Automating some of your manufacturing processes can not only increase production but can also reduce waste, boost revenue, modernize your facility—and help retain your employees. Keep reading to learn how.
Smart Automation Lets You Focus on the Important Things
As your older workers start to retire, you need to spend as much time as you can training your newer employees, and passing on the wisdom and judgment they’ve gained after years on the job. By letting automation handle the easy stuff, your people get to thrive in engaging, challenging, and fulfilling jobs. That’s how you capitalize on the irreplaceable human traits that keep our industry going.
The Importance of Employee Retention
Today, employee retention is absolutely imperative. For one thing, it’s not great for morale if your current employees are constantly seeing a lot of turnovers. Not to mention that low retention rates can seriously affect recruiting efforts. This is especially true when you’re trying to combat our tight labor market—it’s more important than ever to keep good people when you find them. Talented people will be wary of your business if they see that your employees don’t stick around.
Automation is making expanded job opportunities (like hiring younger people, keeping older people, and hiring people with disabilities) possible. How? By making traditionally manual, physical labor safer and more adaptable to the changing needs of your employees. When you’re strategic with your process, and you prioritize safety, you can capitalize on advances in automation and help your employees work smarter—not harder.
Smart Automation Helps Your Experienced Employees
The simple fact is, as your workforce ages, certain tasks become harder for them. They might start to lose some of their strength, dexterity, endurance, etc. They might find it difficult to stand for a long shift or carry heavy objects. This is where smart automation comes in. It can help fill in those gaps, allowing your workforce to focus on what machines can’t replace—their judgment, ideas, and innovation. Essentially, automation can help create more ways to get a single job done, in turn enabling said job to be done by a wider variety of people, including older workers or workers with disabilities.
Smart Automation and Your Workforce
Traditionally speaking, as older workers retire, younger workers take their places. Today, however, a lot of manufacturing positions are being left unfilled. As higher education becomes more and more accessible, fewer people entering the workforce are taking blue-collar jobs. This is mainly because there’s a common misconception about these positions—that they’re menial or don’t require much skill.
On the flip side, there’s also a popular misconception surrounding automation—specifically regarding fear that they’re replacing people’s jobs. The truth? Neither of these things has to be true. With smart automation, you can not only better utilize your current workforce but also set your facility up for future growth. When your current workforce retires, automation will help you attract the right talent by allowing your facility’s work to be centered around people’s irreplaceable skills.
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