Case History: Meeting Demand in Tough Talent Markets

How Eastridge Helped A Manufacturer Meet Production Goals in A Challenging Hiring Market 

In manufacturing, meeting increased production demands is essential -- even in a tough labor market. When a leading transportation component manufacturer landed a high-volume government contract, they turned to Eastridge to quickly scale up operations.

In addition to a sudden increase in production volume, the manufacturer faced further recruiting challenges:  there were no manufacturing workers available locally, and management had imposed a cap on wages. 

Faced with these challenges, this industry leader partnered with Eastridge Workforce Solutions to build a program that delivered skilled manufacturing talent motivated to stay with the company. This program was designed to maximize productivity while staying within the prescribed pay rate.

The Eastridge team’s focus, responsiveness, and creative strategies ensured the right talent match for each role, the location and pay, at times overwhelming the client’s ability to keep up with training the qualified workers Eastridge sent their way.

“We were able to offer the client a very tailored program that gave them the volume and quality they needed.  By bringing a focus to this account, we were able to get to know their needs and build a candidate pipeline that filled their needs quickly and efficiently.”

 – Maribel Espinoza, Branch Expansion Manager at Eastridge (program leader) 

Challenges

Finding Highly Motivated Talent Despite a Pay Cap 

In order to staff the new manufacturing arm, the client needed to address several key challenges:

• Sudden Surge in Demand: To meet the government contract deadline, this manufacturing leader needed to urgently fill positions.
• Lack of Local Talent: The client needed to attract talent willing to commute to the affluent area in which the plant was located.
• Wage Cap: The client sought a solution to motivate new staff without paying them more than existing staff.
• Minimize Turnover: In order to maximize productivity, the client sought consistent, highly skilled and motivated talent willing to stay long-term. 

Solutions

A Productive Workforce Built in Weeks  

Eastridge fulfilled the client’s requirements of a new, skilled and motivated manufacturing workforce quickly and within the wage cap, setting the client up to meet its ambitious deadline. These included:

• Strategic Regional Recruiting: Eastridge conducted in-person inspections and research on the hiring market to pinpoint where they could find the greatest pool of talent, staying within the client’s time, location and pay constraints.
• Productive Staff: To ensure retention and productivity, Eastridge secured candidates interested in pursuing a career at the company, and set up career growth opportunities to help motivate staff. For added incentive, Eastridge continuously paid both new and existing workers overtime wages bi-monthly to reward high performance.
• Continuous Feedback: To facilitate retention, Eastridge continually checked in on the workers once employed. Any issues were quickly reported to the client and addressed, ensuring a productive relationship between workers and management. 
• Hands-on Service: To ensure seamless workforce hiring, training, onboarding and management, Eastridge held regular client check-ins. To facilitate responsiveness, the California-based team switched to working East Coast hours. 

Results

Through these services, Eastridge helped the client staff its new division within the client’s time, pay and location constraints. Eastridge’s focus on retention put the company on a path of productivity, saving time and money in the long run.

• Submitted an average of 8 presents on a weekly basis of which 86% received offers, exceeding the client’s capacity to train new employees
• Held an 86% retention rate through the Holiday Season (when drop-off typically occurs)
• Candidate quality helped significantly reduce turnover and increase production

About Eastridge

Established in 1972, Eastridge Workforce Solutions is an employee-owned provider of full-service talent acquisition and management solutions for companies globally. Eastridge provides a full range of solutions including professional / technical and commercial staffing. We also provide workforce management solutions such as payrolling, recruitment process outsourcing, as well as managed service provider and vendor management systems programs.  Our services are backed with the Eastridge Cloud, a proprietary technology that streamlines every step of workforce management.  Eastridge proudly helps over 20,000 associates find jobs annually across the globe.