There are more jobs than applicants? Insider secrets with manufacturing recruiting expert Dolores Wuepper

In the recent episode of Recruiting Insider, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dolores Whipper, a seasoned talent acquisition professional with extensive experience in the manufacturing industry. Dolores shared her insights on the challenges of recruiting for blue-collar jobs and offered practical advice for employers looking to attract and retain top talent.

The Manufacturing Talent Gap

Dolores highlighted the significant gap between the open jobs in manufacturing and the available candidates. She attributed this disconnect to societal perceptions, media representation, and a lack of awareness about the opportunities and rewards offered by manufacturing careers.

Rethinking Manufacturing Careers

To address this talent shortage, Dolores emphasized the need for a rethinking of how manufacturing jobs are portrayed. She argued that the media often focuses on glamorous careers, neglecting to showcase the value and importance of blue-collar work.

Dolores suggested that employers take a more proactive approach to attracting talent. This includes highlighting the dynamic and exciting aspects of manufacturing careers, emphasizing the opportunities for growth and development, and showcasing the innovative technologies being used in modern manufacturing facilities.

Overcoming Misconceptions

One of the biggest misconceptions about manufacturing jobs is the perception that they are dirty, low-paying, and require minimal skills. Dolores challenged these stereotypes, highlighting the diverse range of skills needed for manufacturing roles, including technical expertise, problem-solving abilities, and leadership qualities.

Creating a Positive Work Environment

To attract and retain top talent, manufacturing companies must create a positive and supportive work environment. Dolores emphasized the importance of fair compensation, flexible work arrangements, opportunities for career growth, and a strong sense of community.

Listening to Employees

Dolores also stressed the importance of listening to employees and understanding their needs and concerns. By actively seeking feedback and implementing changes based on employee input, companies can foster a more engaged and satisfied workforce.

Key Takeaways

• Rethink job portrayal: Highlight the dynamic and exciting aspects of manufacturing careers.
• Address misconceptions: Challenge stereotypes and emphasize the skills required for manufacturing roles.
• Create a positive work environment: Offer competitive compensation, flexibility, and opportunities for growth.
• Listen to employees: Seek feedback and implement changes based on employee input.
• Foster a sense of community: Create a supportive and inclusive workplace culture.

Mary (00:03.549)
Dolores Wuepper, welcome to Recruiting Insider.

Dolores Wuepper (00:07.057)
Hey, thank you so much for having me.

Mary (00:09.724)
Dolores has 20 years of talent acquisition experience in the financial services, insurance, retail, and food manufacturing industries with a passion for improving the employee experience. She excels in re -imagining programs to attract, develop, retain, and engage top tier talent. Today, we’re diving into the world of manufacturing, a sector that is the backbone of so many things that we use every single day. But here’s the thing.

There’s a huge gap between the open jobs on the factory floors and the people filling them. So, you know, there’s modern tech -driven workplaces, but I mean, the public perception of blue -collar jobs often lags behind reality, right? So what’s the disconnect? You know, how can we bridge that gap and get qualified people excited about these super rewarding careers? We’ll be exploring why employers need a total rethink on how they portray…

recruit for these essential roles. Blue -colored jobs, you know, I’ve always had a negative connotation to them and I think there maybe was some truth to that in the 60s and the 70s, but I think things are probably a little bit different now. There really are some great opportunities out there, but you know there still seems to be a lack of applicants, right? What are some of the hidden challenges that prevent qualified candidates from even considering manufacturing jobs?

Dolores Wuepper (01:39.473)
You know, this is interesting because I started my career in a way to where I wasn’t even exposed to the hourly type of, you know, roles until just a few years back. But it was very eye opening for me when I first started getting into manufacturing, which was January of 23. And I just, gosh, as a recruiter, you think, I’ll get that. I know how to fill those positions, right? You get a job description. I know how to search for people.

Mary (02:05.335)
Yeah, yeah, yep.

Dolores Wuepper (02:09.809)
Where I think the disconnect is, is society, it’s media, it’s our parents that love us so much, it’s your friends, it’s your family, that at a very young age or even when you’re in high school and even when you’re in school.

They say, Mary, gosh, you know, you need to go to school and go get a marketing degree because you would be so good at creative stuff. Or, you know, you should be a doctor because you love to take care of people, right? And doctors and marketing professionals, they make so much money. And, you know, all your friends, all your family members, they’re doing that because they care about you and they love you and they want you to have a stable career, right? And be absolutely financially okay with your life and your family in the future. But…

What happens is that nobody ever says, Mary, you should be a welder. Like I see that, that’s totally you. Or they don’t say, gosh, you need to be a plumber, because we need more plumbers out there. And I think they don’t, because if you think about just the old time, you said that earlier, which is back in the day, those jobs were…

Mary (03:04.915)
Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (03:19.953)
You kind of, their necessities, you kind of needed to do that in order for you to take care of family or whatever that may be. But those jobs are the backbone of who we are. And the thing is, is if you look at media and TV and your favorite TV shows and like friends and, you know, parks and recreation, you don’t see those jobs that are out there in the media. So that way your kids and your family and friends are talking about them all the time.

