Catch up with chapters 1, 2, and 3 in our series on "Addressing the Skills Gap in Manufacturing"

Every time a competitor lures away one of your high performing manufacturing employees, it costs you between 90 percent and 200 percent of that employee’s annual salary to replace them.

So it’s critical you help your employees advance their careers internally before they start looking elsewhere for career development opportunities.

The best way you can do this is by embracing employee-centric development strategies. “The key question is, ‘what’s in it for me?’ as the employee.’” says de Lestrange.

As we said in the previous chapter, one way to motivate, engage and prepare employees for internal job opportunities is through relevant and highly specialized training modules. But it’s not the only way. You can also better retain your existing workforce by using talent management tools and resources that are designed to engage employees in determining their own successful career paths or develop a pay-for-performance culture that fosters longterm loyalty.

Another strategy is to encourage them to work on internal gig projects for two to four hours a week under a different manager in a related field.

“That’s a great way for people to learn new skills, be involved in more projects, expand their own internal network within the organization, and increase their chances of progressing within the organization,” says de Lestrange. You can also identify and fast-track promising talent by collecting and analyzing employee performance data via their line managers, who should also be rewarded for identifying talent. “Acknowledge the fact that the move would not have been possible if the manager had not identified, trained and coached that person. Otherwise, what’s in it for them?” says de Lestrange.

Finally, actively motivate your employees to keep ahead of the skills gap by integrating learning modules with compliance modules.

Look out for our next chapter on compliance training for manufacturing.