Company culture and hiring: A case study from a manufacturing client

We have a client who had been facing a labour shortage for a number of years—all while undergoing major changes in their manufacturing process.

When we sat down to talk, the owner agreed to take an in-depth look at the ways we could attract workers to the company, as well as highlight their greatest assets.

The need

Determine the organisation greatest assets for recruiting

The process

This is how we divided our approach:

  1. Weekly meetings with the owner to collect information on the company, including its roots, culture, and how employees and company culture are valorized. Entrepreneurs who are strapped for time or dealing with crises always appreciate this service, as it helps get to key issues quickly.   
  2. Research conducted via interviews with employment specialists and elected officials in the area. This helped us better understand the global context as well as the company’s reputation (which was excellent!).
  3. Using a qualitative research structure we’ve perfected over the years, we sat with a group of employees during a catered lunch to perform an analysis of underlying company-culture values. The owner agreed not to attend the discussion, which allowed employees to freely share their thoughts and speak their minds with a guarantee of anonymity.

The results

The final results allowed our client to identify which work areas to prioritize in order to improve employee satisfaction, as well as what points needed to be highlighted to attract new workers. Many elements were already in place to nourish the company’s family culture, allowing us to create work rituals, better work conditions, and more. In fact, the company ended up filling all their job vacancies!

Although our initial mandate was to fill a recruitment need, the process of reinforcing company values and culture will help in decision-making for the long term. Plus it will contribute to ensuring the company builds a durable, resilient reputation.

 

Have you surveyed employees to see what motivates them to invest in their work—and your company? We’d love to hear about it!

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