How can the right production employees be found?

A production employee is an employee in a world with many, many opportunities. Many industries, many different tasks in these industries and many specializations within them offer their own opportunities. What sounds so romantic and motivating, however, is less romantic for the individual employee. So the question arises, how can the jobs and vacancies be filled?

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

What is the impact of the shortage of skilled workers in production?

The shortage of skilled workers is an old problem that the industry has been warning about for a long time. But it is also a new problem, as it is becoming more and more apparent and makes it difficult to handle the growing number of orders in many industrial sectors. That is why solutions must be found to ensure that enough production workers can still be recruited.

However, the shortage of skilled workers is not just a problem in Germany. Employees with a good education are needed all over the world. The number of trainees has long been insufficient to meet the increasing demand in the future.

One reason for this is the trend toward increasing academization. More and more students choose university after graduating from high school instead of vocational training. If we take the typical 30-year-old employee as an example, 40% of them now hold a university degree. This makes them unavailable for most jobs in production.

There are various ways of dealing with this problem. For example, more girls and women are being encouraged to work in typically male domains. More workers are also being recruited from abroad and efforts are being made to increase staff pooling. The latter consists of temporary workers, contractors and freelancers, for example, who can be deployed wherever there is a need for workers.

Are companies still finding new workers themselves?

The shortage of skilled workers also means that companies are trying to avoid pooling. Instead of relying on workers from outside the company who are not always available as required, they want to retain them. This can be achieved through permanent employment.

To this end, companies also look for new employees on their own initiative. This personnel recruiting then consists of specifically approaching specialists whose expertise is needed in the company. However, this brings with it a problem. Your own company has focused on production. The entire technical expertise is focused on this. Now a new skill needs to be created. This consists of finding, approaching and recruiting potential employees.

This new competence also consumes resources. Employees who could be working in production are now busy finding ways to recruit new workers. Added to this are financial resources that are spent on advertising measures, for example.

If in-house recruiting is carried out properly, it definitely makes sense. This is especially true if it succeeds in finding enough and above all the right, skilled workers. It is also important to build a strong bond with the company so that new employees do not have to be quickly replaced again. This is often the case when hiring career starters or lateral entrants.

A special bond can be achieved for these cases, for example, by promoting training and further education. This makes the company attractive to these groups of people and allows them to grow within it.

How does the recruitment of skilled workers for production work?

Recruiting skilled workers who already have professional experience, on the other hand, poses a particular challenge. They usually already have a job and need to be convinced to change jobs and join the company. This entails a much greater marketing effort.

Either way, however, a process must first be developed that extends from marketing to the selection of suitable employees. This means finding marketing channels, creating the marketing message and objectively defining selection criteria. Then it is a matter of screening the applicants according to the selection criteria and finding the best people among them.

This effort is often forgotten by smaller companies in particular, who see recruiting on their own as a way to save costs. In the end, however, it is always a question of weighing up the pros and cons. Does concentrating on the core business generate more revenue, which allows recruiting to be outsourced, or does it actually make sense to invest the company's resources in a new task that is not part of the core business?

How can personnel service providers make a contribution?

Many companies want to save the effort of staff recruiting and hand these tasks over to an external recruitment agency. Such a staffing provider can either support the internal HR department in finding new employees or take over the entire recruitment process.

Recruitment agencies specialize in finding qualified workers. They are able to efficiently identify potential employees, even those professionals who would never respond to a standard job posting. Conversely, they can also handle a flood of applications and select the right candidates from them.

The search can be conducted regionally or nationally. Even employees who are already in employment can be approached if the new job promises better conditions.

The skills of personnel service providers are no coincidence. They know the sectors, they have a pool of potential employees. They use various placement models and are integrated into valuable recruiting networks.

How do recruitment agencies place workers?

Personnel service providers usually use one of two models, depending on how quickly the workforce is needed and what qualifications they require. The first is direct placement and the second is employee leasing.

For Temporary employment in the production sector, also known as temporary work, temporary employment usually involves the rapid placement of personnel. This personnel only has a low level of qualification and is often only needed for a short period of time. In this context, foreign workers, for example as temporary workers from Eastern Europe, often play an important role.

Direct placement on the other hand, aims to find well-qualified specialists or top personnel. The focus here is less on time and more on quality. Long-term employment relationships are also often sought for these employees.