Mary (03:37.394)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (03:46.769)
you see the big popular jobs that everybody points to. And when you Google, hey, what job should I have whenever I grow up? You’re normally not seeing those blue collar jobs. So I think that’s the gap there. But how do we as employers that are in manufacturing, how do we educate the general public and the parents and the schools to consider manufacturing as a really good place to work? There’s so many people out there that…

don’t realize that those jobs are the backbone of our economy and everything that we use every single day.

Mary (04:25.038)
I wonder why it is that blue collar jobs aren’t represented in the media. You know, like you said, I’ve watched a ton of sitcoms growing up and typically the people that I look up to in those sitcoms, they’re not in blue collar jobs. And if they are, there’s usually some kind of a comedic aspect to it, right? They try to make it funny. I mean, why do you think that is?

Dolores Wuepper (04:48.497)
That’s it. You know, I’ve been wondering that as well. And I’ve only been wondering that since January of 2023. Because I haven’t, yeah, I haven’t been in the manufacturing space until then. And Mary actually went to a HR conference in 2023. And this was all manufacturing. It’s called Leap HR. I’ve never been to it before. I never heard of it.

Mary (04:51.022)
Yeah.

Mary (04:54.894)
Yeah, it’s it’s odd

Mary (05:06.893)
Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (05:13.841)
And I went there thinking, well, you know, it’s a normal conference just like any other conferences out there. And maybe I’ll take a couple of takeaways from it. And I’m a pretty extroverted person and I’ll just have some great connections. But that really opened up my eyes. I didn’t.

Mary (05:22.508)
Yeah.

Mary (05:28.076)
Yeah.

Hmm. Hmm. Yeah?

Dolores Wuepper (05:31.825)
I was just listening the whole time. And that’s when I started realizing that you talk to all these TA professionals, HR professionals, the SHROS, the CPOs out there, and they’re all saying the same thing, which is, why can’t we get enough applications? Why don’t people think about us coming to our organization as an employer? You have to.

Mary (05:40.108)
Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (05:54.897)
big companies like your General Mills and you know where they make you know all the cereals right that you’ve had when you were a kids and even they’re experiencing a shortage and applicants and so it’s just very interesting because nobody had the answer but that’s when I had my big aha moment and which is.

Mary (06:09.513)
Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (06:13.169)
we need to do a better job as employers to start thinking about how do we portray our jobs to get people to start thinking about it. Because we’re not on the big TV shows. I don’t know why. I will say, you know, I started doing some research and when I got home from that conference, here’s what I did. You’re gonna think this is silly. So I have a 20 year old and I have a 10 year old. I was having dinner one night and I said, okay, kids.

Mary (06:18.633)
Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (06:40.177)
What is the coolest job out there? Like, what do you want to be? Right? And this is my 20 year old’s constant struggle of just what I want to be when you grow up. So it was easier to talk to my 10 year old about this. And she was thinking, you know, a YouTuber, you know, but that’s a whole different conversation. Eventually I said, why, why? Well, cause you know, it looks really good.

Mary (06:45.16)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Mary (06:54.664)
Yeah, that’s what I was gonna guess. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (07:03.601)
and they seem to have a lot of fun and they get to be on TV and they get to play video games. It just looks fun and easy and cool, right? And they’re so accessible now. And so I said, okay, what about being a plumber? And all of a sudden, my daughter’s face was like, And I said, hold on, let’s explore this a little bit more. I said, well, why? Why aren’t you as interested in that? Just like this.

Mary (07:27.527)
Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (07:33.265)
kind of a dirty job. And I said, interesting, it’s dirty. Wow, well, what else? Well, it’s just kind of hard, I think. Like, I don’t really know what it is to be a plumber. And I said, OK. So we kind of explored some of those things. So I started mentioning other jobs as well, an electrician, right? And just some other things, and mechanic. And it just, the common things that she said was the same thing for all of them. Don’t really know. Like, I can’t picture.

Mary (07:45.061)
Hmm?

Mary (07:51.558)
Yeah. Yeah. Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (08:02.065)
what they do every day. It doesn’t sound like fun, it sounds dirty, a little hard. So I started actually having similar conversations with HR peers and people that you and I network with all the time. But also other family, friends, marketing departments, other folks as well, and they all said the same thing.

Mary (08:17.796)
Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (08:25.457)
If you think about it right now, you think of friends, right? And you think of Monica. And if you ever watch that show, Monica’s a chef, right? And you can picture her being a chef, you know, wearing her outfit as a chef and cooking maybe for some, you know, great people. Like you don’t really need to know the job description, but you can visualize it. And I think the answer, I’m going to, it’s a long answer, but I think this is it is.

Mary (08:29.252)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. yeah. Yep, yep.

Dolores Wuepper (08:51.057)
you can visualize some of those, what I call kind of sexier jobs out there because you can see it on TV that the media and you know, we have done a good job at saying, here’s what it’s like to be a chef. Here’s what it’s like to be a paleontologist or whatever that may be. It’s sticking with the friends thing, but you don’t see a lot of those positive, cool things when you see shows or if there are any about being a mechanic, right? Or, or being a welder. And so I think that’s the key there.

