4 Reasons Why You Could Be Losing Your Talented Additive Manufacturing Workforce
4 reasons why you could be losing your talented additive manufacturing workforce
Do you think you are losing your additive manufacturing workforce? Your workforce is one of your greatest assets in your business so it is important to understand their key motivators and also drivers that cause them to leave. Here are 4 key reasons why you could be loosing your most talented Additive Manufacturing workforce.
1. A Lack Of Understanding Of Your Employees’ Career Aspirations
In today’s fast-paced and competitive employment landscape, beyond just the Advanced Manufacturing industry, all professionals have their own personal goals and ambitions. These maybe small-scale such as simply becoming even more competent in a skill that an employee already has, or on a larger scale such as wishing to acquire more responsibility and stepping into a management position. Whatever an employee’s professional objectives are, you should be aware of it, since this insight can add value to your business.
How? Employees don’t want to feel like their job is just their job- something they do everyday. The thought of going to work should fill them with enthusiasm, their work should stem from their passion and interests aligned to the tasks of their position. Therefore having an understanding of how you can assist them in ensuring that they remain motivated to achieve more and succeed within their position will be greatly appreciated by any employee. This also adds to fostering an open and collaborative culture, where employees feel that they can openly speak about any issues, concerns, or thoughts with their seniors. Additionally, it will give you an overview of factors, even trending and common aspects amongst your work force that points towards areas of improvements to be made in your employee retention strategy. For example, it could be the case that a few of your employees mention that they don’t feel challenged enough in their position- something which they include in their professional goals to achieve, or maybe an individual feels that their responsibilities are expanding yet not in the direction in which they wish to take within the company. Therefore again, having an understanding of and taking action on your employees aspirations will demonstrate they you value their work.
2. Not empowered to innovate
Every employee who is truly invested in their position and the company they work for often feels empowered. Empowerment is giving your employees the power to do something, the level of control they desire within their position and the confidence to suggest things. Of course there are structures and boundaries but giving the opportunity for employees to have a say in a decision that affects their work environment is really valued by the work force. Furthermore, taking the time out of your schedule to sit down and conduct an appraisal with each employee allows them to not only speak about what they desire but also enable you to gain valuable suggestions on areas to improve the efficiency or operation of your business. After all, suggestion to change is never a bad thing
3. Routine Jobs
Every employee appreciates the responsibilities of their position, yet working on a relatively narrow-set of repeated tasks everyday can become boring. It is therefore important to understand how you as an employer can keep your employees motivated and engaged in their position: enabling them to conduct their daily tasks but also add a level of spontaneity or change every now and then to their job. For example, this might be giving an opportunity for an employee to work on a project of a slightly different nature to what they are used to, which would still require their skills set, or taking into consideration and giving the autonomy to an employee to try and approach a particular project in a different way.
4. Focus on specialization and not cross functionality in a position
Organizations are too focused on specialization and not enough attention is on cross-functional roles that enable professionals within a company to have a general overview of the projects they are working on. This lack of understanding can affect the inter-team dynamics and ability to see how the work that your employee does adds value to the business. The limited transfer of knowledge between employees can therefore reduce the ability of the business to grow. Additionally, there is an element of risk for the business when an employee with very specific expertise leaves the business and takes that knowledge with them, leaving a knowledge gap in the workforce.
The four points highlighted above are limiting AM companies’ capability of keeping the AM knowledge in-house and hence affecting the medium/long term success potential of the business.
Alexander Daniels Global are specialists in the arena of Talent in Advanced Manufacturing and 3D Printing, if you would like to learn and understand more about how the industry, and more specifically our business can overcome the challenges of identifying, engaging, and retaining AM talent then get in touch with us.
Let us help and guide you
At Alexander Daniels Global, we are specialized in recruitment for the additive manufacturing industry. If you have any questions or if there is anything you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to reach out to us – we are happy to help!
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