Blue-collar work isn’t what it used to be. Look at some of today’s construction sites, where digital hubs connect and empower construction workers and tradesmen through intelligent workflows and synchronized tasks and activities. Or consider state-of-the-art factory floors festooned with sensors and algorithms sequencing intricate hand-offs between teams of people and banks of machines.
In these traditionally manual-labor-heavy environments, newly empowered workers don’t just carry out routine, physical tasks – sometimes referred to as procedural work. Armed with the ability to exploit data, analytics or machine learning, they’re equipped to add value in new and innovative ways, using human insight and judgment to master sophisticated technical process work with skill, dexterity and flair.
There’s a risk that this renaissance in blue-collar work could be over before it really picks up speed. In a recent study with Oxford Economics, we found that fewer than half of respondents are making the changes necessary to realize the full value from these new roles.
Our research charted the accelerated changes in blue-collar work and explored how workforce strategies should adapt to the structural changes. In addition to a quantitative survey, we conducted one-to-one interviews with leaders and their employees. To learn more (including the study’s full methodology), see our white paper, “The Renaissance of Blue-Collar Work.”
Attracting and making the best use of a new generation of workers
After conducting our survey and interviews, here are the measures that we concluded will help businesses upskill the workforce and attract talent into the new tech-enabled blue-collar roles.
Evolve performance metrics and wage models
Given the right tools and empowerment, respondents expect a professional and technical workforce to be greater contributors to their business’s success. Mirroring these changes, 62% of respondents are set to leverage a broader range of performance metrics. This is the top area in which we see businesses taking action to embrace needed changes.
Rather than focusing reward systems solely on production volume and production margin, respondents plan to align pay with improvements in customer satisfaction ratings (such as net promoter scores), work speed (i.e., process throughput) and supply chain efficiencies (key performance indicators on inventory cycles, for example).
Most respondents also expect to see better rates of pay for professional/technical roles, followed by skilled trades, skilled operations and unskilled workers. The question of wage is the elephant in the room for many categories of blue-collar work, but our study suggests that change is coming, especially as businesses face a talent shortage in both unskilled and higher skilled areas of blue-collar work. Businesses will need to incorporate these wage shifts into their expectations on profit margins.
Reform recruitment strategies
Most of our survey respondents also plan to change their approach to recruitment to attract workers considered future “value generators.” This finding highlights these workers’ perceived value to organizations, with 70% of respondents believing that job descriptions will need updating to attract these workers. Efforts for unskilled workers aren’t on the same scale; even though 67% of respondents expect shortages of unskilled workers by 2025, only 42% of respondents suggest that job descriptions will need to be updated to fill these open roles.
Note that there may be a perception gap among job seekers that will slow companies’ efforts to attract and retain workers. In addition to the skills gap slowing productivity for manufacturers in the U.S. and Europe, there are other reasons why younger workers may not be drawn to these types of positions. Recent grads may not consider a career in an industrial company as one worth pursuing, believing these jobs are repetitive and widget-based work, taking place in uncomfortable conditions, rather than at the leading edge where automation meets robotics, digitization and people.
Moreover, closing the gender gap and reshaping how people think about blue-collar jobs and careers are urgent priorities. Businesses must do more to promote their potential careers as high-tech, highly skilled and higher paying.
Reboot the career model
Leaders are also rethinking the career model for their blue-collar workers (see Figure 1). Longer-term career planning and different career progression are in the spotlight, with 60% of respondents expecting highly skilled workers to be given more flexibility and job mobility. On the flip side, businesses will need to reconstruct career models to provide continuous development opportunities and foster a growth mindset among employees. (For more on this topic, read our white paper, “Cycling Through the 21st Century Career: Putting Learning in Its Rightful Place.”)