Mary (09:02.658)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, yep.

Dolores Wuepper (09:20.881)
is how do we then, again, if we know these things and we see and hear from children and other people that are saying the same things, like, I just, I don’t see it. Like, I think we need that, that’s our opportunity there as employers is really making it more apparent and visual that you can actually have a fantastic career, but we just have to show up in a different way.

Mary (09:45.184)
Yeah, and I think you’re absolutely right. Some of those stereotypes do tend to start at a really, really young age. And I think that you’ve really hit on something there because really, if you ask probably almost any child, you know, eight, 10, 12 years old, they’re going to say YouTuber, doctor, lawyer, teacher, you know, some of those jobs that are just kind of ingrained in our society. This is what you should be doing. This has the fancy title.

Dolores Wuepper (10:11.633)
Yeah. Yes.

Mary (10:15.101)
You’re going to have the corner office as a finance executive, you know, the plumber and the electrician that’s never in the conversation. And it kind of reminds me of, you know, STEM and women in STEM where it’s like, well, until there was really education about, hey, this is an opportunity for you as a woman to go into STEM. You know, the same conversation has to happen like that for manufacturing to know that, hey, this is an opportunity. This is what it is.

Dolores Wuepper (10:18.705)
There you go.

Mary (10:43.42)
and it can actually be a really great career. So I think that, you know, that’s great to start at a young age and, you know, just thinking about some of those stereotypes, what are some of the biggest misconceptions that you see that, you know, the general public holds about those blue collar jobs?

Dolores Wuepper (11:02.353)
Gosh, you know, and this is a lot of the research that I’ve done just around this over the past year. Kind of talking about what my daughter said, a lot of it is it’s dirty. Some of the research I also did was they don’t pay as much, which is interesting, right? Pay is a big deal, of course. It doesn’t matter if you’re working, you know, to take care of your whole family or if you’re putting yourself through college, pay is a big thing. Also, some of the…

Mary (11:11.547)
Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (11:32.209)
gaps that I saw were also around the skills needed. Some people in research that I found said some of these blue collar jobs, you don’t really need to have any important skills, which led to people thinking those jobs weren’t as important as maybe some of the finance jobs, right? The YouTuber jobs and all those jobs that are out there. So, but gosh, I mean, Mary, you’ve been, I’ve.

Mary (11:52.217)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (11:58.385)
looked at your background, you’ve got a lot of experience in TA2 and gosh, with me and my experience, I am in manufacturing now and recruiting for not only hourly folks, exactly what we’re talking about, these blue collar jobs, but also senior executives in the C -suite. And I got to say across all of those positions, I have seen skills like Lean Six Sigma.

that you need to have in a manufacturing space. Degrees in supply chain, right? And goodness, when you’re thinking about working in foods and beverage, like we are, OSHA and some of these other regulatory, FDA compliance, certifications and experience that you must have in order to make sure that that product that you’re making is going to be safe to consume for the general public. And I think, gosh, in my research, I had like 20,

20 different types of certifications that I’m commonly looking for for blue collar jobs. And I think that’s a common misconception there as well.

Mary (12:54.262)
Yeah.

Mary (13:02.325)
Yeah, I think you’re, I mean, you’re absolutely right. And I think with the introduction of automation and all of the evolving technology in the space too, it’s really important to have some of those certifications and hard skills as well. Are there any opportunities now for some of those tech savvy workers, you know, on the factory floor specifically?

Dolores Wuepper (13:27.281)
Yeah, I think it depends on the organization that you are going into, right? So you have some maybe smaller companies or some more mom and pop companies that maybe want to add some more of that automation in there. Maybe they’re not there yet or don’t have the funds to, but I know with us at Finley’s and so many other.

organizations that are out there, yeah, they are using automation, not necessarily to, which I know it’s very common as well to replace jobs, it’s really to make sure that you as a person are safe doing the job. And we’re also minimizing errors, minimizing risks, things like that, that as humans, people make mistakes all the time and to produce that scale as well. So at our organization, we are going through a ton of

you know, big projects where we’re adding some automation and so many other things as well. And I know that there’s other peers of mine that are going through the same thing in other food and general manufacturing space. So I know that is something that’s happening for sure. But I want to stress, don’t think people should be afraid of automation. I don’t think people should be afraid of AI. This is only going to help us as humans do our jobs.

better and really utilize some of the skills that maybe we don’t get a chance to use all the time either.

Mary (14:52.336)
Absolutely. And you know, and I think with the introduction of AI and technology too, there’s probably more opportunity even for blue collar workers on the manufacturing floor to be innovative and to really step into a role where they can make a difference and, you know, improving processes on the production floor and really driving change in different ways.

