Skills shortages
Skills shortages impact employee productivity and career growth, putting long-term business growth at risk.
But why is this happening?
Leadership says it has a skilled workforce—but workers say they need more support.
This disconnect is setting an unstable foundation for future growth.
67%
of the C-suite think their workforce is skilled enough to meet the primary business objectives. But...
62%
of factory workers say leadership doesn't understand their skill gaps and career challenges.
So, what's really going on?
Leadership may be missing oppurtunities to upskill workers.
71% check in with their employees about career growth once a month or less.
Workers may feel unable to voice their need for more support, both in terms of their own skills and those of their colleagues.
38% of workers are concerned that their co-workers aren't skilled enough.
Workers need guidance.
They are divided on what would give them the support they need – more training (24%), better equipment (24%), more team members (22%), don't know (17%).
Leadership are more certain.
44% say workers need more training.
Poor communication hinders growth.
The C-suite knows what more skilled workers would look like.
They would be collaborative (47%) and raise issues when they happen (25%).
Better data and visibility could bridge this gap but workers are unsure what they benefit would be.
31%
say it would help them be more efficient,
28%
don't know.
Future growth relies on a skilled workforce
One the C-suite already has access to.
The C-suite is concerned about the
availability of skilled workers.
73%
are worried that there is a shortage of skilled workers.
But they may already have a workforce skilled enough to meet future goals-they just need more support.
Factory workers want to be more skilled.
Factory workers know what being more skilled would mean for their future.
Improved career growth (26%), increased job satisfaction (21%), access to more interesting work (18%).
The lack of communication is painting a false picture.
Workers feel unsupported and want to upskill, but leadership aren't listening-creating missed oppurtunities for growth.
If businesses want a workforce skilled enough to meet future goals, they need to close the leadership-worker divide.
There is a big disconnect between how confident leadership are that their workers are skilled enough for now and for the future. And given that they don’t often engage with their workers, this gap isn’t very surprising.
But it is troubling.
If leadership spoke to their workers more often, they would find an eagerness to upskill but a need for guidance. Workers are feeling the pressure of an unskilled workforce, including having to compensate for less skilled workers, which puts them at risk if they're doing tasks they’re not properly trained to do. Without taking the time to understand where the skills gaps are, leadership can’t offer workers the support they need.
And with just 8% of workers happy at work, the risk is that good employees will leave – taking their valuable experience and insight with them. This will create a gap that may be flagged to leadership as an inefficiency, but workers will feel it as a space to fill, often without training or reward.
The worst-case scenario is that a worker has to be brought out of retirement to fill the knowledge gap, exacerbating existing frustrations and leaving workers feeling unskilled and overlooked.
The result is an environment where production slows and—ultimately—business growth stagnates.
Management can avoid this by allocating time for knowledge sharing and setting up regular meetings with their workers. In these meetings, they can discuss skills gaps and create actionable plans for overcoming these challenges.
These could include adding tailored monitoring solutions, like Gemba Connect, so workers can log their progress in a way that makes sense to them and produces accurate results, helping both workers and leadership see when skills gaps arise. Conducting regular Gemba Walks will confirm whether interventions are working or need tweaking.
With proper support from management, career development—and resulting business growth—will flourish.
Case study: finding the right balance of skills
The problem
While running a workshop to improve throughput on a four-station assembly line, we quickly learnt that management had reduced the headcount of the area to save on labour costs. But they hadn’t discussed it with the shop floor or gathered sufficient data to back-up the decision.
The reduced headcount created an imbalance across the work centres, impacting morale and slowing down production as, with fewer people, delays and bottlenecks appeared in the workflow.
The workers had tried to communicate their frustration about the reduction in labour to management but felt they weren’t being listened to.
Gemba walk
We ran workshops to test both theories by analysing the performance with less labour and with more labour added back in to re-balance the line.
The outcome was a compromise.
Rather than replacing the labour, the optimum operating scenario was for a subtle equipment change to allow one additional person to service two lines, adding four additional members of staff to cover eight production lines.
As a result, the team produced the same volume on two shifts that, with the lower headcount, had required three shifts. The units produced per labour hour increased from 9 to 15.
If management had engaged with their staff before reducing the headcount, analysed the data and worked together, these inefficiencies could have been avoided.
Key findings
62% of factory workers say leadership doesn't understand their skill gaps and career challenges. This isn’t surprising since 71% of leadership check in with their employees about career growth once a month or less.
73% of leadership are worried that there is a shortage of skilled workers.
Leadership can resolve the skills gap and create a workforce capable of achieving future goals by speaking to their workers more frequently. And by using data to validate the insights gained from those conversations.
Fixing the communication divide
Bridging the gap between management and the shop floor is essential.
And it’s easier than it might seem.
The solution is to combine human insight, gathered through Gemba Walks, with technology, generated by automated data capture systems.
