As a food manufacturing professional, you must hire individuals into your team who will thrive. Which in turn allows your business to grow.

The ‘right’ hire can make all the difference. Just as hiring someone who isn’t exactly what you’re looking for can harm your team and, ultimately, your success.

The Recruitment and Employee Confederation (REC) estimate that the cost of making the wrong hire at the management level (with an approximate salary of £42,000) can be as high as £132,000 – yes, you have read that right.

No business wants to spend any more time, resources or revenue than is necessary on their recruitment process.

In an ideal world, you could make the best hire the first time around – every time. But, unfortunately, in real life, it’s not as simple as that.

But as a #food leader, there are ways to mitigate hiring problems and challenges in your organisation. High on the list is only hiring individuals with specific high-performing skills.

Today, we share the 7 Common Qualities of High Performing Manufacturing Employees. Hire employees with these attributes to attract the success you want for your business.

1. A Great Communicator

Communication is the number one attribute all great manufacturing employees have; possessing excellent skills is one thing, though not communicating effectively with your team stops everything in its tracks.

In any organisation, no matter how small, the way employees interact with each other is the key to a successful team, and this has only been increased in our new physically distanced world.

Since the rise in remote working, possessing excellent communication skills has never been more critical. Sending an unclear email or miscommunicating a message over messenger bots or on the phone can cause all manner of problems for the entire team.

The most successful teams are full of great communicators – so look for this attribute as something which is just as essential as food manufacturing skills in your recruitment process.

2. Autonomy

In a busy food manufacturer, you need a team that can work independently outside of the initial onboarding period.

Your employees need to manage time effectively, balance their workload and ensure that deadlines are met.

Additionally, autonomy contributes to high engagement, productivity and work satisfaction – so when you employ and encourage independence in your team, both you and your employees will benefit.

To find out if candidates have high levels of autonomy during the recruitment process, ask them how they feel working independently and if they have experience working on their own – particularly from home – and look out for how confidently they talk about being self-driven.

3. Leadership Skills

Another key trait to look out for is their leadership potential.

In our ever-changing world, you must know that your team can step up when needed. Additionally, when you recruit manufacturing talent with leadership potential, this is a long-sighted growth strategy that can save you time and money in the future.

Leadership qualities involve various soft skills, including communication, confidence, delegation, and giving and receiving feedback.

4. A Positive Mindset

A positive mindset is essential in food manufacturing, and unfortunately, it’s not something that can be taught easily.

Some individuals approach challenges with a ‘can-do attitude, are always able to look at the positive in a situation, and consistently bolster others – and these are the type of people you need in your manufacturing organisation.

Individuals with a negative mindset will find it harder to thrive and move forward, as they find it challenging to see past obstacles. Unfortunately, their negativity can quickly spread and bring other members of the team down too.

Additionally, positive individuals can adapt to change with ease, which will be essential in food manufacturing moving forward.

5. A Team Player

As with a positive mindset, being a team player is crucial for manufacturing employees in our post-Covid world.

Be on the lookout for employees who have plenty of experience working as part of diverse teams. Working with many different people and personalities is a great way to develop the skills needed to be an excellent team player.

Team players contribute by listening to their colleagues and offering a different perspective, they help strengthen bonds and trust within the team, and they are essential when things get tough.

6. Emotional Intelligence

Emotionally intelligent individuals possess the interpersonal skills needed to help your manufacturing organisation to thrive, and they do this in a few ways.

Building on the tremendous soft skills we have already mentioned in this article; emotional intelligence allows manufacturing employees to exhibit the following:

• Self-awareness – the ability to prioritise, manage time and resilience to stress and anxiety during busy times.

• Self-regulatory behaviours – they are always in control of their emotions and are good at resolving conflict.

• Empathy – they can understand different team members, which allows them to work well with everyone.

• They can take feedback constructively – they don’t let it affect them personally, and they learn and grow from the experience.

An ideal food manufacturing team is full of people with high emotional intelligence. It is such a necessary trait that it ranked sixth in the World Economic Forum’s list of the top 10 skills that employees will need to thrive in future workplaces.

7. Agility

And finally in my 7 Common Qualities of High Performing Manufacturing Employees – Agility

Since the enormous changes that have happened to our world due to the pandemic, flexibility is essential.

Never before has the skill of being able to work outside of our comfort zones been necessary. It is now essential for all manufacturing employers to be sure that their teams can pivot to the ever-changing needs of a post-pandemic world.

Some people are great and adapting to change, whereas others find it more challenging, and some are unwilling to try.

How have employees coped with the recent changes to our world? Have they been happy to embrace new ways of working and living? Agility comes with a growth mindset, one where employees are always looking to develop and grow, and this is the only way continued future success is possible.

Finally

So those are my 7 Common Qualities of High Performing Manufacturing Employees

If you are looking to employ new talent in your food manufacturing business, these are the skills that you should be on the lookout for.

If you need help finding excellent manufacturing talent for your business, we can help.

For more information on how we can help you recruit the high-performing individuals you need, get in touch with us on 07835426149 emails us here at hello@food-recruit.com or connect on LinkedIn