When working with high volumes of low margin products, especially those with a limited shelf life, minimizing downtime is extremely important. Plant managers can often only afford to stop production lines for critical purposes, such as maintenance or sanitation, which makes finding time for employee training a difficult task.

In a survey of Food Manufacturing readers, 35 percent of respondents cited training as the most difficult part of their plant’s employment process.

In an industry that employs approximately 1.6 million workers, a poorly trained workforce can equate to big problems. Properly trained employees, however, can lead to less plant floor mistakes and better quality products, as reported by 51 percent of respondents. In addition, 21 percent of plants report a correlation between more training and less injuries, while 16 percent report a correlation between more training and higher plant efficiency.

More than half of plants reported that employee training is ongoing, while 20 percent spend 2-3 weeks on training, and 19 percent spend only a few days. Plants should 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. Accomplishing this training involves numerous different tools, with the most popular being in-plant instruction, which 92 percent of plants report using. Other popular training tools include:

• Group instruction (74 percent)
• Handouts/manuals (73 percent)
• Videos (71 percent)

Of course, before any training can occur, plants need to effectively recruit and hire employees. Approximately 25 percent of surveyed plants reported that recruiting/hiring is the most difficult part of the employment process. Employers in the food industry turn to numerous sources for their recruiting efforts, including:

• Employee referrals (43 percent)
• Advertising in local papers (30 percent)
• Outside employment agencies (25 percent)
• Online job sites (12 percent)
• Industry-specific online sites (6 percent)

Once employees are hired and trained, retention becomes a consideration. According to survey results, only 23 percent of plants report retention as the most difficult part of the employment process. In fact, 70 percent of plants report an employee retention rate of at least three years, with 24 percent of these plants boasting average employee retention of over ten years. This can in part be attributed to the significant number of smaller, family-owned food plants as well as increased efforts to challenge and reward better workers. 83 percent of plants claim to advance workers to plant jobs that involve higher skill levels once the workers become proficient.

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. It is therefore not surprising that 48 percent of food plants are reporting employee cutbacks. Less plant employees means that proper hiring, training and retention is now more important than ever.

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Food Manufacturing, Advantage Business Media,

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