How manufacturers can enhance their EVP to become an employer of choice

Companies across the world are seeing significant labor shortages. The manufacturing industry in particular is seeing an average turnover rate of 18.8%, according to Finances Online. After nearly two years of navigating ongoing restrictions and closures due to the pandemic, manufacturers are now faced with another challenge as they struggle to stay fully operational with limited workers.

Minimizing attrition and creating an environment that supports productivity is absolutely critical for manufacturing companies. 

As businesses look for new ways to attract and retain great talent, it’s essential that they revisit their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and what they are offering that will make them stand out from competitors in a limited talent pool. 

Employees' needs have shifted over the last two years, and employees expect more support from their employers through timely communications, frequent recognition and tools to support their wellbeing. 

Let’s dive into three examples of how manufacturers around the world have enhanced their EVP to become an employer of choice in a difficult talent market.

Amtico is a global manufacturer that designs luxury vinyl tiles, with more than 500 employees spread out across eight locations. The company first came to Reward Gateway in 2017 looking to centralize benefits and discounts in a single platform, which became known as "MyAmtico."

When the pandemic hit, improving employee communications became a top priority for the company, so Amtico turned to its platform to bring communications to the forefront.

At the beginning of the pandemic, MyAmtico immediately became the primary portal for communications, which was made easy by the fact that employees were already regularly logging on to the platform. The platform hosted company news, vlogs and other informational content to ensure that employees were getting accurate and up-to-date information, which they could even view from their phones on the shop floor. Amtico’s initiatives were clearly successful in engaging employees and improving company-wide communications, as the company saw an uptick in the number of reactions and comments on blogs.

Blog posts on the platform regularly receive at least 200 views, which is a huge improvement and a 66% year over year increase. Amtico has clearly struck upon a great way to communicate with a primarily deskless workforce, while also providing an open channel for staff feedback and suggestions. 

Amtico’s employee discounts program has also seen great success, with employees spending more than $1.3 million through the platform, and saving a grand total of $102.6k on their everyday shopping and holiday purchases. 

EcoWater Systems has more than 500 employees working across its headquarters and two manufacturing plants in different states. The company wanted to find creative ways to reach employees and bring its employer brand to life, but needed an accessible, digital solution to transform company culture across a hybrid workforce. 

The team brought along many stakeholders through the process of choosing a new engagement provider to secure leadership buy-in, and ultimately chose Reward Gateway for its far-reaching presence and ease of use. The new engagement platform was dubbed "Tap In," which reflects the employer brand and nods to water filtration. 

The platform had to be flexible enough to reach and meet the needs of its office and remote employees, as well as those working on the plant floor.

Tap In also supports various award programs that provide employees with points that can be spent on a variety of gift cards from hundreds or retailers or through Tap In's built-in Reward Marketplace with an Amazon integration. 

EcoWater has a tiered-recognition approach to recognize different milestones or reinforce desirable behaviors, including peer-to-peer recognition through eCards, Mission, Vision and Value (MVV) awards for peers or customers, service awards and other rewards.

Since launch, 73% of EcoWater’s workforce has been logging onto the platform on a regular basis. 65% of all employees are actively sending and receiving recognition, and with more than 460 eCards sent.

Heineken has more than 2,500 employees operating across five locations in the UK, which includes a mix of office-based support roles, field-based sales staff and operators in its breweries. With its previous recognition program, Heineken was only formally recognizing 2% of its staff, which was reflected in an annual staff engagement survey that revealed that only 20% of employees felt recognized for doing a good job.

Employees wanted more consistent recognition throughout the year as well as fair and consistent management of recognition. The company wanted to create a seamless user journey and add a diverse range of awards that encourage values-led behaviors.

The team needed to work within their existing budget to create a program that recognized more employees for the same amount of money. They also needed to gain buy-in from a wide range of stakeholders in a large business. After collecting feedback and gaining insights from senior stakeholders, the team worked with Reward Gateway to create "BREWards," its new reward and recognition and discounts platform. 

The tiered recognition program featured instant monetary Cheers! awards, Inspiring People Awards (IPAs) to reward staff with a day off work or dinner and non-monetary eCards to help recognition go further at the company.

In the first five months following the launch of BREWards, 1,050 eCards and 246 Cheers! instant awards were issued. There were also 129 IPA nominations, with 14 IPA awards issued, totaling 1,310 recognition awards (approximately 54% of Heineken’s workforce). 

We hope that these stories have provided you with some inspiration as you look for new ways to attract, engage and retain your top talent in this difficult climate. If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you, reach out to us and a member of our team will walk you through how our solution can support your business goals.