Lenawee County employers get creative with hiring, retaining workers as wages increase

More workers are looking for jobs these days and hourly wages are increasing as prices on everything from gas to groceries have gone up and the labor shortage continues.

Average wages per industry, from entry level to executive positions, have increased from 2019 to 2022. For example, in manufacturing there has been a 15% increase; in retail, an 8% increase; and in health care, a 19% increase, according to Michigan Works Southeast.

According to the economic research website FRED, as of June 2022, Michigan’s inflation rate was 5.3%. It has not been that high since May 2008.

That said, there is still a labor shortage in every category from restaurants to manufacturing, and employers are getting creative when they look at talent acquisition and retention.

Jack Plate, owner of Ross Design & Engineering in Cement City, has bent over backwards, his employees say, to make sure that they get ahead and maintain a solid work/life balance.

The company manufactures, among other things, pallet truck frames and pallet truck parts for German company Kion and Toyota Material Handling. Ross has three facilities in Lenawee and Hillsdale counties and 95 workers. Ross recently landed a big contract and will be augmenting that workforce by 10% before January.

Ask Plate if there’s a labor shortage, and he says, “Absolutely. We cannot fill all of our jobs.”

His daughter and the company's vice president, Lindsay Hudson, with the help of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. along with Lenawee Now and the Hillsdale Economic Development Corp. is now writing training grants. Even before receiving grants the company had many trainings for workers, Plate said.

Plate is now working with Woodstock Township on zoning to put together a day care center for his workers' children. His sister will be running the day care, which will be open from 6 or 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Chris Mayhew, a welder for the company, knows very well how much the family company cares about its employees and their families.

When Mayhew was going through a messy custody battle for his children and having trouble getting back and forth to work because he lost his license due to two driving under the influence convictions, Mayhew said, Hudson went to court with him to speak on his behalf so many times he can’t count.

When he was evicted, Ross paid the bill on a six-week motel stay and then bought a home for him. The plan is for him to buy it on contract. Ross also paid employees to drive him to and from work.

When it got difficult to find rides for Mayhew and his kids to get to and from doctors’ appointments and the grocery store, they hired Mayhew’s sister, Elizabeth, from Rima Manufacturing Co. in Hudson, matched her pay and gave her a choice of what she wanted to do.

When her special needs daughter, Opal, 4, started preschool, Elizabeth, a single mom, had trouble with dropping her off in the morning. So the company let her come in a little bit later in the morning. Elizabeth; Opal; Chris; and his kids, Jaylynn, 14, Mataleeah, 9, and fraternal twins, Bryer and Brailina, 8, are happy, healthy and have their needs met.

“We all talk about how I’m going to be a lifer here,” Chris said. “… They’ve bent over backwards for sure. I try to be a good worker, but after they done so much, I know I'm not that good. I definitely do try very hard for them. I definitely don’t tell them ‘no.’”

Plate said it’s all part of how he was brought up by his father, who also owned a business.

“We just try to be accommodating for people who are trying to have a family because my Dad always said, a guy doesn’t come to work to go behind. So I just try to work with them and it seems to, for the vast majority of the time, work out,” Plate said.

Michael Ayre, human resources director of the Wacker Chemical Corp. in Adrian, said the company works with Michigan Works Southeast and has been doing things like setting up a booth at the Lenawee County Fair and going into the schools to recruit kids as they graduate to start at the ground level and work their way up.

Whereas before COVID-19, the company could put an ad in the newspaper for a job and get upward of 100 resumes, now it only gets about five to six replies.

“Our message to them (potential workers) is if you’re looking for a job, there’s plenty of them out there. If you’re looking for a career, Wacker’s a great place to get your foot in the door, take advantage of tuition reimbursement and have the ability to move from an operator role into a different departments or different positions across the company,” Ayre said. “If we find someone who has energy and passion and prior experience we can take advantage of, we’d love to have them on board. We talk about those job opportunities that are available if they are interested.”

Wages are the first thing employers are considering, but they’re also on board with flexible scheduling among other techniques to keep workers coming in the door and staying.

“Part of that is employee recruitment and keeping employees. I've heard some of the manufacturing facilities have started to implement what they call a ‘tiered shift.’ I think it starts at 8:30 or 9 a.m. and gets off at around 2:30 p.m. So a parent has the time to put their kids on the bus in the morning and is there to pick the kids up off the bus when they get home in the afternoon,” Robinson said.

Michigan Works Southeast deputy director Misty Shulters said their service centers have seen growth in foot traffic recently.

The agency offers training in resume writing and getting profiles posted on Indeed and other job search engines as well as job specific training.

“Here within the last few months we are starting to see an increase in traffic within our service centers. Individuals are coming in and inquiring about the job market and job opportunities, whether that be a new opportunity for them or potentially a job change,” Shulters said. “We’re excited about that because during the pandemic we experienced an 85% reduction in our foot traffic. So when we start having our customers come back into the service center, we’re really able to excite them about the opportunities that are out there right now for them now because it is a job seekers' market.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County employers get creative with hiring as wages increase