With the new year around the corner, manufacturers are looking for ways to grow their talent pool and set up their plants for success. A major component of attracting the right talent is developing strong job descriptions. Today’s guest blog post is brought by recruiting expert Glenn Levar, President and CEO of Shared Time Human Resource Management, Inc. Prior to starting Shared Time Human Resource Management, Inc., Glenn was employed by Fortune 50 and entrepreneurial companies as human resource manager. During his corporate career, Glenn was a key contributor in reaching corporate goals and objectives. He built trust and empowered employees and management to greater success.

Guest author Glenn Levar

How Manufacturers Can Develop Job Descriptions to Attract Superior Candidates

In its purest form, a position description indicates the work to be performed by the candidates for employment. The objective of a well-written position description is to attract the highest number of talented candidates and, from that list, hire the best one. Listed below are approaches to writing a position description and the elements required to develop a better position description. These include the position summary, the position’s essential functions and the competencies, skills, education and work experience required to be successful in the position.

Approaches to Writing a Position Description

As a supervisor or manager, you can take several approaches to write a position description. Remember, a position description’s purpose is to define the position’s critical responsibilities and accountabilities broadly. Depending on your management style, you may choose any of the following methods:

Talk with employees about their work and ask for their input.
Ask employees to develop their position descriptions.
Share the position description with other managers the employee will work with to determine if there will be interference or issues with another departments’ work.

The final position description should validate and explain the position’s relevance within the organization and it should inform applicants of the work they will perform once hired.

The Position’s Summary

The position’s summary should explain what the candidate needs to be successful. For example, a company’s Sales Representative’s purpose could be to increase revenue in the territory by 10% from new and existing accounts, make prospecting calls, follow up on leads, prepare quotes, and answer customer questions.

Essential Job Functions

Essential functions are the primary job duties that an employee must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation. You should carefully examine each job to determine which functions or tasks are essential to the employee’s performance.

The issue of job descriptions has received significant attention since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It is true that job descriptions can be helpful in supporting an employer’s position as to which job functions are essential.

Competencies and Skills

Mainly, these are the characteristics the company believes a qualified candidate should have to be successful in the position. They can be measurable knowledge such as degrees or certifications, hands-on or technical proficiencies, abilities, or even personal attributes like outgoing or friendly. A position description’s list of competencies may include communications, leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.

Skills include the specific knowledge and abilities required to succeed in a job. The skills needed for a particular position may consist of computer programming, operating machinery, carpentry, plumbing, web design, typing, accounting, writing, or mathematics.

Writing a position description with assorted or different skills can make the recruitment effort complicated and lengthy. Finding one person with all of them may prove difficult, or worse, may result in hiring someone who is not as qualified for the position. Should this situation arise, it is advisable to re-examine the position description and consider splitting it into two or more jobs.

Education and Work Experience

The education and work experience section accurately describes the formal education and training the candidate may need.

For example, a machinist may need a general education degree (GED) or a high school diploma with five to seven years of experience, but a machinist does not need a Ph.D. A mechanical engineer usually requires a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree with fifteen years of experience designing aviation landing gear and not a GED.

Position Descriptions Next Steps

Position descriptions are living documents that evolve with each hiring cycle, changes to the way the company does business, position duties, or new equipment purchases.

It is recommended that once a year, the manager and employee sit down and discuss the position description as part of an annual review. Together, they can determine which essential functions, competencies, and skills remain necessary and eliminate those attributes which are no longer applicable to the position.

When both parties agree with the revisions, the manager may make formal changes to the description and both parties sign and date the new document. A copy of the signed and revised position description should be kept by the manager, given to the employee and shared with the company’s human resources department.

In Review

Position descriptions are necessary to define an employer’s expectations for the job, outline the job’s essential functions, identify the competencies and skills required for the job, and minimize ADA violations. The goal of a well-written position description is to attract and hire the most qualified candidate available to fill your open position.

