Recruiting Tips for Michigan’s Manufacturers

Throughout the years, manufacturing jobs and technology have evolved. In order to be successful and sustain quality employees, recruiting efforts must also evolve with them. Manufacturing companies now require potential employees to have superior science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) capabilities.

Organizations also face the ongoing challenge of recruiting the best and most qualified employees to maintain growth and meet bottom line expectations. In this technologically advanced world, what are the best ways to attract and recruit well-equipped employees?

4 Common Recruiting Challenges  
The first step is identifying recruiting challenges before designing a recruitment plan. Typical recruiting challenges include:

1. The best employees are usually employed elsewhere.
2. The newspaper is no longer the only way people look for jobs.
3. We need to improve the perception of manufacturing careers.
4. There is a shortage of individuals with the required skills in the local labor pool.

Ideas to Improve your Efforts
Once all challenges are identified, short and long term recruiting strategies can be developed. Here are some suggestions:

• Be an active member in the community. Sponsor events and support local business and not-for-profit organizations. These connections broaden your hiring network and create company awareness.
• Recruit veterans! These men and women are trained and ready to work. They possess technical skills, problem solving skills and the discipline today’s manufacturing environment demands. Offer to hold a job fair or create a job placement service for local veterans.  
• Always be recruiting. Do NOT wait until a position becomes vacant. Continual recruiting efforts ensure a pre-qualified list of candidates is at your disposal.
• Develop relationships with local technical high schools and vocational schools with STEM programs. Check out this link to learn about STEM schools in Michigan.  
• Partner with STEM schools to provide academic guidance and course curriculum development. This ensures the next generation will have skills required to be successful in your company.
• Develop an internship and mentoring program. Your company will have a consistent pipeline of new employees already indoctrinated to your corporate culture.   
• Partner with companies in your supply chain by sharing resumes. When all of their open positions are filled they may be willing to share your job openings with qualified recruits. Make other local manufacturers aware of your open positions.
• The use of social media in recruiting is no longer optional. Potential new employees are tech savvy and immediately check the Internet to learn about your company. Take advantage of these platforms to promote open positions and recruit new talent.
• Make sure your efforts provide results. Measure and monitor each hiring campaign. Not all efforts provide results. Abandon those techniques that are proven duds.

Your goal is to hire highly skilled employees in the most cost effective way possible! MMTC offers a variety of services including projects that will improve your workforce. For more information, click here to see a list of MMTC’s solutions or contact us at 888-414-6682 or inquiry@mmtc.org. 


Since 1991, MMTC has assisted Michigan’s small and medium-sized businesses compete and grow. Through personalized services fitted to meet the needs of clients, we develop more effective business leaders, drive product and process innovation, promote company-wide operational excellence and foster creative strategies for business growth and greater profitability. Find us at www.mmtc.org.