A recent article in the CT Mirror calls on education not only to help us recover from the pessimism and economic downturn related to COVID-19, but to actually lead us to a better place than where we were before. I found that interesting, because it addresses education beyond what is taught in the classroom or measured on standardized tests. The article talks about broadening that scope to include something called Collective Impact, saying, “Collaborations such as ‘Cradle to Career’ have accelerated progress for children through collective impact. Collaboration between education and community development efforts are expanding education’s effect on communities. What other segment of organized society has such credentials?”
So how does this relate to manufacturing? Just as education has the best credentials to positively impact communities, manufacturers have the best credentials to help overcome the workforce challenge. We discussed the Collective Impact concept at last year’s Manufacturers Only Workforce Summit. It’s no longer enough to simply seek out and hire employees based on your individual needs as a manufacturer at a specific moment. If we keep doing that, manufacturers will just continue stealing the best employees from each other. Instead, we should be striving to improve the perception of manufacturing jobs throughout our communities. Before a company talks about why it’s great to work for them, they need to explain why it’s great to be in manufacturing overall.
The Manufacturers Workforce Summit Series is being presented by CT Manufacturers Resource Group (a division of Web Savvy Marketers) and manufacturers who are committed to Collective Impact. They are willing to share their experiences and success stories to help their fellow manufacturers and boost the industry as a whole.