Shared Time Human Resources Management, Inc. (STHRM, Inc.) provides human resources consulting services that solve our clients’ complex human resources issues. Since 1993, we have helped our clients recruit employees, retain staff and reduce costs. We work with entrepreneurial start-ups and established Fortune 500 companies in Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, and across the country.

Put Shared Time Human Resources Management, Inc. to work for your company. Contact Glenn Levar at 440.979.1046 or by e-mail at grlevar@sthrm.com.

We’re excited to have Jonathan Slain, author of ‘Rock the Recession: How Successful Leaders Prepare for, Thrive During, and Create Wealth After Downturns’ as a featured guest blogger. The following article is adapted from his book.

Diversify Your Manufacturing Business to Rock the Next Recession

Every recession plays out differently, and you never know which industry or geography will be hit the hardest. By diversifying to spread your business between multiple industries and markets, you minimize the impact any single industry has on your bottom line.

If the next recession hits manufacturing especially hard again, for example, you won’t be completely sunk if your business spans multiple industries and markets. You can make up for losses in one area by shifting your focus to others until the recession ends.

Let’s take a deeper look at how you can diversify your business in three ways—your customers, your products and services, and your industry—to bolster it against the next downturn.

Diversifying Your Customers

Before you take the ambitious step of diversifying into different markets, take a close look at your current customer base. To minimize the damage losing your biggest client would cause, make sure that no single customer accounts for more than 10 to 20 percent of your revenue.

Run through your customer list to understand how your portfolio will fare in a recession, and then be proactive in diversifying. If you discover you have serious customer concentration in your business, start reaching out to new customers immediately. You need to spread the risk around so your business isn’t at the mercy of another’s success.

Diversifying Your Products and Services

It’s not enough to diversify geographically and simply pick up new customers; you must diversify your products and services, too.

Work with your leadership team to figure out what you can add to your portfolio. How can you pivot to a product or service that has more demand during a recession? How can you provide more robust solutions to retain your current customers when they’re forced to make cuts?

Analyze and anticipate your customers’ needs and develop new offerings to keep your business cost-effective and relevant before, during, and after a recession.

Diversifying into New Markets and Industries

Finally, think big-picture and consider which new markets and industries you could serve to cover your bases during a recession.

If we look back at the Great Recession of 2008–2009, we see certain industries got pummeled: manufacturing, finance and insurance, travel and tourism, and certain segments of the construction business. New car sales plummeted. Four-year university enrollment declined heavily. Casinos, hotels and motels, jewelry stores—all of these businesses took a big hit.

Then there were other industries, like healthcare, that grew during the Great Recession, or at least held steady. Community college numbers went up. Grocery stores did well. Guns and ammunition, veterinary services, correctional facilities, multi-family housing, storage and warehouse leasing, remediation and environmental cleanup services—all of these were winners.

According to one recent IBISWorld report, all of the following industries are projected to grow: “tortilla production, wineries, vitamin and supplement manufacturing, software publishing, VoIP, IT consulting, video games, marijuana growing, and a host of online retailers.” Some of these industries may be off the beaten path, but if there’s an opportunity for you to start a relationship with a company in one of these fields, why wouldn’t you?

You can find up-to-date information on end markets and industries that will grow or be stable in the future if you take the time to look. The secrets are out there, but they’re not always free.

Here’s a pro tip: purchase a subscription to the IBISWorld database, which will give you access to hundreds of different industry reports. Research firms, like IBISWorld, also put out newsletters with information about which industries are hot right now and which are forecasted to perform poorly. Seriously, it’s like having the answer key to a test before you take it!

Don’t Let Your Defenses Drop

Diversifying your customers, products and services, and markets takes continual outreach, research, and maintenance, but by putting in the work and spreading your risk around, you’ll protect your business—and even position it for growth—during the next recession.

Jonathan Slain and Paul Belair founded Recession.com to give entrepreneurs a free tool to assess their recession readiness at Recession.com/Ready.

Interested in preparing a recession plan but don’t know where to start? Use the coupon code “felber” at www.recession.com/shop to get 50% off the Rock the Recession workbook to create your business recession-proofing action plan.

Archive for month: November, 2019