Management
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Don’t Overlook Older Workers In Your Hiring
- August 11, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
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We’re in a hiring crunch in the United States, especially in the manufacturing industry. Yes, there are issues in the fast food and service-related industry, as people aren’t going back to work even as states end their unemployment support of $300 per week. Many people blame the low salaries fast-food workers are getting (which is
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Is Slow to Hire, Fast to Fire Still Important in a Slow Job Market?
- August 4, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management
Slow to hire, fast to fire as a management philosophy still matters, even now, in today’s labor market. The job talent pool is pretty shallow these days, with worker shortages in manufacturing, and there’s a concern that if you hold out for the best possible talent, those candidates may be gone by the time you’re
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How Can You Solve a Worker Shortage Right Now?
- July 28, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Business, Management, Manufacturing
There are worker shortages right now in all kinds of industries, from the restaurant industry to office workers to manufacturing. There are a variety of causes, like the fact that we’re paying people more not to work than what they were being paid to work. Or that some people don’t want to return to the
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The Annual Performance Review Is a Terrible Waste of Time
- July 21, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
The Annual performance review is a terrible waste of time and a terribly inefficient method of creating improvements in your associates. For one thing, if you are measuring everything in your operation, from the associates working on the floor to the back-office staff, they know when there’s a problem almost immediately. They don’t need to
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The Person Closest to the Problem Often Knows How to Solve the Problem
- July 14, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Manufacturing, Measurement
A recent article in IndustryWeek, Once Led Through Fear, a Small Manufacturer Reimagines Itself, got me to thinking about who I often relied on to solve problems in our manufacturing plant. Last week, I talked about how as a manager, I had learned early on to ask people to “show me” whenever they were dealing
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Be Humble Enough to Learn from Everyone
- July 7, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Innovation, Leadership, Management
Managers and executives often suffer from the belief (the conceit?) that they should have all the answers, should know how to do everything, and should be the smartest person in the room. The problem is they become bottlenecks, assume they’re the only ones with all the answers, and will often require associates to carry out
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Stay Focused on Employee Health & Safety
- June 16, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Safety
As a manufacturing manager, the worst words you can hear are “workplace injury.” Manufacturing is not necessarily a safe job, and people can get hurt just doing their work. Even with all the employee health and safety training, policies, and personal protective equipment, people can still get hurt on the job. That creates a lot
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Can you Require Employees to Get the COVID Vaccine?
- May 26, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Safety
The COVID vaccine is in full swing and is fully available in every state in the U.S., but there are still plenty of people who are “vaccine hesitant” or are unsure whether they should get it or not. For manufacturers and businesses where remote work isn’t possible, the question is whether a company can require
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A Person Who Feels Appreciated Will Do More Than What Is Expected
- May 12, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Management, Productivity
If you ever want to get extra work and effort out of someone, plus earn their loyalty and dedication, you should never do it through fear, intimidation, or even monetary reward. (Although that last one can be effective for a short while. And that’s as a bonus for their work, not their regular salary.) The
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The Importance of Cross-training and Succession Planning in the Days of COVID
- May 5, 2021
- Posted by: David Marshall
- Category: Leadership, Management
When companies are running short of employees and can’t find people to fill the vacancies they do have, they run into all kinds of problems. In the everyday world, we can see it in fast food restaurants that can’t find enough people to fill their openings. They’re closing their stores an extra day per week