INSIGHTS
11 Tips to Improve Employee Engagement in Manufacturing
Posted by
Rippl
Research suggests 75% of employees within the manufacturing industry are disengaged at work, and since the pandemic, the sector has experienced increased absenteeism and turnover rates. This raises an important question around how satisfied industry employees are and what steps employers need to take to improve happiness and engagement within their workplace.
As one of the least engaged industries of all, businesses risk multiple and steep costs. Gallup data demonstrates the significant differences across key business outcomes between companies in the top- and bottom-quartile when it comes to championing effective employee engagement across all sectors:
- 81% in absenteeism
- 18% in turnover for high-turnover organizations
- 43% in turnover for low-turnover organizations
- 64% in safety incidents
- 41% in quality defects
- 10% in customer loyalty and engagement
- 18% in productivity
- 23% in profitability
Specifically for those in the manufacturing industry, poor employee engagement, absenteeism and turnover rates are not only damaging businesses’ employer brand but overall performance and outputs. So, how can engagement be improved? Let’s explore 11 meaningful ways.
In this article:
- The importance of employee engagement in manufacturing
- Employee engagement trends in manufacturing
- 13 tips to improve employee engagement in manufacturing
- Results of Improved Manufacturing Employee Engagement
- Rippl’s employee engagement platform
- Conclusion
The importance of employee engagement in manufacturing
Workplaces which meaningfully champion wellbeing and engagement are more likely to attract, hire and retain the best talent. And with Deloitte’s 2024 Manufacturing Industry Outlook listing skilled staff shortages as one of the sector’s primary challenges over the coming year, a strong and holistic engagement strategy is fundamental to reaping the rewards of a workforce who deliver their full potential and want to remain in role.
Effective engagement also has significant influence on other industry specific challenges, including improved production quality as more engaged employees hold themselves accountable for their role performance. Similarly, better safety and risk management from higher engagement with internal communications and working processes lead to fewer employee injuries and therefore reduced absenteeism from work-related sickness. Higher quality in employee outputs also directly influence customer satisfaction and quality, and therefore enhanced business outcomes such as sales, revenue and customer loyalty.
Employee engagement trends in manufacturing
So, what are the common barriers to engagement specifically within the manufacturing industry? Firstly, with an operational and frontline workforce, delivering effective and consistent communication can be challenging. Often, those on the factory floor or behind production lines don’t have a corporate email address, providing an instant barrier to engaging the workforce majority who then feel disconnected and inferior to their corporate peers.
Similarly, in a physical and often hazardous working environment, employee health and wellbeing should be championed at all levels to ensure teams are set up and empowered to deliver their best at work, but also prioritise their wellbeing outside of work. However, strategies are often limited in their offer and aren’t truly reflective of the specific needs of the workforce.
Another key barrier to effective engagement is a lack of purpose for many employees in manufacturing roles. Often there is limited visibility around how each team member contributes to a larger purpose and how they can further progress in their career path. With limited visibility, employees’ voices frequently go unheard in their needs, ideas and feedback.
So, what are some of the key ways employers can proactively break down these barriers and create a workplace that elevates employee engagement, happiness and satisfaction?
13 tips to improve employee engagement in manufacturing
1. Innovate communication
As the majority of manufacturing employees are deskless, they often don’t have access to corporate devices nor a company email address. In today’s market, employers need to innovate traditional communication routes to engage employees wherever they are based – whether that’s on the factory floor, on the road or across multiple manufacturing sites. Differing time zones and languages also need to be considered. By investing in technology which enables access to a centralised digital community, employers can innovate these traditional approaches by placing communication and engagement in employees’ pockets so they are connected around the clock – yet currently, just 10% of frontline employees feel they have access to the right technology tools to keep them connected and empowered at work.
2. Invest in training and development
In the best performing organisations, IBM research found 84% of the workforce received the training they needed, in comparison to just 16% of employees in the worst performing organisations. Teams are engaged when they are empowered to learn and grow in their skills, and therefore able to accelerate their career path within the business. As the manufacturing sector faces significant skills gaps, employers need to proactively address this in their workforce by investing in the talent of their people, which in turn will grow their productivity and engagement.
3. Create a safe, clean and comfortable work environment
Particularly within manufacturing, it’s fundamental employees are given a safe and comfortable working environment, including full access to the necessary safety tools and equipment. This should be regularly assessed using official protocols and processes, with adequate opportunity for employees to voice any concerns.
4. Appreciate and celebrate employees
Employees are most engaged when they feel valued, seen and heard for the contribution they bring to the business – when recognised effectively, they are 20x more likely to be engaged at work. Recognition shouldn’t be exclusive to exceeded quotas or targets, it should regularly celebrate wins big and small both in- and outside of role performance. And, happy people create happy businesses. Explore 14 dynamic examples of effective recognition at an individual, team or departmental level.
5. Amplify voices from the frontline
Only 13% of frontline workers are asked to provide their feedback by their managers or senior leaders, despite many being behind the scenes of business operations and therefore having an advantageous perspective on areas for improvement. Implementing regular and consistent feedback opportunities enhances engagement significantly – this should also remain diverse from quick ‘temperature check’ polls to longer-form surveys.
