Top 10 Workforce Questions for Manufacturing CEOs

With the rapid changes in automation and robotics impacting the size and composition of the Manufacturing workforce, many CEOs are evaluating where to focus time and investments. To support those decisions, here is a list of 10 top questions to which every CEO should have answers:   

1. What is our Total Cost of Workforce as a percent of revenue?  As a percent of expenses? How do we compare to peers?
2. Can we accurately forecast our workforce needs in the future?
3. Can we model our workforce to optimize cost, profit and productivity? How do we rank in workforce productivity?
4. What are the strategic critical (A) roles vs. operational critical (B) roles vs. commodity (C) roles? For which roles is it better to build, buy or rent talent?
5. Where does our best talent come from? Which managers are the best talent scouts and coaches?
6. What recruiting source yields the most high performers? What recruiting source yields the best cultural fits? What is our cost per hire?
7. What is our quality of  new hires? Can we measure it?
8. Are we losing the right people(low performers) or the wrong people(high performers or critical roles/skills)? Do we know drivers of employee turnover? What is our cost of turnover?
9. What is the ROI of training to the firm?  Where could training investments improve productivity and profitability?
10. Are leaders effectively managing human capital? Do leaders correlate to employee engagement, retention and performance?

The ease or difficulty with which a CEO can answer these questions is dependent upon access to workforce analytics software (such as HCMI SOLVE) and the quality of the HR team. If you are in short supply of either one, please reach out and I'd be pleased to share some ideas.