Staffing crunch still challenge for local businesses

From Indianapolis to Columbus and all points in between, Help Wanted signs seem to be a ubiquitous part of the urban landscape and Hope is no different.

Action Filtration is one of several businesses in the community that is trying to get back to their pre-pandemic employment numbers, says Carla Ellington, personnel quality lean support with Action Filtration.

“The pandemic started March of 2020 and moving forward after that we were all focused with making sure our employees were safe and healthy,” she says. “It was about one year later we noticed there was an issue.”

It was about six months into the pandemic when there began an uptick in the number of employees calling in ill and, too, there was a good percentage who simply didn’t feel safe returning, says Joe Chambers, industrial engineer with Action Filtration.

At that time, not much was known about the virus or its potential impact over the long-term, Chambers adds.

“That left us short-staffed and when we tried to reach out to the newspaper and temporary agencies we found they had trouble supplying the needs to everyone else because it was kind of across the board,” Chambers says. “Then we continued to search for employees and find different ways to advertise.”

Utilizing a number of avenues to recruit employees, Chambers and his team reached out to schools, colleges and community centers in addition to their online recruitment efforts.

“We were able to get a couple of new employees here and there, but we just can’t get to the magic number we want to be at right now,” Chambers says.

Ideally, Action Filtration strives to maintain a staff of 56 at its Hope location, Chambers says.

“We get a lot of hits through Facebook and Indeed.com on a daily basis, but when we reach out to them for contacts or an interview they are no-call no-shows,” Chambers says. “I don’t know if they are going through their standard practices of applying somewhere and trying to find that right fit, but we can’t get them in here for an interview.”

Chambers adds the company has even offered current employees a cash bonus for referrals that are hired and stay on 90 days.

About six months ago, Ellington and others began holding meetings to brainstorm recruitment ideas. The company increasingly turned online to get the word out through platforms such as Facebook job postings, Indeed.com and Zip Recruiter, Ellington says, however, all those avenues are connected in the end, so if there is a job posting out there on one it will certainly appear on others.

And it isn’t just staffing issues locally, it is all over, Chambers says.

“When we have customers whose order may be a day or two late, they will call us and we tell them we are having staffing issues and they say they are having the same issue,” he says. “I have family members who work at a tool shop and there will be 20 people who apply and maybe one or two will show up.”

Jessica Brown, with Deckard Tool and Engineering, says that her company initially felt a few tremors of the employment issues, but that has since resolved itself. Now, it is a matter of feeling the side effects of the ongoing staffing shortages elsewhere that is adversely affecting the supply chain, she says.

“We have a lot of pretty long-term people here,” Brown says. “We had a few leave earlier in the year, but we have been able to maintain with what we have here on staff. However, there have been a lot of delays in getting materials, which is taking a lot longer and we feel that here.”

As a way to pivot and deal with the current shortage, Ellington says Action Filtration is cross training their employees and using a more lean approach to production.

“We have more people trained to do more positions if someone is out on vacation or out ill,” Ellington says. “But we are constantly shifting people around when someone is out ill or we can’t fill a position.”

Chambers says this approach has become standard practice in these post-pandemic times.

And although employees are good with learning new skills and becoming more flexible, the issue remains.

“How can we not wonder if this is the new norm?” Ellington says. “My initial thought with COVID was, when they started helping with the relief fund it, it seems like it has expanded beyond that over these past couple of years. We are seeing signs everywhere, job fairs and postings everywhere with so many jobs and no people.”

As one of the few companies in town that offer exclusively first shift positions, Ellington says the company is hiring for a range of factory-based positions, including sub-assembly and machine operators.

Looking forward, Chambers and Ellington are hopeful there will be a shift in the tide before long.

“We are very optimistic for 2022 to be the year we recover and get to the staffing we want to be at,” Chambers says.