Dolores Wuepper (15:12.793)
Yeah. Yeah, you know, a lot of manufacturing organizations have the continuous improvement department, right? Where that’s all you’re doing. You are really good at what you do and you know all the different aspects of the plant or the business. And now you’re coming in with a unique lens to be able to say, hey, let’s not do the same thing that we do all the time anymore, day after day. Let’s constantly improve. Does it mean with new equipment? Does it mean with, you know,

Mary (15:19.088)
Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (15:40.945)
just updating our SOPs, our processes in general. Maybe we need to reconfigure the layout of the plant in order to make our processes more efficient and our time reduced in order to make products as well. So if anybody’s interested in that, absolutely, continuous improvement, that is everywhere and a very, very popular department for sure.

Mary (16:01.229)
Yeah.

Mary (16:04.685)
Yeah. I want to pivot a little bit to start talking about talent acquisition just a little bit. And there seems to be a gap in messaging and how employers tend to portray some of these jobs. What are some really sort of innovative ways that companies can highlight both the dynamic and also the exciting aspects of working in manufacturing?

Dolores Wuepper (16:30.481)
You know, in my time being in manufacturing, I did some A -B testing here. And sometimes you can just get your job description, right, posted. It’s the post and pray method, right? So post a job and pray somebody really good applies. And you know, yeah, you may get some people there. But you know, some of the things that I’ve also just kind of played with a little bit more, and anybody can do this. You can tweak your job description any way that you want, is,

Mary (16:42.444)
Yeah. Yep.

Dolores Wuepper (17:00.273)
really switch your perks. And if you don’t have perks in your job posting, really put that on there at the very forefront. Because people don’t always read the entire job post, right? And when you think about the hourly demographic, they’re looking for something stable, they’re looking for something that can pay the bills. But gosh, there’s several people as well that are looking for, what’s in it for me, right? I can work for you, I can work.

anywhere. So why should I work here? And everybody thinks that it’s not just the salary people. It’s not just tech people, right, that we often think about. It’s everyone. So we need to make sure that we show up and all the right reasons. Why do we want you to work here? And why should you work with us? Talk about your perks. Talk about things that can incentivize our those hourly individuals. And you know, nothing should really be a secret when it comes to that. I’ve actually have a lot of

Mary (17:35.082)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (17:58.321)
TA friends were like, we don’t really like to talk about kind of our programs and stuff, you know, on the job posting, because it just, you know, gives away our secrets. And, you know, gosh, if we don’t do that, then you’re not going to get the talent that you’re looking for, because the talent is looking for what’s in it for me. And some of the things that we’ve done is just start putting it out there that the PTO, the bonus structure that we have, the, you know, we offer tuition reimbursement, we’re…

Mary (18:00.968)
Yeah

Dolores Wuepper (18:27.057)
rolling out with all these programs and letting people know that we’re not stuck in the stone age. We are aware that we need to continue to pivot and continue to adapt with the marketplace and we’re doing it. Look at us, here’s all the ways that we’re doing it. And that often comes up in the interview process as well. People are looking for more information about, hey, after I start here, where do I go next?

It may or may not come up in your normal interviews, but I guarantee you when you start putting your perks and all those exciting things out there, they’re gonna be way more intrigued and they’re gonna wanna talk to you. And they’re gonna really consider your position over somebody else’s if they know that you’re gonna take care of them in the long run.

Mary (19:12.227)
And we all want to know that, you know, whether we’re an hourly blue collared worker working in a manufacturing setting or that finance executive that we talked about, you know, yes, salary is important, but we also want to know, I think it’s just kind of human nature. What else is in it for me? You know, how are you going to be better, like you said, than the other guy, than that other employer that’s trying to hire me? So I would imagine that listing those incentives and perks on the job description and being really, really cl –

clear about that is, I mean, not only appealing, but it’s also showing that you’re transparent, you know, from the start, which makes the relationship even stronger right from the beginning.

Dolores Wuepper (19:57.233)
Yeah, absolutely. And you said it as well, right? Everybody’s looking for what’s in it for me. And as a executive recruiter, I’m the director of TA here at Finley’s, but I have recs. And so that never goes away. But it doesn’t matter if I’m talking to an hourly professional or a C -suite person, they’re all asking the same thing, right? So what comes after this? What’s my next move after this?

Mary (20:12.096)
Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (20:26.929)
C -suite is going to take a little longer, but wow, like we need to start thinking about that and it’s okay to share that. It’s not a bad thing or even sharing what your plans are. So sometimes people are afraid to say, you know what, we just, we’re not there yet. We don’t really have a lot, but here’s what we’re working on. And sometimes that transparency helps because not a lot of people just hear that transparency from companies.

Mary (20:50.046)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, I mean, my husband’s an art director and, you know, with the company that he works at, or used to work at, I should say, they told him that, you know, in the future there’ll be profit sharing. So it’s like, you know, even though that wasn’t an incentive right now in the moment, it was still something that was really super appealing to him for something that wouldn’t probably happen down the road.

Dolores Wuepper (21:02.865)
Hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (21:13.681)
Yeah, absolutely. Our organization is pretty good at saying, hey, you are going to be a successor for this other position. Wow, right? That already makes you feel like I’m going to be here for a while. They’re going to coach me. They’re going to develop me. And something’s coming for me. Like that already gets people pumped.

