In today’s challenging landscape, the vast majority of manufacturers are prioritising attracting and retaining talent. Deloitte found that 74% of executives put finding the right talent in their top five business challenges.¹ Investing in people is key to realising business strategy and achieving growth.

With people foundational to your business success and widespread skills shortages, it’s little wonder that many manufacturers are concerned. But there’s hope. Innovation can not only help you meet your business’s strategic objectives, it can help you become a magnet for top talent.

Investing in technology should be a priority for all stakeholders responsible for talent management. Doing so can help:

• Support key business objectives by attracting and retaining top talent
• Drive new product development and revenue growth
• Boost productivity and profitability

Being an innovator can help attract and retain top talent.

Almost 45% of manufacturing executives said that their company has been forced to decline business opportunities due to a shortage of staff.² So, it’s no surprise that one in three executives had retaining high-performing employees as their strategic priority for 2023.

By leveraging cutting-edge technologies, your business can:

• Enable hybrid working to expand your prospective talent pool
• Implement reward programs and enable engaging and tailored training
• Become known as a forward-thinking, sustainable and responsible employer
• Make the workplace even safer

Increasingly, potential employees are looking for much more than just a good salary. They want flexibility, such as remote working. Obviously that’s an area where connectivity and security—and investing in their enhancement—is vital. They want to find a company that’s investing in the future—as it will be their future, too. Companies with significant legacy technologies without a strategy to update them may face difficulties in attracting the best talent. 

To attract the best—and engage with existing staff—you must demonstrate that you have strong values and are a forward-looking company. Potential employees want to know that the future new employer shares their values, too. Seeing that you’re investing in green technology and that you’re updating processes to make them simpler to adhere to can make a real difference. 

For example, if a prospective employee sees that your business is using technology to track, report on and reduce your carbon footprint, they may be more attracted to your company.

But it’s not just about attracting new talent. Retention is key as well. By using automation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and robotics, manufacturers can make the jobs that they offer more rewarding. Employees can be freed from doing monotonous, even boring, tasks. Instead, people can focus on more value-adding activities.

This sometimes requires upskilling. Fortunately, technology can help here, too. Innovative tools can make training more engaging and support users while they work. 

For example, manufacturers are using augmented reality overlays to provide upfront training on new equipment, and then deliver step-by-step instructions as workers are doing their jobs. If an employee is struggling with an unfamiliar situation, they can call for virtual help or consult with a more experienced colleague. Technology means that expertise could be thousands of miles away, but the collaboration is still seamless and effective.

Leverage people-centric technologies to drive productivity.

You don’t need to be reminded that poor workplace safety has a negative impact on the health of your workforce and your reputation. Investing in technologies such as AI/ML, intelligent video analytics and sensorisation can help improve the safety of staff without the need for cumbersome processes that employees find frustrating—which compromise productivity. 

Technology can:

• Enable real-time monitoring of compliance with safety policies—and automatically shut down equipment if required
• Automate highly-laborious tasks where employees might lose focus and could lead to accidents
• Identify supply chain problems more quickly, helping to reduce waste and safety issues

Manufacturers are leveraging private wireless networks and edge computing to create real-time applications. For example, manufacturers are enabling proactive safety by fitting facilities, machinery and robots with sensors and implementing intelligent video monitoring. This could spot when someone isn’t wearing the right safety gear and deactivate machinery until this is rectified. This could predict a collision between vehicles and with people. Warnings could be sent in time to prevent injury and damage.

Technology doesn’t have to be obtrusive. Quite the opposite in fact. A great example of this is using biometrics to control access to different areas of the building. Employees sometimes forget entry passes and leave dongles at home. Fingerprint scanning and face recognition don’t suffer these problems and can be more secure. Face recognition can be entirely contactless and eliminate the issue of tailgating—unauthorised people gaining entry into a secure area by closely following somebody with legitimate access.

This is just the start. Autonomous mobile robots and drones are becoming familiar in factories. They can relieve employees of strenuous work and reduce physical injuries. Manufacturers are also starting to implement cobotics, where humans and machines work collaboratively.

The right network can help you leverage innovative technology to make your operations even more people-focused. Utilise cutting-edge technologies underpinned by seamless connectivity, to boost engagement, and improve training and safety. This can provide direct benefits, as well as help make you a more attractive prospect for potential employees.

Let’s co-innovate and put people at the forefront of your business. Together, we can help enable incredible, people-focused wins across your entire business. We know this because we’ve already done it with many other manufacturers. 

Verizon industry experts have decades of relevant experience, enabling them to provide practical and effective advice. Our vast network, computing and security expertise and extensive ecosystem can help you put those ideas into practice.