After agriculture, manufacturing is the key employer for low skilled and semi-skilled workers in India. The manufacturing sector in India contributes majorly in uplifting rural areas through industrialization. Manufacturing sector empowers the country in reducing regional imbalances by ensuring equitable distribution of national income and wealth. HR is a very critical factor in the business development for any sector. To enhance overall performance in the manufacturing sector, there is a need to improve competitiveness via better human resource management. Let’s see some of the significant challenges for HR in the manufacturing industry.
1) Workforce Shortage: The manufacturing sector is reeling under the effect of workforce shortage due to various reasons, including a misconception in the minds of the younger generation who thinks that this sector of industry lacks competitive wages, innovation, and sophistication. HR must quickly address this problem of a shrinking workforce. It must find ways to replenish the human capital needed by the organization.
2) Challenges in recruitment: Recruitment and staffing are a crucial part of every organization. It has been observed that 80% of manufacturers recognize the absolute importance of meeting workforce demands over the next five years. The issues posed to recruiting within the manufacturing sector are quite deep-rooted. To address these challenges, manufacturing HR departments must learn to compete with other industries and start filling the gaps. Outsourcing Staffing Solutions to an external HR firm like TalentPro will help your business focus extensively on what it ought to focus on.
3) Retention: Most HR departments in manufacturing sector face the authentic heat of retaining highly specialized talents. Retention of skills is certainly one of the most significant issues in the manufacturing industry in India.
4) Attrition: With an already substantial shortage in the workforce and recruiting abilities, minimizing attrition is essential for manufacturing companies. Many a time people are more attracted to fields such as IT/ITES and leave the manufacturing arena to find opportunities, which they define as new and exciting.
5) Insufficient Investment: Insufficient investment in employee growth and development combined with the perception of a stagnant salary package, lackluster benefits, poor work environment, and high turnover rates are an uphill challenge for the entire manufacturing industry HR.
6) Less Employee Engagement: To harness the real benefits of the workforce, it is essential for the manufacturing industry to create and foster engaging work environments. Improper employee feedback and communication tools, poses a unique challenge to the HR departments within the manufacturing sector, as the workforce is extensive and may be spread across multiple locations.
7) Fierce Competition: The manufacturing companies face intense competition among themselves, as there are multiple brands for the same product in the market. In such a scenario the responsibilities of HR become even more impactful and complex. The HR needs to have a good number of exceptional talent and innovators always available at their respective workplaces.
8) Training and Development: The HR has to provide adequate training to the employees to keep them updated with the latest developments in the industry. HR must focus on training and development to stay competitive in the industry.
9) Developing Leadership: It is quite interesting to note that in the manufacturing industry; often less importance is given to developing leadership at an organizational level. The HR should develop individuals who have performance potential based on record into business leaders by imparting them the necessary soft skills.
10) Lack of competence of HR Managers: The success of any business to a large extent depends on the expertise of the HR Managers. Many times, it has been discovered that HR managers fail to understand the business imperative in the manufacturing industry as they often come from varied industry backgrounds. There is now a need to develop a competent HR system, comprising of individuals, who are sound in HR management practices with strong business knowledge.
The Human Resources (HR) department manages all employee-related activities like new employee recruitment & selection, payroll management, employee management, and employee development. HR is the heart of every organization. Small and medium businesses are finding it very stressful to manage overall HR function by themselves. Many firms and organizations have outsourced their secondary or support work to external vendors, as this enabled them to focus on their primary or central area of business.