Mary (21:21.342)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Mary (21:28.764)
Mm -hmm. Yeah. Yep. It gets you excited about it, right? Yeah. So my dad worked in a factory for more than 45 years. And I mean, my grandma pushed him to jump right into it after high school, kind of like you said, you know, and that’s where he stayed literally until he retired. And he described a lot of his experience there as feeling like he was in jail, honestly.

Dolores Wuepper (21:34.545)
Yeah, absolutely.

Dolores Wuepper (21:41.585)
Wow.

Mary (21:55.963)
I mean, him and his coworkers kind of felt underappreciated, undervalued on many occasions. And he actually told me once that their company, I guess several times, not just one time, but they would offer up pizza parties, right? If there was something, their employer was feeling really generous. So they would have these 30 minute lunch breaks and there’d be pizza there. And the employer thought that that was the greatest thing in the world. Whereas like their white collar.

counterparts were able to leave work early, go out to a nice restaurant for dinners and drinks, right? They were being wined and dined. And this tends to result in, you know, dissatisfaction, really, to say the least. I would imagine high turnover, you know, as well as, like you said, delays in products, ingredients, and items that we take for granted every single day as humans, right? Things that are being produced on the floor. So how should companies be rethinking the way of working?

Dolores Wuepper (22:39.505)
I’ll tell you.

Mary (22:53.592)
in general for the hourly blue collar demographic.

Dolores Wuepper (22:57.137)
That’s such a good and powerful question. And it kind of goes back to we are all looking for the same thing. So if they’re getting a free PTO day, how come I can’t get a free PTO day?

Mary (23:10.424)
Right? Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (23:11.537)
I mean, and it’s about equality. And I think that’s the core of it all is that the hourly workforce, they’re the backbone, right? We said this so many times, without them building our product, without them going out there and being hands -on and working as hard as they do in order for us to meet our revenue goals, gosh, without them, none of us will be in business. And so the stuff that they’re looking for is all the same things that…

this your senior executives or your marketing professionals are looking for, they’re looking for equality. They’re looking for inclusion. And if you really make that clear and say, look, if we all win this school, this happens for everybody. This prize happens for everybody. It feels better. It feels like we’re kind of all have skin in the game, right? As opposed to, well, that department’s going to do that.

and then this department’s gonna do that. That doesn’t feel good. It feels already kind of icky, right? So, you know, in some companies that I’ve been a part of, we also, for our hourly demographic, listened to what they had to say. I developed a recognition program in my last organization, and I heard from so many people on the salaried side.

Mary (24:09.971)
No. Yeah. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (24:31.025)
that just a lot of ideas of what they could do and maybe bring in lunch in as a big recognition day, kind of what you had said before and some other things too. Maybe a standing desk, like that’d be really cool, right? And so I’m hearing all these things, great ideas. This recognition program though is supposed to be for all employees, hourly salary, all those things.

And so even though a standing desk would be amazing for finance, that does nothing for our hourly individuals, unless they maybe take it home, right? There’s that. So I started really shifting my focus. I heard what the salary folks said, and that’s very valuable stuff as well. But I started now working with the production managers and started doing tours and listening tours, if you will.

Mary (24:59.64)
Right, right.

Dolores Wuepper (25:20.497)
with their hourly employees and just ask them, hey, look, this recognition program is going to come out. We’re going to be giving prizes for the times that you get recognized. What do you want to see as prizes? And I think it was pretty common. A lot of it was money. They’re like, can we just get cash? Because I need to pay the gas bill and those things. Yeah. And it was interesting because some of the same things that are salaried, coworkers had said too.

Mary (25:38.48)
Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I need some new tires. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (25:49.489)
Some of them were looking for just acknowledgement that you come here every single day and you don’t call in and you’re not late and you just kill it every single day. Like they bring it, you know? And so that was really powerful for me to hear. But a lot of it was flexibility as well. So, hey, like…

You know, some companies have point systems, right? So if you take a day off, but that’s unplanned, or if you come in an hour late, then you get dinged, right? They want the same thing as the hourly employees, you know, or salary employees have, right? Which is, hey, like, can I just kind of adjust my schedule just a little bit? Cause I have this doctor’s appointment my kid has, you know, or a cough or something like that. And so, so that was interesting. A lot of PTO days, a lot of flexibility is what I heard.

Mary (26:17.421)
Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Mary (26:30.861)
Yeah. Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (26:39.281)
So I not only took that information, incorporated a lot of those prizes into the recognition, but we also started creating more flexibility for our hourly associates as well. We had full -time associates, we had part -time, but I also created a casual time associate. And that casual time was somebody that wants to pick up some extra hours, you can go ahead and pick up some extra hours. If you’re a casual timer and you know what, you just can’t work today,

Mary (27:02.41)
Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (27:07.185)
then you don’t have to, that’s okay, you’re not going to get deemed because it’s casual time where your full time and your part timers have set times that they should come in. The good thing about these casual timers is that you can even give them a call and say, hey, I know that you’re looking for some more hours, can you pick up a shift here? And they’re like, sure, right? And so I think really taking the time to listen to your people, doesn’t matter if they’re hourly salary managers, C -suite,

Mary (27:26.858)
Yep. Yep.

