Breaking barriers in manufacturing, Bylined Article in Strategic HR Review Magazine
Tom Shorma, CEO/President of WCCO Belting, wrote an article that was published in the August 2019 issue of Strategic HR Review Magazine about how WCCO Belting breaks down barriers by developing hiring strategies and creating programs to help retain and engage employees. The article provides an in-depth look into how breaking down barriers can - and did - positively impact WCCO Belting.
"Since turning its focus on better managing its first impression, employee engagement, training and retention, the company's turnover rate has drastically declined from 25 to 3 percent, where it has held for the last three years," says Shorma in the article.
"What the company has learned along the way about eliminating barriers between people is perhaps the most impactful. The company has systematically broken-down barriers when it comes to hiring a diverse pool of employees without comprimising safety or quality. As a result, the WCCO manufacturing floor is comprised of men, women, millennials and Baby Boomers, New Americans and lifelong North Dakotans all working side by side."
In the article, Shorma highlights four ways WCCO broke down barriers including: breaking manufacturing myths with a great first impression, breaking the belief that you need experience in manufacturing to find success, breaking gender bias and cultural barriers to promote diversity on the manufacturing floor, and breaking the silence between company leadership and the manufacturing floor with transparency and communication.