Who’s the Boss?

Who’s the Boss?– Video Work Instructions taking their place in an employee run marketplace
by Desiree Schnoor
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The Work Institute has compiled insights from more than 234,000 exit interviews into their 2018 Retention Report- State of the Marketplace. The general finding? Employees get what employees want – or employees leave.

In fact, this year, more than 1 in 4 employees will voluntarily leave their jobs. Employers are challenged both in filling open positions and keeping the workers they have. The problem is many available workers are not job ready. There is a gap between available jobs needing to be filled and workers with the skills to fill them. How are companies to bridge the gap between available, skilled workers and the job that needs to get done? And why are workers quitting?

The single largest reason cited by the Work Institute for quitting was for career development (21%). Among those who quit for this reason, 18.5% of those left to return to school, to increase their skill set. Many workers believe they need to attain a larger skill set instead of entering the work force in the first place, or they need advanced degrees once they are there.

Traditionally, in a sector like manufacturing, you couldn’t just pull someone from one area of the shop floor and expect them to perform like your veteran technician in another. But all that is changing.

Video Work Instructions replace text and picture work instructions, that take longer to understand and are harder to use. Video is faster and easier and is leveling the skills playing field for workers of all abilities and experiences. They were developed to close the skills gap by giving everyone the ability to perform skilled tasks quickly and correctly. They get employees to work sooner and better. Plus, employers don’t have to pay a skilled laborer wage to get the same results from a new technician. This means filling more open positions quicker and more economically.

What about turnover? Employers are not the only ones affected by high voluntary turnover. Remaining employees are often left to pick up the slack for those open positions, taking on new tasks and responsibilities. The longer the positions are open, the more overworked and stressed employees can feel. However, if employees must take on new responsibilities, Video Work Instructions can help them learn new tasks easily and quickly, equating to greater productivity, and less training time and stress.

Shawn Findlater, CEO of Virtual QE, is familiar with employee retention, turnover and bridging the skills gap in the manufacturing industry, because of his years of consulting relationships with manufactures in the US. “In more ways than one”, he says, “we are literally putting the power in the hands of the employees. Video work instructions help them know how to do their jobs better and faster, giving them confidence and autonomy. We believe that companies who use Video Work Instructions are making the smart choice to address these crucial issues. They see benefits like more job satisfaction, less job turnover, the ability to employ more unskilled workers and train them better and faster. We are just excited for what this solution means for the manufacturing industry and all industries.”