6. Review employee rewards
As many organisations across all sectors face growing demand for blanket pay rises, which for most aren’t feasible, employers need to rethink alternative approaches to ensuring their people receive competitive financial remuneration packages. This is in particularly high demand from frontline and operationally-focused workforces. By designing a reward strategy based on fairness and frequency, this can quickly reverse low engagement and high turnover rates, as seen from IKEA’s example.
7. Meaningfully champion wellbeing
In addition to ensuring the physical environment of employees in manufacturing is safe, a strong and tailored wellbeing strategy should support this in encompassing each pillar of physical, mental, financial and social health. By designing and delivering a tailored benefits package that authentically reflects the unique needs of a diverse and multi-generational workforce, sector employees can make proactive strides in reducing the rise in their staff absences and turnover, which has not been attributed to work-related ill health.
8. Build a culture of belonging
Recognition not only plays a vital role in ensuring employees feel valued in their roles but in championing an inclusive culture where teams feel like they belong. This is particularly crucial for frontline industries in which teams too often feel overlooked – yet, 79% of deskless workers who feel they belong in their organisation actively plan to stay in their role.
9. Connect employees to the bigger picture
Feeding into belonging and inclusivity, deskless or frontline workers often lack purpose in understanding how their role contributes to the wider purpose and success of the organisation. Recognition can also be an enabler here through values-led appreciation. Celebrating examples of how employees have embodied the business’ core values not only creates a stronger culture but importantly contextualises each person’s role in driving the organisation forward.
10. Encourage innovation
Not only are frontline employees granted significantly limited opportunity to provide their feedback with their business, less than half of those who are, feel this is actively listened to or actioned. The very nature of their sector means teams on the ground see their organisation’s vision play out every day – and, importantly, can spot areas for improvement much more visibly than those in head office or as senior decision makers. Hosting a community dedicated to hearing the ideas from employees gives senior leaders first-hand insight into key opportunities for innovation.
11. Invest in operational technology to improve efficiency
It’s not just about automating the People processes. In an industry where much of the day-to-day involves manual builds, checks and changes, employers should look to invest where possible in tools, systems and machinery which automate these to enhance workforce efficiency and satisfaction.
Results of Improved Manufacturing Employee Engagement
So, how do all of these tips contribute to each pillar of workforce engagement? Let’s round up.
Physical engagement
From meaningfully championing every area of employee wellbeing through tailored and accessible benefits, to quality checking and innovating their working equipment to ensuring teams remain connected and informed in a dedicated community, manufacturing employers keep their people physically engaged at work.
Cognitive engagement
By ensuring a culture of learning, training and progression, employees not only have a better understanding of their role and how to excel at work, but are inspired to reach their potential and remain in the business.
Emotional engagement
Feeling valued, seen and heard as well as culturally aligned to the business’ mission ensures employees are emotionally engaged in their work and connected to their organisation – resulting in enhanced job satisfaction, reduced absenteeism and turnover, as well as a stronger peer-to-peer community of support.
Rippl’s employee engagement platform
At Rippl, we don’t believe in average employee engagement strategies. That’s why we streamline multi-dimensional features under one roof and into employees’ pockets to keep disconnected, dispersed and deskless teams engaged around the clock through:
- Personalised recognition, rewards and benefits in your very own employee engagement app that’s fully branded to your business, available in the App Store and Google Play.
- Customisable and agile features that can be added or removed in line with your People needs, so your engagement programme always evolves with your business.
- Global recognition and reward capability, so your people receive a consistent experience, wherever they are.
- Tailored benefits that champion each pillar of employee wellbeing and reflect the unique needs of your teams, so they can be their best both in- and outside of work.
- Dynamic wider features including live polls, surveys, an idea management hub, social timeline and competitions to take engagement to the next level.
We’ve supported leading brands across a diverse range of sectors to reimagine their engagement with a tailored approach, including Emma Bridgewater and Charlie Bigham’s:
Emma Bridgewater launches recognition, reward and benefits with Rippl.
Looking to better connect and empower the teams dispersed across their 7 UK locations, Emma Bridgewater were seeking a solution that streamlined existing HR processes, championed an exceptional recognition and reward culture, and elevated their benefits offer.
Charlie Bigham’s partners with Rippl to revolutionise employee engagement.
Bigham’s place their people at the core of everything they do, making active strides to ensure employees feel valued and appreciated. However, delivering a manual peer-to-peer recognition programme alongside a separate digital benefits app was challenging due to a geographically dispersed team.
Conclusion
Fancy taking a look around in real-time? Book your exclusive platform demo with Sam to dive into the Rippl effect at a time that suits you.
Grab a coffee and read our latest Annual Impact Report, where we explore how Rippl made waves in employee engagement across 2023.
Using Rippl, our customers build tailored and bespoke benefits packages that reflect the unique needs of their workforce. You can host your existing perks within your in-platform benefits hub, or tailor additional benefits into your offer from our extensive catalogue.
Set to your rewards budget, managers distribute reward points to elevate recognition that one step further. All rewards are instantly delivered to employees’ in-platform digital wallets for them to redeem against 300+ retail, travel, hospitality and leisure brands. Plus, any unredeemed rewards are refunded back to you.
We understand every workforce is brilliantly unique. That’s why Rippl can be used for teams with as little as 500 employees, all the way up to 10,000+. Chat to us about pricing based on your workforce size.
Yes! We pride ourselves on providing a platform with global reach, so our customers can deliver a consistent experience to their people. Read our existing case studies here.
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