Recruiting Millennial Employees: How To Make Your Factory Next Generation Ready

The face of manufacturing is changing. As older workers retire, millennials (aged 18 to 35) are the biggest workforce available to manufacturers today. Is your plant ready?

Is Your Factory Recruiting Millennial Employees?

In North America, Baby Boomers represent 80 percent of the manufacturing workforce, and they are retiring at an alarming rate. Each year approximately ten thousand Boomers leave their factory jobs behind. Researchers predict there could be as many as 2 million unfilled manufacturing jobs by 2025. Meaning, it is crunch-time for recruitment in manufacturing. It’s imperative to start planning how your factory will attract millennial employees now and into the future.

However, with today’s tech-driven social media obsessed world, recruitment isn’t an easy task for manufacturers. Studies show that millennials see factory work as dirty, isolated and mundane jobs. So how do you appeal to this tech-savvy, community-oriented workforce?

Using Industry 4.0 In Recruiting Millennial Employees

Millennials have grown up in the digital world. From the time they could walk and talk, they have had access to smart devices with real-time, constant feedback. Now, young professionals, they are keen to join organizations that allow them to collaborate, innovate and build products together. To successfully recruit and retain millennials, factories need to develop a collective mentality where all employees seethemselves as being part of the big picture.

As one of the most educated generations to date, recruiting millennial workers will get easier as more “high-level” positions in engineering, robotics, technology, and research and development open up. With production line workers retire from their jobs too, manufacturers need to attract new front-line employees with fresh thinking, youthful enthusiasm. By adapting plant floors into ‘communities’ through technology and collaboration, employers will bring their factories in-line with millennial ideals.

Freepoint’s Shiftworx Software Engages Millennials

With FreePoint’s Shiftworx, you can achieve a work environment that fosters a sense of belonging at all levels of the company from the ground up. By implementing our Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology in your factory, you can give employees direct insight into the impact of their contributions using statistics. Our black box technology can show them how much of their day is productive. And how, by using their skills, they are spending their time at work to produce something positive for themselves and the greater community.

Shiftworx can help your plant get next generation ready through real-time feedback on production cycles, downtime, uptime and operator productivity. To learn more about FreePoint’s Shiftworx technology, contact us today.