Why is IT Important for Training in Manufacturing?

When talking about training for the manufacturing industry, it’s important to recognize that training begins when onboarding employees. Additionally, it’s worth noting that while there are similarities across onboarding in different industries, there are also unique aspects to consider for manufacturing employees. For example, this industry tends to have many non-desk workers who require specialized onboarding approaches.

So, why is IT so important for the manufacturing onboarding process? The first reason is that non-desk employees in manufacturing rarely have access to email or other internal communication technology. Secondly, new employees can easily be overwhelmed by everything they need to learn in the initial training and fail to read or retain the information.

Luckily, IT can help solve these issues—we created Yourco with these types of needs in mind. For example, our platform allows two-way texting communication between managers and non-desk employees. Why? Because most non-desk employees almost always have a cell phone in their pocket. And, most importantly: people actually read texts with 98% of texts getting read, compared to only 20% of emails.

Also, with Yourco’s scheduling tool, you can plan out your onboarding flow to send training documents at a regular cadence. By spacing out document deliveries, new hires will be less overwhelmed in their first days on the job. Plus, having documents texted to employees means that training materials are accessible and available for easy reference.

Why Is Training Important in Manufacturing During the Onboarding Process?

Let’s take a moment and look at what the goals of manufacturing training are: safety, efficiency, and employee retention.

• Safety | The most important reason why training is needed for employees is keeping people safe while performing their job. Manufacturing settings include heavy machinery, many moving parts and processes, as well as quick turnarounds—a recipe for potential disaster! Teaching and reinforcing safety is a vital part of the onboarding process; one that can quite literally be life or death.
• Efficiency | Manufacturing relies on efficiency to stay competitive: providing excellent training in processes and procedures from the get-go ensures that workers embrace the right mindset for efficient production.
• Employee Retention | Training is an investment in your employees, demonstrating to them that they are valued as well as preparing them for future promotions. The most important time to deliver great training is during the onboarding process, with research revealing that 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for 3+ years if their onboarding experience was excellent.

To align with best practices in manufacturing training, your IT solutions must support these goals, gearing everything towards the unique needs of the manufacturing workforce. For example, the U.S. manufacturing industry has one of the most diverse pools of workers. Research shows that 12% of this workforce has limited or no proficiency in English.

Solutions like Yourco help address this need with our translation tool. You can quickly and easily translate text messages to and from your workers’ languages, ensuring that they receive important training information and that you can understand their responses and questions.

What Training Is Needed for Manufacturing New Hires?

The solution depends on your specific manufacturing setting, but most training programs in this industry will include four main categories of training:

• Company Policies | It’s important that your new hires understand the organization and how their role fits into the overall picture. Provide them with things like HR policies, hiring paperwork, benefits, and a job description that gives a comprehensive view of their day-to-day responsibilities. 
• Safety | Make sure you’re training new employees appropriately to keep them safe and sound, as well as limiting liability.
• Equipment | Your factory training program should enable employees to operate and maintain the tools and machines they will use in their role. 
• Processes | Set your employees up for efficiency and productivity with a training program that covers every complex process they will need to know.

These trainings become so much easier with the proper IT solutions. IT ensures seamless distribution of training materials, assists with tracking new hire progress, and allows for personalization in your onboarding flow.

What Are Examples of Manufacturing Training with Yourco?

Onboarding and training is efficient and effective with Yourco. Your manufacturing onboarding process could look like this:

• Send welcome messages to new employees, including a guide to the onboarding and training they will receive. With Yourco, there’s no frustrating group chats—the mass message you send out is received as individual texts. 
• Distribute the appropriate paperwork, asking new hires to fill them out and then submit them via text. All they have to do is snap a pic and click send! All messages and attachments are stored in the platform, so you have quick access to submissions.
• Follow up with employees, confirming their submissions and instructing them on their next step.
• Issue training documents via text so non-desk employees can have easy access. 
• Perform regular check-ins as part of employees’ onboarding, ensuring that employees are completing and understanding each step of the training.
• After initial training, ask for feedback and evaluate your process to make improvements for the next onboarding process.

Refresh Your Manufacturing IT with Yourco: No Assembly Required

It’s time to do onboarding and training better in the manufacturing industry. It’s time for Yourco. Non-desk employees deserve it! With our intuitive and easy-to-use platform, you’ll have the tools you need with minimum setup time. You can reach your new hires (and current employees) quickly, ensuring productive communication of vital information. Contact us to learn more or try for free to see how technology can transform your internal communication.