Leadership and factory workers will speak to each other, share their concerns and frustrations and come up with actionable, effective solutions. And technology will support, track and alert everyone when those solutions go awry.
The result? An efficient, human-first factory that is ready for anything.
Gemba: we walk the walk
Let's talk
Please email us at info@gembasolutions.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Decarbonisation challenges
The pressure to implement sustainable practices is driving up costs and making energy-saving goals seem unachievable.
But does it need to be this way?
Leadership says sustainability is a business priority—but that’s news to workers.
This disconnect isn't just a communication issue; it's preventing change.
66%
of the C-suite say sustainability, energy consumption and decarbonisation are a business priority. But...
66%
of factory workers are not aware of sustainability goals.
What's caused this divide?
Workers are in the dark.
51% are unaware of the steps their company is taking to reduce energy costs.
But the information exists, it’s just not being communicated.
87% of the C-suite know what steps are being taken.
Leadership believes costs are holding them back.
44% of the C-suite say high upfront costs are the main challenge when implementing energy-efficient practices.
But they may be overlooking the impact of communication.
40%
of workers aren’t sure what’s preventing energy-saving practices from being implemented.
Unclear instructions
create roadblocks.
27%
of factory workers say poor communication and lack of support from management hinders the adoption of energy-saving practices at work.
But
40%
If progress is being made, workers are unaware.
The result is a lack of clarity
And without clear instruction, goals can only ever be goals.
Factory workers want less wasteful processes.
54%
say reduced waste would be the best outcome of a greener company.
Leadership are feeling their targets slip away.
27%
of the C-suite don't know if they're on track to meet their sustainability targets and a further 32% know they're not.
The lack of alignment is creating unnecessary challenges.
Leadership has clear priorities and steps for enacting them, but they haven’t been communicated to workers, making change difficult—and expensive.
If businesses want to make their sustainability goals a reality, they need to close the leadership-worker divide.
Energy-efficiency and decarbonisation are key priorities for leadership but unless the entire factory, from the shop floor to management, is on the same page, progress will be slow—or impossible.
By failing to explain to the factory workers how their activities contribute to energy usage, management may be missing opportunities to meet their sustainability targets. If workers are made aware of sustainability targets, they can factor them into their processes and alert management when they see inefficiencies.
Afterall, the workers are on the shop floor every day, so they experience the wastage first-hand.
Management can further bridge this gap by conducting Gemba Walks and speaking to their employees, seeing the wastage themselves, rather than just tracking metrics. They can compare this direct insight with real-time data and make decisions that will have a lasting impact. If they remain disconnected, leadership will only see missed goals, not why they’re being missed.
Gemba Connect captures the manufacturing activities from equipment in real-time and compares these to utilities at plant and machine level to provide a clear visual relationship between efficiency and environmental KPIs. These KPIs can be communicated with simple digital solutions that provide everyone with clear insight into their impact on environmental initiatives.
The most effective way to increase energy-efficiency and reduce waste is to track and control the processes that are inefficient.
Getting feedback directly from workers on the shop floor combines both lines of insight—human and digital—enabling management to make the changes necessary for goals to become reality.
Case study: reducing energy consumption
The problem
A factory installed new cleaning equipment, but it was quickly flagged as consuming more steam than other similar machines, resulting in increased emissions and energy costs.
It was flagged by the factory workers who had been prepped by management to keep an eye out for areas of operational inefficiency.
Gemba walk
The factory uses Gemba Connect to monitor energy, so they were quickly able to identify that the machine was consuming steam when it was idle.
The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) was called in to fix this by altering the control system, which worked differently to the other machines. Steam volume was reduced by 18% on the new machine and 5% on the existing machines.
Because management had taken the time to communicate their energy-saving goals, the factory workers understood the importance of fixing inefficient machinery.
Real-time data from Gemba Connect meant both management and factory workers could see the same quantifiable information, leading to a quick resolution and energy reduction.
Key takeaways
51% of workers are unaware of the steps their company is taking to reduce energy costs.
27% of the C-suite don't know if they're on track to meet their sustainability targets and a further 32% know they're not.
To meet sustainability targets, leadership need to speak to their workers to make sure everyone is working towards the same goals.
They can then check the progress of these goals by conducting Gemba Walks and implementing data tracking technologies.
Fixing the communication divide
Bridging the gap between management and the shop floor is essential.
And it’s easier than it might seem.
The solution is to combine human insight, gathered through Gemba Walks, with technology, generated by automated data capture systems.
Leadership and factory workers will speak to each other, share their concerns and frustrations and come up with actionable, effective solutions. And technology will support, track and alert everyone when those solutions go awry.
The result? An efficient, human-first factory that is ready for anything.
Gemba: we walk the walk
Let's talk
Please email us at info@gembasolutions.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.