This interview is part of our Modern Workforce Leader Series—Manufacturing Edition spotlights interviews with manufacturing industry experts which are included in our The State of the Manufacturing Workforce in 2024 and Beyond report.
The following features our conversation with Jake Smith, People Analytics Manager at Xylem, about how effective people management has been changed by technological solutions, how work/life balance demands are being managed, and what can be done to ensure top-down and bottom-up acceptance of new workforce management.
WHAT INDUSTRY CHANGES HAVE CHANGED HOW YOU ENGAGE WITH EMPLOYEES?
The evolution of the mobile atmosphere has played a big part. We’re approaching this from an HR perspective. After speaking with some of our HR leaders out in the field who directly work with these employees, we’re starting to utilize things like QR codes, mobile applications, and other new technologies.
We’re trying to push the organization to be more accessible to employees that are more “non-wired” in nature. As phones get more advanced in the sophistication of their technologies, we’re seeing more enhancements to different existing features. This gives the employees more flexibility, especially those in the manufacturing environments, to access things that the more wired folks would get to access more flexibly.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO ADDRESS YOUR WORKERS’ WORK/LIFE BALANCE AND GROWTH DEMANDS?
Work/life balance and growth and development are two of the key points that employees are focused on. There’s a lot more of a need for some flexibility and balance in how these employees work, how we fill shifts, what overtime looks like, and giving autonomy back to the employees as they approach their workday.
Employees want to be able to grow in their careers and develop more, so being able to utilize our technologies to help facilitate learning opportunities, whether it’s through courses or on-demand webinars, is something we’re trying to steer toward.
HOW DO YOU MANAGE EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS WITH THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES?
There has been a mixed bag of reactions toward the increasing use of new technologies. Some of the challenges we’re facing are possibly related to internal processes and different internal barriers as we change and shift the way we work.
With some of the younger generations that grew up with and are more accustomed to using technology, having more streamlined and efficient workforce technologies and mobile applications is a positive thing. However, the older demographics in our workforce face many challenges as they may need to become more technologically savvy. It takes a little bit more time and training from a change management perspective to get them to embrace that.
Today, we still have some pushback, and some extra effort is needed on our side of things to get these new solutions accepted. It just takes a little more time to ensure that everyone in our workforce is accounted for and can use the technology.
WHAT ARE SOME CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES THAT HAVE BEEN EFFECTIVE?
Due to the technological learning curve, employees who need extra support should have access to someone with all the skills necessary to help and guide them through what they’re using.
That means investing in training our managers—it’s about putting the stress on manager accountability and giving the managers the tools they need to help cross-train with the individuals using the technologies more frequently.
We have also put together built-in user guides in some of the different systems we use, and our software has tools like clickable walkthroughs on things you navigate through. This provides a more interactive approach that encourages self-learning, and those have been positively received.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE CHANGE MANAGEMENT FROM LEADERSHIP AGAINST WORKER PERSPECTIVES?
Leaders at the top levels of companies tend to work in their silos, and it’s hard to get them to step back and understand the importance and impact of some of these things they don’t see daily. That’s where employee communication comes into play.
As I work in analytics on the HR side of things, I can use feedback and data to show leaders how we drive certain business functions and the effectiveness of our operations. This helps them understand things from a different perspective.
On the other hand, it’s also challenging to manage our employees’ diversity and demographic spread, especially when you’re talking about technology and change. Workers are in a job for many different reasons—from wanting to develop their careers to simply supporting their families. It’s therefore important to have options for those employees to approach work in the way they want to feel supported. That way, there can be buy-in from both the top and bottom when it comes to change.
WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER LEADERS ON WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT?
The most important thing is to ensure the people you’re making decisions for have input in those decisions. If you’re not getting direct feedback from the people, you’re just making assumptions.
Getting your managers on board—the people who oversee these different manufacturing functions—upskilling them and ensuring they’re comfortable and supported in their roles is also important. They are the first people employees go to with questions, so we want to ensure that employees are supported and that we’re also supporting them through the managers. This means focusing on manager training, accountability, transparency, and allowing that support stream to be there when needed.
Like this excerpt? Explore further insights and interviews with industry leaders, alongside key technology trends in our comprehensive report, “The State of the Manufacturing Workforce in 2024 and Beyond!
