Our focus on Talent and the Workforce to strategically grow your business.

Using Big Data for workforce planning in manufacturing industry

As many businesses look to international markets, competition is to increase for specific skills and roles, particularly technical and managerial positions, and in certain geographic regions, like China. The same may hold true for US markets. For example, certain sectors of the manufacturing industry are beginning to evaluate new production facilities based in the US, in response to rising transportation costs and in order to be closer to customers, suppliers, and R&D facilities. Finding the right skilled labor to run those operations, such as machinists, will be one key to making a US production strategy work.

Comparing workforce investments across different industries

To get a sense of return on investment for workforce investments, companies will calculate workforce investments by considering all labor costs as a percentage of revenue. They'll also want to compare their findings to industry averages to see where they might be over-or under-spending. Every industry is unique; for example, in the manufacturing industry, organizations invest $185 in workforce compensation and benefit costs to generate each $1,000 in revenue while hospitals, which are more people intensive, invest $455 in workforce compensation and benefit costs to generate each $1,000 in revenue. Once a company has calculated its current return on workforce investment, it can begin applying workforce planning strategies in order to anticipate how future talent needs will affect ROI.

Sales people or truck drivers?

Focusing on spotting the star performers can open organisations to the risk of overlooking roles that are essential to the business. Called pivotal talent, these are the people who disproportionately add value to the organization.

Take the case of a major food distributor that assumed its sales people were one of its most important roles and compensated them accordingly. After a string of customer complaints, the company discovered that its truck drivers were in a make-or-break role, interfacing with clients and solving problems on the spot. The long hours, undesirable schedules, and inefficient operations were leading to low employee engagement and high turnover. Once the company realized the true impact of their role, it could make changes to address their needs.

Mixing the personal with the digital

Companies can take advantage of technology to facilitate talent mobility. Online training, video networking, and collaboration software enables people to work together on a single project from disparate locations. That eliminates any concerns about immigration restrictions, moving costs, and employee resistance to relocation. The master engraver of Tiffany, for instance, travels to other countries to train local employees, but then follows up via video conferencing.