. When you need to recruit for manufacturing jobs, the hiring managers can reach out individually to candidates who already have your company top-of-mind.
The key is to treat “not this job” differently from “not our company.” NIST recommends making recruiting an ongoing process even when there isn’t an immediate opening. Your past finalist pool is one of the easiest places to start.
2. Use Social Media to Create Awareness of Your Workplace
Don’t limit social recruiting to posting a link that says, “We’re hiring.”
Manufacturing has a major advantage when it comes to recruiting content: there’s something interesting to show. Film a technician troubleshooting a piece of equipment. Have an engineer explain a project in 30 seconds. Show the technology on the plant floor. Ask an employee what they learned during their first year.
A short video can communicate things a job description can’t: What does the facility actually look like? What equipment will I work with? Does the company invest in modern technology? What could I learn here? Do the workers seem like people I would get along with?
That visibility can also help address outdated perceptions of manufacturing careers. NIST recommends plant tours and other firsthand experiences to show prospective workers what modern manufacturing actually looks like.
Make the content useful even when you aren’t actively hiring. Instead of building a social presence entirely around vacancies, make it a habit to spotlight what’s going on at your facility. When a position does open, prospective candidates may already know who you are and have a curiosity about job opportunities.
And don’t rely solely on the company account. Encourage employees and hiring managers to share recruiting content with their own professional networks. A post from someone actually doing the work can carry more context than another corporate job announcement.
3. Recruit for Transferable Skills
Suppose you’re hiring an industrial maintenance technician. Instead of searching exclusively for candidates who have already held that exact title in your specific manufacturing sector, break the position into the skills required to succeed: electrical troubleshooting, PLC knowledge, hydraulics, pneumatics, preventive maintenance or experience diagnosing automated equipment.
Then ask: Where else do people develop those skills?
A field service technician may have spent years troubleshooting industrial equipment at customer sites. Someone from another manufacturing sector may know different machinery but have extensive experience with the same controls platform. A veteran may have relevant electrical, mechanical, or maintenance experience without a conventional manufacturing resume.
Before launching a difficult search, divide your requirements into three categories:
- Must know on day one
- Transferable from another environment
- Teachable after hire
An employee with a growth mindset can make as much impact as someone with experience if they are given a chance to learn. Plus, they may bring skill sets from their previous work experiences that can positively transform certain processes.
4. Build Talent Pipelines at Trade Schools and Colleges
When wondering where to recruit manufacturing employees, consider where your current employees were before entering their careers. Most likely, they went to trade school or college to learn more about different career paths and build their skills. Top candidates won’t apply for your job postings if they don’t know your company exists, so it’s important to build awareness early on.
Start by identifying nearby high schools, career and technical education programs, community colleges, and universities that teach the skills you routinely hire. Then build an ongoing relationship with the faculty, career-services teams, and students. There are many ways to build ongoing, mutually beneficial relationships with educational institutions, but here are just a few ideas:
- Offer to give a classroom presentation about careers in manufacturing
- Invite students to tour your facility
- Create opportunities for students to shadow your employees for a day
- Participate in advisory boards
- Develop internships, co-ops, or apprenticeships that give students a path from the classroom into your workplace
The payoff isn’t necessarily an immediate applicant, but becoming one of the companies students, instructors, and career counselors think of when someone asks, “Where should I work after graduation?” Developing a pipeline of talent starting at the student level is also an effective strategy to prepare for manufacturing retirement and knowledge loss.
Learn More About How to Recruit Manufacturing Employees
Contact a manufacturing recruiter at Hunter for additional workforce management and hiring strategies.
