When it comes to the food industry, does the age old adage of “good help is hard to find” hold true? The food manufacturing industry employs approximately 1.6 million employees, in about 31,000 food establishments. But without the right quality labor force, even the most sophisticated plant equipment and processes will fail to yield results.

In a survey of Food Manufacturing readers, 53 percent of respondents cited recruiting and hiring as the most difficult part of the employment process. Employers in the food industry turn to numerous sources for their recruiting efforts, including:

• Outside employment agencies - 36.5 percent
• Employee referrals - 32 percent
• Advertising in local papers - 16 percent
• Online employment sites - 7 percent
• Other (including tv, company website, job fairs) - 6 percent
• Industry-specific online sites - 2.5 percent

In addition, 26 percent of respondents named training as their biggest obstacle. When it comes to employee training, survey results indicate a four-way split between high turnover, training costs, language barriers and time as the most challenging issues.

• 58 percent of plants report that training is ongoing
• 17.5 percent report that training is accomplished in 2-3 weeks
• 26 percent report training takes one week or less

Plants have a multi-faceted training agenda to accomplish, which can  include a variety of topics ranging from equipment-specific training to industrial safety to company history.   The most popular training technique amongst respondents was in-plant instruction (95 percent), followed by the use of handouts and manuals (82.5 percent).

   Employee retention is typically an issue when it comes to any industry that  employees a significant amount of low-skilled workers. However, only 21 percent of respondents pointed to retention as an issue in the food industry. In fact, over 30 percent reported retaining the average plant floor employee for over 10 years. This could be attributed to the significant number of smaller, family-owned food plants as well as increased efforts to challenge workers. A reported 82 percent of plants reward proficient employees by promoting them to higher skilled , better paying  positions.

With higher raw material, fuel and energy costs hitting the manufacturing industry across the board, many companies are cutting back in all facets of their business. In the food industry however, the importance of its labor force is reflected in the fact that 80 percent of respondents report that they have not cut back on employees or training to compensate for higher prices. Well-trained employees pay off, as plants that increased worker training report the following:

• Less mistakes, better product quality - 79 percent
• Less worker injuries - 62 percent
• Higher efficiency - 59 percent
• Higher employee morale - 40 percent
• Lower turnover - 34 percent

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  Food Manufacturing, Advantage Business Media,

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