Dolores Wuepper (27:36.209)
they have the answers, they have all the answers for you. And that’s what they’re looking for. They’re looking for equality, they’re looking for a voice as well. So I think giving them those things are gonna help tremendously with retention.

Mary (27:49.864)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day, we all just want our voices to be heard. So I think that that’s powerful to go in, go on the floor, see what they actually want. You know, do they want time off? Do they want different incentives? Do they want to be recognized? You know, what is it that makes them happy and feel more fulfilled in their position and then build programs around that? You know, and you also mentioned the whole

punching in, you know, punch, if you’re an hour late, you get dinged. And I’m going back to my, my dad who worked 45 years in a factory and he told me a story once, you know, he had to punch in every single day, right? And if you were one minute late, you were docked. If you were late 10 times, you’d be fired on the spot. And he told me a story of one of his buddies who was nearly having a heart attack. He was having like these chest pains before he went into work and he showed up late and he was like,

Dolores Wuepper (28:46.609)
Ash.

Mary (28:48.485)
not even an hour late, like, you know, less than 30 minutes late, literally could have been dying and they still docked him, you know, that one of 10. So what, I mean, what can companies actually do to make sure that, you know, their people are showing up on time while also, you know, fostering and maintaining that really positive environment?

Dolores Wuepper (28:58.961)
Wow.

Dolores Wuepper (29:12.657)
I think the leadership HR needs to be very close with the people. You know, because if people have problems or questions or suggestions, they’re not only going to their manager or they’re going to go to HR. All right. And so those two need to be really working in tandem. It needs to be a harmonious way of really working together and focus on those people efforts there. That breaks my heart to hear that.

Mary (29:40.42)
I know.

Dolores Wuepper (29:42.001)
But you know, there’s so many stories like that out there. And if there’s a way that HR can get close to the people, if you’re already like that, fantastic. But if you’re not, and you know that there’s maybe ways that we can make our workplace easier, better, different for our employees, that they tell their family and their friends and their golf buddies and all the people out there like, hey, this is a cool place. That’s what you want, right? You want these walking billboards.

Mary (29:44.388)
Yeah.

Mary (30:05.729)
Mm -hmm, yeah. Yeah. Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (30:11.825)
And it doesn’t have to be all the shiny, you know, stuff with the standing desk and the ping pong tables and all those things anymore. Does that, I think that’s kind of in the past. What people want is just understanding and the flexibility and you know, maybe the point system should go away. Like how many people in that organization were let go or were reprimanded for the same situation like that. And if that’s a problem, let’s nix it.

Mary (30:18.785)
Yeah.

Mary (30:26.209)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (30:37.521)
because it’s just not working. We’re probably getting rid of so many amazing, hardworking people that we should maybe just have a little bit more flexibility with that. What if somebody tries to call in, they gave us a really good excuse or have their family, their wife or whatever, something like that. Let’s maybe create some more policies that really help our people with their families as opposed to ding them for being human. I think that is a long way to go right there.

Mary (30:37.601)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mary (30:51.905)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (31:02.366)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because otherwise you just have, you know, the workers on the floor butting heads with HR and having a horrible viewpoint like my dad, which I don’t agree with everything that he said, but he always thought that HR just wanted to protect the company, right? From a legal standpoint, they wanted to make sure that they didn’t get sued. They didn’t care about their employees at all. And I, you know, again,

Dolores Wuepper (31:17.585)
Hahaha!

Mary (31:31.165)
having an HR background myself, you know, I don’t agree with that because I know a lot of wonderful human resources professionals and talent acquisition professionals that don’t feel that way at all. But that was his experience, you know, and it’s really unfortunate. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (31:44.657)
Yeah, that’s actually, I started my career in TA and I was often recruiting some really amazing superstars, right? I’m just gonna brag on myself there. And many times, some of those superstars would come to me and say, so I’m here, what else can I do, right? And what are the growth opportunities? Where are all the things? And we didn’t have those.

Mary (31:56.061)
Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (32:10.769)
many of the companies that I was a part of. And that’s actually how I started getting into the talent development and talent management, performance management space was because I didn’t want to lose my people that I’ve worked so hard to recruit. And you build that relationship, right? And TA with your candidates and all the ideas that they gave me. And then of course, networking with my peers, like, you know, let’s try to do that here. Like how hard is that? So I didn’t have a lot of experience and I started really listening to all these ideas, started working with the C -suite and built some amazing,

Mary (32:15.837)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (32:20.409)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (32:40.017)
and started actually implementing a ton of job rotational programs, leadership development programs, internship programs, and recognition programs, and wow, does it make a difference? It really does. But I agree with you that there are some really good HR people out there that want to do more. And I think we should let them, give them the opportunity, right? Because they’re going to be closest to our people anyway.

