Three Musts for Building a Manufacturing Workforce

When it comes to ensuring the viability of tomorrow’s workers, probably no one is under more pressure than the companies employing them.  Skilled and reliable employees are necessary to stay competitive, but recruiting and retaining talent in today’s landscape can be a challenge.

Tube and pipe industry leader Angela Phillips has spent a lot of time with her team exploring strategies for workforce preparedness. The award-winning president and CEO of Shelby, Ohio-based Phillips Tube Group recently shared how she is building a workforce, and stresses three tactics she counts as musts: engaging your community, improving your work environment, and innovating how you get things done. 

Community Engagement 

Phillips Tube Group spends a lot of time doing community outreach to spark interest in manufacturing. From elementary students to those already in trade schools, the goal is to increase their comfort level with the concept of pursuing a manufacturing career. If a student is old enough and shows the right interest and aptitude, the company often interviews that student that day.  

“I’m hosting a manufacturing day where we bring in high school students from multiple different high schools to come in and see our operation, really get them involved in manufacturing, and help them not be afraid of it,” Phillips said. “When we take them on the tour, some people are intimidated by the manufacturing process—there are forklifts moving around, and they’re really not comfortable in that space.  

“We’re talking to students about manufacturing and just trying to get them to realize that this isn’t something to be afraid of. This is a really good option for you coming out of school. If you don’t want to go on to higher education and you want to go out into the workforce, this is going to grain you to the skill set that you need to be successful in that role.” 

2. Improving Your Work Environment 

Phillips said that many manufacturing facilities have yet to emerge from the stereotype of the dark, dirty old shop because they’re still living it. That may have still attracted people in the past, but no more.  

“Somebody who’s 30 or under doesn’t want to be in that space,” Phillips said. “So, we have to figure out how to improve the environment. We continually look at that—how do we improve the environment that they’re working in to make it something that they want to come to every day instead of something that they have to come to every day?” 

Changing the environment means more than changing the physical environment—it also means changing the relational environment. The most successful companies, whatever the industry, take advantage of the fresh perspective and knowledge that younger employees bring. 

“The days of companies telling employees, ‘You just check your brain at the door and we’ll do your thinking for you because we’re management and you’re hourly’—those days are over,” Phillips said. “The reason a lot of companies in the last 20 years have been successful, especially in the tech boom, is because they engage every brain that works for them.” 

3. Innovating Your Operation 

And along with that egalitarian arrangement comes one more must-do: Innovating how the company gets work done—for example, in rethinking the 40-hour work week and where expertise in the company resides. 

“We’re really stepping back and looking at how we get the work done,” Phillips said. “Our structure was traditional in the sense that things like PLCs and management of programming for CNCs, that kind of stuff was all done in maintenance. And the reality is, as equipment becomes more and more dependent on that high-tech capability, we really need technicians in every part of our organization.  

“How do we shift how we look at our organization internally to make sure that it’s the most effective? I challenge a lot of companies out there to just look at their entire structure and say, ‘You know, if I had to do this over again, how would I get the work done and how?’ How can we as manufacturers look at a way to accomplish that work and not in the traditional model but in a more modernized way that maybe looks more like some of these more modern, younger companies?” 

As Angela Phillips illustrates, building a future-ready workforce means doing more than just hiring. It means actively investing in people. By engaging your community, improving your work environment, and rethinking how work gets done, you lay the foundation for long-term success.

But development doesn’t stop there. Supporting your team’s growth through training and upskilling is just as critical to retention as it is to recruitment.

That’s where FMA stands with you — offering training programs, resources, and tools to help you develop a capable, committed workforce.

FMA supports the entire workforce lifecycle by attracting, developing, and engaging manufacturing professionals at every stage of their career journey to help you build a stronger team from the inside out.

Learn more about FMA training and membership today!