Bring Potential Employees to Your Facility this October!

Manufacturing is essential to the Red Wing, MN, community. From the iconic Red Wing Shoe Co. and 3M to Riedell Shoes, ADM, Neufeldt and SCS Elevator Products, Red Wing is known for exciting career opportunities with well-paying jobs and roles involving the latest technologies.

But developing the necessary workforce these companies and others need through recruitment, hiring and training procedures need can be a constant endeavor. Hosting an onsite event may be an opportunity to expedite that process. 

This year, October 7 is National Manufacturing Day and is the perfect opportunity to showcase the reality of modern manufacturing careers and their operations to students, parents, teachers, and community leaders. For many smaller businesses, an onsite Manufacturing Day event can be a critical endeavor to distinguish themselves. Companies organizing a Manufacturing Day event take a novel approach to workforce development. As manufacturers seek to fill four million high-skill, high-tech, and high-paying jobs over the next decade, Manufacturing Day empowers manufacturers to address the challenges of finding qualified workers while helping their communities and future generations thrive.

How to Host a Manufacturing Day Event in October

The goal should be to establish a connection with guests and communicate the importance of highlighting a company's operations. A little forethought and planning go a long way. The Manufacturing Institute has a toolkit to help plan tours, send invitations and develop promotions.

Decide on an Audience

Should the focus be on middle or high school students to introduce them to career opportunities? Or is it more important to reach out to local officials to illustrate successes and needs? Both can be accomplished, especially if the local media is utilized, by keeping the audience in mind while planning the event! The Red Wing Port Authority can help connect any business to its desired audience. It’s essential to send out invitations as soon as possible.

Choose the Event

Plant tours are the backbone of Manufacturing Day. By opening its doors to the community and showcasing its operations, a business can generate enthusiasm around itself and lay the groundwork for future involvement from visitors. Job shadowing for students is also an option.

Virtual tours and webinars are other solid options since the world has become acclimated to the structure of online events over the past couple of years. The Manufacturing Institute can mail a physical toolkit to help with presentations.

Another option is participating in an off-site expo, job fair, or classroom presentation. The Red Wing Port Authority can help facilitate partnerships.

Plan the Presentation

Don’t assume visitors know anything about manufacturing. A carefully crafted company story will be necessary to help anyone understand the presentation free of industry jargon. While visitors should not be near machinery, display boards or videos can illustrate what a product looks like in various stages of completion. Physical products help offer a hands-on experience for visitors to visualize the process as well. 

Cater to students, as they are the workforce of the future. An onsite event is an opportunity to provide information about various available careers. Even more importantly, attendees should be aware of the types of training, skills and completed educational coursework required to obtain open positions.

Put Out the Welcome Mat

Preparing for visitors to come through the doors of any manufacturing operation is just as important as all the plans to get to that point. Every interaction can lead to a future partnership, customer or employee and first impressions count. A welcome sign visible from the parking lot will heighten the visitors’ experience. Giving away promotional items makes a positive connection. Name tags on speaking representatives and tour guides assist public engagement. The goal of the onsite event is to prove that manufacturing facilities are great places to work, so it is critical there is no clutter, floors are clean and everything is in place, leaving a path through the shop that is easy to follow.

The Red Wing Port Authority can offer further assistance in hosting an onsite event. Please contact us today for whatever is necessary for planning your special day.