Mary (32:47.705)
Yeah.

Mary (32:51.257)
Yeah.

Mary (32:55.961)
Yeah, it’s tough.

Mary (33:04.441)
Yeah? Yeah?

Dolores Wuepper (33:08.849)
Go ask them those questions, get some answers, bring it to the C -suite. We have to listen, we have to be open to really making changes because if we don’t, those people are gonna leave and we’re gonna still be in the spot that we are right now, which is how do we get good people? They’re telling us the answers, we’re just not doing anything.

Mary (33:22.969)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Mary (33:29.654)
From a recruiting lens, you believe that companies need to improve the talent acquisition process, incorporating social media pages, recruiting assets, and career pages. Why is it so important for companies to socialize and reimagine these roles?

Dolores Wuepper (33:48.081)
I’m going through my learning journey being in the food manufacturing space and with the organization that I’m at right now, very long time company has been around for almost 275 years. That’s older than America. So it’s been along for a while. Well, and to come into the organization and see, wow, like there’s some really good opportunities here to just showcase.

Mary (33:59.701)
Wow. It’s pretty old. Pretty established. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (34:13.137)
our longevity, what we’re doing in the area of sustainability and for our communities. We’re just, you know, no one’s really took the lead to really start making some of those modern strategies come to life. And for me, going through this journey of being a manufacturing, going to the conference, doing all this research, that was the reason why I felt I needed to go down that path for Finley’s and I’m doing that right now. The social media piece is really because one, we, we,

we really aren’t in on social media. So one, it’s kind of a, it’s a no brainer. You have to be on social media, but why? For me, it was really to be where all the places that are potential candidates are going to look for jobs, right? You know, you and I connected on LinkedIn. We live on LinkedIn all the time. So if you want people like you, then I should probably be on LinkedIn. Not only to post jobs, right? But that’s.

Mary (35:00.562)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Mary (35:07.282)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (35:10.769)
for your more active people, but really, you know, put a life page up, put some information that’s all about your why, why should people come and work for you? That is going to tell so many stories, because as you know, when you’re going through the candidate journey, the whole experience, you may look for jobs, but before applying, people are looking at your glass door, they’re looking at your in deeds, you’re looking at all these different places before they actually start applying. That hasn’t stopped, people are still doing that.

And so we need to show up where people are. And for myself, I’m also trying to educate those parents that I was telling you about of those high schools, of those college students that are saying, gosh, you know, what are some really good opportunities for my children, for my family, for my friends? I’m also working towards rolling out a veteran recruitment program as well.

Mary (35:46.258)
Yeah. Yep.

Dolores Wuepper (36:01.297)
But the best way to do that is to get on social media and, you know, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, those are your big three. You want to be on all those. You have different types of eyes, different types of professionals that are all on those platforms. And for Facebook, that’s going to be a big one. You can tell so many people’s stories there. So that’s what I’m doing. So just rolled out LinkedIn Live. Yay. So the next one is going to be Facebook and Instagram this year. And…

Mary (36:24.973)
Woohoo!

Dolores Wuepper (36:29.361)
really I have a whole just recruitment strategy around how do we show up? It’s really going to be targeting several types of demographics. One of them is those vets that I was telling you about. If you ever talk to a vet, my goodness, they want to still contribute. They’re not done, right? And so let’s bring more of those people in, right? Let’s work together, right? And even spouses of vets, have you thought, I mean, my goodness, the spouses of vets are

Mary (36:41.741)
Mm -hmm.

Absolutely. Yep.

Yep.

Mary (36:52.557)
Mm -hmm. Yep.

Dolores Wuepper (36:58.737)
One of the most talented demographics that are out there, yes, project management, budget management, right? All the things, my goodness, let’s not forget about that demographic that no one really talks about. Of course, your colleges and some of those other ways as well. For me, in my experience, you gotta really start painting that picture as to why those vets wanna work here.

Mary (37:02.509)
resilient. Like, insanely resilient. Yeah. Yeah. Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (37:27.729)
Why parents should your students work here? And so to kind of talk about some of the things we said before, what my daughter had said is I can’t really picture it, right? Like, what does it do? And so part of what I’m doing is I’m putting Day in the Life videos together for some of our blue collar jobs to show them, hey, look, here’s.

somebody knew and what they’re going to experience. Here’s your trainer, right? And look, here’s your first day. You’re going to learn this, you know, equipment, then you’re going to maybe do a little bit of this, right? And it’s not so scary. We promise it’s okay. Right. And, and you don’t see a lot of that out there. And so, and I think more and more companies that are doing that typically do that for like the marketing team, right. Or the tech team and, you know, all the ping pong tables and all the games you can play. Right. But.

Mary (37:48.202)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Mary (38:07.882)
Mm -hmm.

Dolores Wuepper (38:12.081)
let’s not forget those same tactics work for your blue collar jobs because everybody can picture those jobs and nobody can picture the blue collared environment, right? So the standup meetings that you have every day in the production team, right? Safety and here’s our quota and here’s all those things. Like it’s a really good way to portray those jobs. We’re doing a lot of that. I’m also gonna be rolling out some, I call them just the employee stories of gosh, like.

