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How PPG reduced staff turnover and met fluctuating demand

Glass fibre manufacturers, PPG, have met key recruitment objectives over an eight-year period by working in close partnership with their local Manpower branch. The relationship has consistently delivered quality staff, contributed to all-time high retention figures and enabled PPG to establish a valuable, tiered pay system.

With Manpower's support, PPG has:

• Achieved staffing flexibility to match demand patterns

• Identified many excellent staff for permanent positions

• More than halved staff turnover during a period of high employment

• Established a tiered pay policy to balance training and development costs

The Challenge

PPG Industries UK Ltd/Fibreglass Division, in Wigan, manufacture continuous glass fibre for applications as varied as boatbuilding and windmills. They first met Manpower in the mid-1990s when they faced three main challenges. They needed over 200 new staff for the expansion of the plant, they also needed staffing flexibility for the changing demand patterns of a cyclical industry and, thirdly, their HR department was not geared up to intensive mass recruitment. "We needed a partner who could reliably identify the right skills and aptitudes across a large volume of candidates very quickly," Steve McKeown, HR Manager at the Wigan plant, said.

The Solution

"Working with Manpower answered our two key objectives," Steve McKeown said. "It brought us staff who would be suitable for transfer to permanent positions, and established a core of excellent temporary staff to give us flexibility."

Manpower ran the initial recruitment campaign. They selected the staff, using their industrial assessment tools to identify the skills and aptitudes necessary, and put a Manpower supervisor in the plant to manage the contract on-site. They also worked very closely with PPG on ways to bring staff turnover down.

Many of the initial 200+ staff recruited are now permanent employees of PPG, and the supply of temporary staff since, has varied between 10 and 60 according to general market demand and changes in product mix.

The Benefits

PPG obtained the 200+ staff they needed and the relationship with Manpower has delivered continuous HR benefits ever since. "It really is a partnership," Steve McKeown said. "We have consistently obtained the flexible staffing we need and Manpower's assessments help define how we place people where they will be most productive and satisfied. Also many people have taken permanent positions after we have had a chance to look each other over during a temporary assignment. Together with work that we have done with Manpower to refine our selection and induction procedures, it has been one of the factors that have brought our overall staff turnover down from well above 15% to under 8% in the past eight years."

Working with Manpower, PPG have also developed an incremental pay system that balances initial costs by automatically raising new staff's earnings to parity as they develop through their lengthy training and first production experience to reach full output status.

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