Today’s environment presents various business continuity challenges for European manufacturers. Eurostat expects the EU-27’s median age, a helpful guide to a population’s overall age characteristics, to rise by more than four years by 20501. Increases are expected in every EU member state.
In short, the labour force is ageing.
Inevitably this will mean a sustained wave of retirements. Among Baby Boomers, this is already evident and exacerbated by the decisions of many not to return to work after the disruption of COVID-19.
There is less talent available.
A contracting labour market, partly down to the ageing population, is making recruitment harder. McKinsey2 expects Europe’s working-age population to shrink by 4% by the end of this decade: Germany is leading the way with a decline of almost 8%.
Furthermore, those left in the labour market are often working less. Over the last two decades, the average working week has shrunk by almost an hour — nearly 3%.
Skills Shortages persist.
Specific skills shortages compound the challenges raised by declining labour availability. Randstad reports that some 10 million manufacturing jobs remain unfilled worldwide, with manufacturers “hiring for nearly every position” because of the high demand for tech skills3. Meanwhile, the UK’s Shortage Occupation List features diverse engineering disciplines, including production and process engineers4, and Europa.jobs reports shortages in areas including welders, flame cutters and sheet metal workers5.
While 68% of manufacturers see digital manufacturing as key, 72% of factory tasks are still performed by humans, and 71% of manufacturing value is created by human interactions6. This is not an issue that can simply be “automated away”.
The “Zoomers” are here.
Generation Z is a growing force in the labour market. There are 2 billion of them, and it’s expected that by 2025 they will account for 27% of the global workforce7. It’s therefore vital for Manufacturers to learn how to attract and retain them, adapting to their unique outlook on life and work.
Gen-Zers have seen earlier generations experience “burnout, time poverty and economic insecurity,” reports Ali Francis for the BBC8. They want more from work: “more time off, the flexibility to work remotely and greater social and environmental responsibility.” We’d add to that list: a better work-life balance, visibility into future opportunities, and technology in preference to traditional working methods.
While many of these were preferences for Millennials, they have become red-line expectations for many Gen-Zers, who will leave employers rather than compromise on them.
Factors such as these create a severe business continuity headache for European manufacturers.
How can they secure the future when access to essential labour is so uncertain? Here are four approaches to consider.
1. Upskilling
With a limited labour force available, every employee, whether managerial or on the shop floor, must have the necessary skills to excel in their role, creating value, solving problems, realising optimal value from technology investments, and engaging effectively with co-workers, suppliers, and customers.
Manufacturers should build a culture that recognises the value of continuous learning and development and invest in the necessary technological and other infrastructure to deliver it.
Today’s consumer-grade digital learning management systems have a significant part to play, making ongoing learning attractive, easy to navigate and tailorable to everyone’s needs.
2. Communicating with your workforce
Manufacturers must understand and align with their workers’ motivations. As we’ve noted, Gen Zers differ markedly from previous generations in their ethics, priorities, and preferences, and they will leave jobs which they feel are poorly aligned with their take on what life and work should be.
With an accurate understanding of the motivations of their current and future labour, manufacturers can build powerful talent acquisition and retention strategies to align with those motivations, maintaining and improving productivity and growth even in the face of talent shortages and a shrinking labour market.
Today’s leading labour management software tools facilitate internal communication and offer anecdotal and proactive feedback, helping manufacturers gain a more transparent, more accurate picture of workers’ motivations and attitudes.
3. Adapting to Changing Life-Work Standards
Increasingly workers value control over when they work and what they do. Modern labour management suites allow employees to swap shifts, request time off and pick up additional shifts as and when they want, without the direct involvement of supervisors and managers.
Intelligent software, supported by detailed data such as customer demand, raw material availability, worker skills, capabilities and certifications, handles such requests according to pre-set rules, ensuring the right individuals are allocated to each task and that regulatory requirements are satisfied.
4. Making Information Accessible
Gen-Zers, and to a lesser extent, Millennials and even Gen Xers, typically prefer to use familiar technology to access information rather than requesting it from other employees. Leading labour management tools can provide information on-demand on topics such as employee benefits, company policies, and personal information like salary details without recourse to the HR department.
These are a few ways in which leading-edge labour management tools and strategies can make manufacturing businesses more attractive to workers, helping them recruit, retain, and upskill the best people for their needs, securing the labour they need for today and the future, and ensuring business continuity.
Explore this guide to learn how you can use digital technologies to unleash maximum potential from your manufacturing workforce.
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