Look into the EEF - www.eef.org.uk
They have events that could be useful for networking

How about your local CIPD branch? There will be people from all industry sectors there but you may find others working in your sector.

In reply to Andrea:

Can wholeheartedly endorse Andrea’s suggestion to discuss the possibility of your employers corporately joining the Engineering Employers Federation. As far as I know, any manufacturing enterprises are welcome to join and subscription fees are based proportionately on employee pay bill.

The EEF typically organise and run oodles of training and networking events and usually provide ad hoc expert HR advice and guidance and support: membership can prove absolutely invaluable. ( although this may sound like an advert., it’s definitely not - only speaking as I have found over many years of interaction with many parts of the EEF.)

Hi Olivia

Having worked in several organisations I think it is invaluable to understand your audience:

What have they 'been through'? (broken promised, badly managed changed etc)
What are they afraid of? (redundancy, closure etc)
What is important to them? (getting paid correctly, getting feedback on ideas, personal development etc)

I believe engagement starts with small conversations. Identify those with influence and build a dialogue with them to build your relationship with the various employee groups.

In regards to sector - people are people in my experience - we tend to want the same things from our employees to one degree or another

Good luck

Jo

Hi Olivia

I work in HR in Manufacturing and as Andrea suggested EEF are an invaluable service with many networking events avaliable.

If you would like to chat or share ideas feel free to send me a private message.

I work in HR in Manufacturing (70 employees) and agree with my colleagues in that EEF is a fantastic resource.  If you want to chat further feel free to private message.