Meeting Expectations

Meeting Expectations

Flexibility is the key to worker retention at Salford Group

By Scott Garvey

When the band Loverboy released its song “[Everybody’s] Working for the Weekend” in 1981, it may have been more prophetic than anyone realized. 1981 is generally accepted as the first birth year of the millennial generation. And, like the Gen Xers before them, they’re much more concerned about establishing a comfortable work-life balance than the earlier baby boomer generation. The Gen Xers have been described as a cohort that works to live, rather than lives to work.

That’s the basis of one of the biggest challenges facing today’s HR managers. They need to wrangle a workforce of people who have very different priorities and goals. But numerous studies suggest they don’t need to throw out every strategy that has worked for the baby boomers as the Gen Xers and Millennials gradually come to dominate the nation’s workforce. Instead, they’ll need to think on their feet and adapt quickly to changing workforce attitudes.

George Peters, senior operations manager at Salford in Southern Ontario, believes flexibility has been the key to keeping boots on the company’s factory floors. “We definitely want to keep doing what we have been doing,” he says, “but if we find the culture changes or it becomes difficult to keep the employees motivated or engaged, we’ll have to adjust.”

One of the broad cultural changes that has added a challenge to the manufacturing sector is the fact many blue-collar professions are no longer in vogue.

“It’s social,” agrees Geof Gray, Salford’s president. “[Manufacturing] is not seen as a great career, although a lot of times trades make more money than other career choices. It’s a cultural thing. There’s been a big shift in the last twenty years away from manufacturing training in high schools. But that is a whole trade thing; there aren’t enough people going into trades.”

Salford is making efforts to try to reshape that perception and to show young adults that working in a manufacturing trade could actually be a rewarding experience.

I think it comes down to making employees feel that they’re part of the organization on decision making. Making sure that they have a voice and that they’re heard.

“The high schools here have work experience programs, and we’ve brought in students from those programs,” explains Beverley Taylor, Salford’s HR manager. “Quite often, once they graduate, they choose to stay on.”

“We’ve been attending more job fairs for helping with recruitment,” adds Peters. “We’re involved with some of the local colleges and universities and co-op programs.”

“We’ve done what we can, having the high schools come through, working with them and making sure we keep promoting [trades],” says Gray.

In the past, the focus on recruiting at the high school and college level has paid dividends, and Peters considers it well worth continuing the effort. “Some of our best employees started fresh out of school one or two decades ago and they’re still here,” he says. “Now they’re in supervisory positions.”

But finding staff is one thing, keeping them is quite another. Millennials in particular have become known for their willingness to quickly jump ship if a job doesn’t meet their expectations or satisfy them.

So far, finding the right approach to employee retention has been a matter of trial and error, says Peters. The company has experimented with a number of initiatives in an effort to meet generational expectations. The first and most obvious move is to be wage competitive.

“There has been a lot of wage pressure around here—and pretty much North America wide,” Peters says. “It’s tough for the ag sector, because ag is struggling a little bit. But because of the pressure, we did a larger than average wage increase. We did an overall 2.8 per cent increase. We also increased our night shift premium from $1 to $2.20. “We also offer them profit sharing. Many seem to be motivated by that. We pay that out twice a year.”

Everybody’s working for the weekend, remember? But every study confirms the younger generations aren’t primarily focused on the numbers on their paycheques. Although, wage rates are expected to become more important to both new generations as they get older, that isn’t yet the top focus of millennials.

“We also offer them—especially when we’re not as busy—more flex time, flexible hours,” Peters continues. “During the busy season we’ll offer them overtime, but it’s flexible at the beginning and the end of the shift. They can work the overtime that fits their lifestyle. Also, in the slow season we offer additional unpaid time off over and above their personal paid vacation days. Those are things that seem to be important to millennials.”

Giving employees the opportunity to move up the ranks and grow within the organization meets another of the new generations’ key expectations. That’s now easier to do at Salford.

“We promote from within,” says Taylor. “I think those kinds of opportunities have really allowed people to grow within the organization.”

That has encouraged workers to try new challenges and take advantage of those opportunities the company can provide.

“We’ve always had a culture of promoting from within,” Peters adds. “But in certain cases, the promotions didn’t work out for various reasons and we’d backfill their positions, so we couldn’t move them back. In the last few years, what we’ve been doing is a threemonth trial period. If it doesn’t work out for the employee or the company, they can have their old position back. And whoever is filling their old position, they also sign on knowing they might have to be bumped back to their previous position. They have that safety net. We have a lot [more] filings for internal postings.”

There are other incentives for long-term service, including increased vacation time and extra personal paid days off.

Seniority benefits are built into the pay scale, too.

Millennials and Gen Xers are also big on technology, so having a digital component in their daily routine can help keep their interest.

“We do have some technology out there,” Peters says. “We have some tablets at the work stations. It seems that does help with the level of engagement. And we do have certain job functions that are much more computer based, like maintaining operator’s manuals. That is a department where we usually promote into from within.”

Finally, all studies show the new generations aren’t a fit for oldfashioned, top-down management.

“I think it comes down to making employees feel that they’re part of the organization on decision making,” Peters says, “making sure that they have a voice and that they’re heard.”

Implementing these programs has been a morale booster, and they have led to at least one result management didn’t expect. The company’s own workers have become informal recruiters, helping find new staff.

“They would promote us to their friends and family members,” Peters explains. “That would turn into more applicants coming and knocking on our door.”

Staying with a flexible approach and keeping a close eye on what works and what doesn’t will remain a key component to HR management at Salford in the future.

“A lot of the programs grow as you go along,” says Taylor. “They’re working fine until they’re not, until you hit a bump in the road. Then you simply revise policy or address it with everyone and say because we’ve had these issues, now this is what we’re going to do. As long as you communicate with everyone and get their feedback, which I think we do a lot of also, everyone accepts it and we carry on.”

The problems facing HR departments, particularly in the ag sector, aren’t likely to change anytime soon, only the solutions will.

“[The problem] is still going to be finding people for the manufacturing industry,” says Gray, summing things up.” I don’t see that changing.”