Podcast: Manufacturing going on offense for talent recruitment

We've all heard someone say it recently: Nobody wants to work these days. It's the refrain of a stressed manager who's short-staffed and losing production capacity because the company can't recruit people. 

Even if it's true (and really, has anyone ever really wanted to work? Isn't that why we pay them?), complaining won't fill your plant vacancies. Blaming other industries won't help either as they're saying the same things. Think manufacturers have a rough time recruiting people? Talk to trucking company leaders or landscaping operations. 

In a recent article in IndustryWeek, doctoral student Winifred Opoku shared her thoughts on how some manufacturers are making their ability to reach young people a competitive advantage. 

Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

For decades, workforce development has been played defensively: scrambling to fill positions, reacting to retirements and patching talent gaps after the fact. The stakes are now much higher. According to the Reshoring Initiative, reshoring and foreign direct investment accounted for nearly 245,000 U.S. manufacturing job announcements last year, and early reports suggest 2025 will finish at a similar pace.

The opportunity is real, but so is the pressure. As companies bring production closer to home and new technologies reshape operations, manufacturers can no longer afford to wait for the next labor shortage to dictate their strategy. They must design for it. Many already are defining roles more precisely, investing in people and building community-rooted cultures to turn workforce challenges into competitive advantage.

In Columbiana, Ohio, Humtown Products is showing what it looks like when a manufacturer takes the initiative. Instead of waiting for schools or policymakers to address the talent gap, President Mark Lamoncha turned his factory into a classroom. Middle and high school students from across Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania don’t just tour the facility—they lead tours and run demonstrations for their peers and learn the rhythm of production firsthand. What began as community outreach has become a living workforce laboratory.

The impact speaks volumes. More than 1,000 students have experienced manufacturing not as a distant concept but as a tangible, creative career path.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.

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