I started here, I’ve been with this company 20 years and look what I’ve been able to accomplish. I have so many success stories, we all do in manufacturing, but let’s vocalize them. Let’s give some recognition out there. Let’s puff up their chest a little bit more for being on social media and for most importantly, showing up here every single day for 20 years still. So we just got to think things a little differently, but if you think about it, you’ve been in TA for a long time too.

Mary, it’s a lot of the same stuff that we do for our salary jobs. We just don’t really think about it for Blue Collar. So I’m doing more of those things. I’m very excited to be able to be partnering not only with our internal teams, some peers that I’ve worked with over the years getting their.

thought suggestions as well, our global teams and everybody’s aligned. Everybody knows this is, this is what it’s going to take. So I’m excited about that. And if anybody’s ever interested in wanting to know a little bit more about what I’ve experienced in my journey and some of the things that work, some of the things that don’t work, I’m all about testing. Reach out anytime. I love this stuff.

Mary (39:24.998)
Yeah.

Mary (39:37.926)
Yeah.

Mary (39:45.542)
Yeah, I know that that’s exciting. And many of our listeners might be targeting positions in manufacturing, you know, in the in blue collar positions, blue collared hourly positions within the manufacturing space. Why should they care about all of these initiatives? What’s what’s it mean to them? What does it mean to them?

Dolores Wuepper (40:10.321)
The initiatives that I’m talking about here, I think will help people understand more importantly how these blue collar jobs, they’re so important. We can’t live without these blue collar workers. I’m gonna tell you the same story I told my daughter. She’s 10, okay? So I had to really go deep. I know I don’t have to with you, but plumber, right? I mean.

Mary (40:30.278)
Heheheheh.

Dolores Wuepper (40:38.385)
We can’t have running water every day. You can’t wash your hands. You can’t take a shower. You can’t brush your teeth. You can’t do any of those things, not only at home, but what about cooking at the restaurants, right? What about staying at a hotel or about to go on a cruise? You need running water there too. It’s a different kind of mechanic, but we need plumbers. Otherwise we don’t have the luxuries that we have today. Same thing with electricity. And the conversation I had with her was,

Mary (40:52.897)
Mm -hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Dolores Wuepper (41:03.921)
Your YouTube? No, there’s no YouTube without electricity, right? And some of these other things. So we need these blue collar jobs. If you think about all the grocery stores that you go to and you get your coffee and you get your orange juice and your milk, those are employees that are making sure that that product is safe. It’s sound. It’s not going to hurt you after consuming it. It’s packaged correctly. It’s shipped off to the right facility and it’s not damaged. I mean, that’s a

Mary (41:08.033)
Yup.

Dolores Wuepper (41:33.713)
constant thing and we just take some of those things for granted, I really truly believe. So if we as employers really follow through on some of these strategies and just think about it, it could be very different for their organization than it is with ours, but employers really think about what they’re trying to convey to the general public about why these jobs are so important or why they should come and work for them, then you’ll see that

And really the answer is to help people understand how impactful these jobs are. That’s really all it is. And if those jobs are impactful and you have a really good message out there, people are going to want to learn more about it. That’s what you want, right? You want those applications. You want somebody to go, I’ve never thought about this before. Food manufacturing, huh? Let me just apply. I just want to learn more about that. That’s what you want. That’s a win right there.

Mary (42:21.98)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (42:27.9)
Amazing. What are you up to now and where can we find you on social media?

Dolores Wuepper (42:33.677)
I’m executing all of these strategies right now. I’m doing a lot of work. I’m also spearheading our women in business employee resource group. Never had one before here. So we’re doing a lot of that right now and very excited about the passionate team that I recruited internally of women that also want to thrive and build some really cool programs for their coworkers and the organization. Some of those,

Mary (42:35.132)
Yeah, busy. What am I not doing?

Mary (42:45.308)
cool.

Dolores Wuepper (43:02.449)
at Column clubs, some of those clubs are public speaking club, mentoring, there’s a book club, we’ve got like motivational speakers that are coming in and this is very exciting to me because it really helps to have women and it doesn’t matter what position, what department, whatever from the production line all the way to the C -suite.

It gives folks an opportunity to be heard and to get the skills and the know -how and the experience to continue to grow and progress in their career no matter where it is.

Hopefully it’s with us, but at the same time, you know, sometimes there’s some really great, you know, moves externally that you have to make. So I’m doing a lot of work on that. I’m excited about that. And then personally, I’m going to go on a cruise, Marion. So I’m really excited about that. Doing that in three weeks. It’s almost there. So I’m going to take my, my recruiting cap on, put my, you know, mom slash, you know, wife slash vacation hat on, and I’m going to have a great time.

Mary (43:47.48)
Yeah, hey -o! Good for you! You can taste it!

Yes!

Mary (44:00.695)
There you go, there you go. Amazing. Thanks for coming on today, Dolores.

Dolores Wuepper (44:07.569)
Thank you so much for having me.