Improving Worker Retention in Food Production

Bryan Griffen: So, now we've recruited our agent. We are, we're training them for the mission. They're getting everything that we need. They're ready to go. How do we keep them from defecting?

Lisa Rathburn: That's a great question. Retention, we measure also based on how long someone's worked with us and what the turnover rates, depending on how long ago they started.

And retention, we see, starts with day one. If orientation is rushed, confusing, or the training is just not robust enough and they're just thrown out onto the manufacturing floor, there's a high likelihood that even though you invested in the training and you invested in the recruiting, they might leave.

A key focus on onboarding is very important. I think the culture plays a huge role too when people enter the company. As progress is made, training skills, et cetera, that there's recognition, that there's ongoing coaching, and that those wins are celebrated, where possible. And sometimes it's hard in manufacturing, flexibility of schedule matters more now than it used to.

There's mental wellness, mental health programs, and opportunities for roundtable discussions, right? Ability for the employees, if they're new and they're coming from outside, they may have experienced something different somewhere else. So having listening sessions, getting their input and concerns and being heard helps drive that retention as well.

I think also in manufacturing, people tend to get promoted as they do their job well, they get promoted. And we need to make sure that we're investing in those leaders as people leaders, not just good managers of production. And so, turnover can start when you have a leader that isn't the best, right?

People will leave a bad boss, it’s maybe not the job. So, we’ve got to make sure that we're investing in leadership skills as we promote leaders of people.