In addition to the impact on operations, another chemicals company found that demographic changes meant it was facing a significant potential loss of experience, as senior employees approached retirement age.

It needed to mitigate that loss by developing the next generation engineers. Achieving this goal became a key element of a broader reorganization project which was being carried out to future-proof the company.

A multi-national chemical manufacturer wanted to launch a program which would increase its long-term profitability, particularly in Europe. To do so, it looked at how it could deliver excellence in the “usual” areas of manufacturing and maintenance. Alongside this, it also analyzed how the changing demography of its workforce was likely to impact the business over the next 3-5 years.

A particular focus was placed upon how changes would affect the operations personnel working shifts. This assessment became a core component of the analysis system developed to gauge where the improvement opportunities existed at different sites.

In order to address situation 1, we developed a model that enabled the leadership team to see where they were facing future capacity issues and skills shortages. Increased visibility over their operation setup helped them to predict where they would likely face resource gaps.

This also allowed us to identify which existing employee groups needed upskilling, where knowledge transfer from their experienced team members was required, and where further recruitment would be needed.

To support retention – and minimize the amount of recruiting and training required – we also conducted a deep dive analysis of organizational health. This examined the causes of absenteeism and the underlying reasons why associates have left the organization. This assessment highlighted a need to change the working environment and improve the quality of first line management in the business – which was having a significant impact on whether employees reported positive or negative experiences at work.

For situation 2, we examined the organization as a whole and developed a new Engineering Excellence entity. This organizational unit is, amongst other elements, responsible for the rapid integration and development of new employees.

The primary focus is to best match the employees’ own personal development targets with the needs of the business. This effectively provides employees with an “attorney” to represent their interests.

This function has many benefits, which includes the development of career paths that enables, or even promotes, switches from engineering into production – while also offering “re-entry points” back into engineering.

Another benefit is the enabling of international relocations as part of international CAPEX projects – with any move to a foreign country made as smooth as possible, to reduce the impact on the families affected.

The new unit also promotes a Best Practice exchange and the dissemination of knowledge throughout the organization. In practical terms, this has taken the form of a knowledge exchange platform – where members of the organization, with various levels of experience, work together to “industrialize” proven solutions and then roll them out within the organization. In addition to ensuring knowledge transfer, this gives less experienced employees an opportunity to contribute to future ways of working and an early involvement in “building the firm”.

Finally, a community of new joiners has been set up to facilitate peer group exchanges, especially for those in their first couple of years with the company.