If particularly highly qualified employees are sought, the personnel service provider also uses a special form of placement, headhunting. This form is very resource-intensive, time-consuming and requires a great deal of experience. This is why companies' internal HR departments often fail in this area.

Headhunters, on the other hand, have special databases and networks at their disposal. They also monitor job and career portals. This allows them to see what is in demand and where, and they can track which applicants can be found when needed. They can then approach them directly. This often applies even if the candidates themselves already have a job or are not looking for a new position at all.

How do recruiters select workers for production?

The goal of personnel placement is to find suitable employees. This means selecting from the number of applicants those who truly meet the needs of the hiring company. But how do staffing agencies know what is required? For this, they create a detailed job profile.

This job profile is developed by the recruitment agency based on the specifications provided by the company. It covers aspects such as qualifications, work experience, and, if necessary, additional skills. Soft skills are also considered, such as the ability to work independently or as part of a team.

The job profile then allows the staffing agency to begin the search. They use databases, place ads, and search in career networks. If a candidate meets the job profile, the agency presents them as a potential hire to the client company. The next step is the job interview, where the candidate convinces the employer directly.

Sometimes recruitment agencies are also involved in the interview. They also often carry out psychological tests to determine who is really suitable for the position. They can then derive recommendations for the hiring company from these tests.

What costs are associated with appointing a personnel service provider?

Recruitment agencies usually charge a success-based fee. This means the fee is only due if an employment contract is signed between the hiring company and the candidate. If no contract is concluded, no costs are incurred. The commission is typically calculated as a percentage of the new employee’s projected annual salary. Importantly, applicants themselves do not pay for the placement.

Is it worth working with a recruitment agency?

Appointing a recruitment agency helps to relieve the burden on a company's internal HR department. Companies rely on this solution in particular when they need to process a high volume of applicants quickly or when there is a high fluctuation in the workforce.

They also use them when they want to find a suitable candidate quickly or are specifically looking for a highly sought-after qualification. Recruiters are then able to use their existing processes to efficiently achieve the desired result.

Recruitment agencies have access to a vast pool of applicants. They know the industry and maintain their own networks, enabling them to quickly find workers with a wide range of qualifications.

Another important aspect is that recruitment is carried out discreetly. This way, competitors are not made aware of internal hiring processes, and unrest among existing staff, who may feel threatened by new hires, is avoided.

There are also a number of other advantages:

• This enables personnel service providers to fill vacancies quickly. This is particularly important when order peaks need to be processed.
• They can also reduce internal workload. Recruitment agencies already have established processes and candidate pools that internal HR departments would first need to build from scratch. Even in difficult labor market conditions, strong recruitment providers can still find the right candidates.
• In addition, staffing agencies have solid expertise in labor law and know how best to structure contracts. They are also able to identify highly sought-after workers outside the region and persuade them to change jobs.

How can employee leasing help with recruiting?

Employee leasing means that a staffing company provides workers to another company. These employees do not become part of the core workforce but work at the client company only temporarily, which is why this model is also known as temporary work.

The type of work, pay, and hours are agreed upon between the leasing company and the client. The client company has no obligation to continue employing the temporary workers afterward, which allows them to handle workload peaks efficiently.

The leased employees remain under contract with the staffing agency during their assignment. This means the client only pays for the hours actually worked. The search for candidates, the application process, and personnel administration all remain the responsibility of the staffing provider.

Temporary employment is therefore one of the most flexible ways to compensate for short-term staff shortages. It also offers the opportunity to fill existing vacancies in the main company on a permanent basis. The company initially employs the temporary workers for a trial period. If they prove themselves, the company takes them on as permanent employees.

For employers, this is a perfect solution. It is low risk and cost-efficient, while allowing them to test potential employees. They can evaluate qualifications, soft skills, and motivation before committing to a permanent hire.

This is also a good opportunity for the employee concerned to prove themselves and their skills. If the employee convinces the hiring company, it hires them permanently - often in a position that this person might not have gotten through a traditional job search.

Conclusion

Companies can, of course, try to fill vacancies on their own even in times of skilled labor shortage. If this does not succeed, or if the effort becomes too great, they can turn to staffing agencies.

Recruitment providers, in turn, offer different solutions for different challenges. These range from classic candidate placement to employee leasing and even headhunting.

For this, staffing agencies bring their own databases, networks, and processes, which allow them to quickly find the right candidates. They also provide legal support, for example, in structuring employment contracts and work relationships.