No matter what industry you’re in, finding the right people with the specialized skills you need to get the job done right can be a downright challenge

And it’s critical to your company’s success. The recent recession found many workers in skilled trades unemployed, with the manufacturing sector hit especially hard. A lot of those people went on to other jobs and sought out new professions. So now that business is picking up again, at least in some sectors, the pool of qualified, skilled workers is much smaller, and it’s more difficult for employers to fill key positions.
Consider, for example, the owner of a machine shop, who was having a tough time finding skilled employees. He was recently overhead asking for suggestions as to how he could locate qualified talent. I was alarmed at some of the ideas proposed, which ranged from impractical to just plain silly, as in the following: “Did you see that pink billboard on I-94? That guy is getting 200 applications a week and he’s hiring people left and right.”
My question was, “You may be getting lots of people in the door, but how many are staying?” With the cost of recruiting, onboarding and training new employees higher than ever, the idea of creating a revolving door of people signing on to fill a position is not a sustainable strategy.
Here was another suggestion thrown into the ring: “Why don’t you try and recruit in Texas and Canada?” What? And try to get them to move to Michigan? You don’t need to go to Texas or Canada, or any other state. You can find the right people in your own backyard. It just requires a different approach.

Start with Candidates Who Are Wired to Excel

Most hiring managers begin their search by looking for someone with the right skills and experience. Then they pick the person who seems the most reliable, or the one who will best fit the company culture, based on recommendations and interviews. That old-time approach works about 46% of the time. But what if the pool of potential employees includes no one who has the right skills? Then what will you do? You’ll need to select someone with the most potential and groom that candidate for the position.
How can you determine who has the greatest chance of succeeding in that job? How do you choose whom to train before you invest all that time and money? That’s where AcuMax comes in. The AcuMax Index can help you predict who will work out in which position, regardless of whether they have the needed skills when they’re hired.
We show our clients how to create a “profile” for the positions in their company. A position profile will illustrate how people who excel in that job are typically wired. (By “wired,” we mean what are their natural talents and achievement tendencies.) The AcuMax Index can give you a green-yellow-red light gauge of a candidate’s wiring match to a particular position, or how likely they are to excel. Green is a great match. Yellow lets you know to proceed with caution. Red tells you that the candidate is unlikely to succeed in that position.

A Better Long-term Solution

Today we no longer have to put up with having employees who are just filling a space. Find the candidates with the right wiring and then help them acquire the skills to do the job. It’s a long-term strategy, but one that has worked really well.
Vanamatic, Inc., a manufacturing company located in a small, rural town, was having trouble finding talent locally. With the assistance of AcuMax, the company determined what type of natural wiring was most appropriate for the skilled positions they were looking to fill. Then they hired workers whose AcuMax profiles best matched the wiring of those positions, and provided those new hires with an intensive training program where they were taught the needed technical skills.
The Vanamatic workforce development program has been a huge success. The results speak for themselves. If you’d like to know how AcuMax can help you develop a workforce that best fits your company’s needs, just give us a call.
Executive teams benefit from the knowledge available in the AcuMax profile! We’ll provide a complimentary consultation with your leadership team, including the survey for your top leaders. Call us at 844-228-6291 or request a consultation here.