Moving into a Manufacturing HR role

I have been in manufacturing for the last 12 years. It is a such a lovely proud feeling to be out and about and be able to see the products your company have made. I have even got excited about car wiring looms which I can honestly say, before I started at that particular company, I didn't even know looms existed! I have also been known to take pictures of our products in use when I have been on holiday abroad and then send back to the company to share.

Workload wise, I echo all the comments already made. It can sometimes feel that you are back in the land that time forgot. The environment can be a little dated (unless it's a swish new factory) and some managers can tend to have a view of HR as purely transactional however this is less prevalent now but there is still a significant amount of time spent in disciplinary, performance and absence matters. As Tracey states, recruitment is just an ongoing headache. The last two years for me have been a constant round of shift changes, restructures and recruitment. Having said that if you have a good Management team around you they will be able to handle a lot of the 'small stuff' so you will still get to be more proactive i.e. health and wellbeing measures,employee development etc.

Costs are always tight. Highest quality at lowest cost is the mantra, Be prepared to be able to present cost v benefit for anything you want to do/introduce. I have been fortunate that most of my MD's have, on occasion, accepted we need to do 'it' whatever 'it' may be because it is the right thing to do even if I can't demonstrate a tangible benefit to the bottom line. Relationships and trust are vital but that is true of anywhere.

Time is always against you and production is always priority. Getting time out for people to do any sort of formal training is nigh on impossible, unless you can manage to get them to do it as overtime. I always schedule training for the weeks when the holiday requests are below the levels agreed and yet I still have had to cancel more courses than I care to count due to a rush order or sickness etc meaning that person can no longer be spared. It is not that the company don't want to invest in people or stop the course taking place, just the customer has to come first.

Meet and greet groups are a good way to meet the shop floor (but that is obviously a bit challenging at the moment and with the size of your workplace). I have always found it is a useful way to start seeing who are the influencers and who are going to be useful in terms of feedback. Equally you will get a good feel for those who might be more challenging! Even if you can't do the meet and greet, it is useful to have a regular presence on the shopfloor. People are more likely to come and ask you things when you are on their territory than come to the HR office. An old Yorkshire saying comes to mind though 'Hear, all, see all and say nowt" I learned the hard way that any comment of mine could soon be spun into something way more fanciful.

Everyone tends to be related to everyone else as well (and not always obvious relations) so mind what you say! It is way more soapy than Eastenders/Coronation Street and Emmerdale put together!

I have been in manufacturing for the last 12 years. It is a such a lovely proud feeling to be out and about and be able to see the products your company have made. I have even got excited about car wiring looms which I can honestly say, before I started at that particular company, I didn't even know looms existed! I have also been known to take pictures of our products in use when I have been on holiday abroad and then send back to the company to share.

Workload wise, I echo all the comments already made. It can sometimes feel that you are back in the land that time forgot. The environment can be a little dated (unless it's a swish new factory) and some managers can tend to have a view of HR as purely transactional however this is less prevalent now but there is still a significant amount of time spent in disciplinary, performance and absence matters. As Tracey states, recruitment is just an ongoing headache. The last two years for me have been a constant round of shift changes, restructures and recruitment. Having said that if you have a good Management team around you they will be able to handle a lot of the 'small stuff' so you will still get to be more proactive i.e. health and wellbeing measures,employee development etc.

Costs are always tight. Highest quality at lowest cost is the mantra, Be prepared to be able to present cost v benefit for anything you want to do/introduce. I have been fortunate that most of my MD's have, on occasion, accepted we need to do 'it' whatever 'it' may be because it is the right thing to do even if I can't demonstrate a tangible benefit to the bottom line. Relationships and trust are vital but that is true of anywhere.

Time is always against you and production is always priority. Getting time out for people to do any sort of formal training is nigh on impossible, unless you can manage to get them to do it as overtime. I always schedule training for the weeks when the holiday requests are below the levels agreed and yet I still have had to cancel more courses than I care to count due to a rush order or sickness etc meaning that person can no longer be spared. It is not that the company don't want to invest in people or stop the course taking place, just the customer has to come first.

Meet and greet groups are a good way to meet the shop floor (but that is obviously a bit challenging at the moment and with the size of your workplace). I have always found it is a useful way to start seeing who are the influencers and who are going to be useful in terms of feedback. Equally you will get a good feel for those who might be more challenging! Even if you can't do the meet and greet, it is useful to have a regular presence on the shopfloor. People are more likely to come and ask you things when you are on their territory than come to the HR office. An old Yorkshire saying comes to mind though 'Hear, all, see all and say nowt" I learned the hard way that any comment of mine could soon be spun into something way more fanciful.

Everyone tends to be related to everyone else as well (and not always obvious relations) so mind what you say! It is way more soapy than Eastenders/Coronation Street and Emmerdale put together!