Like most organizations after the pandemic, at P.J. Wallbank Springs we were challenged to fill open roles on our manufacturing floor. Local competitors were offering hourly workers signing bonuses, gas cards, gym memberships, and other perks to try and attract new talent. Some competitors went so far as to increase hourly rates by a whopping 30-50%! If ever there was a war for talent, we were in the thick of it. As a culture-focused, People First organization that maintains a competitive advantage by the way we treat people, we didn’t need to take drastic measures to reinvent our employee value proposition. Yet, filling the hiring gap in a volatile labor market was by far our biggest challenge– or so we thought.

Our People Team, led by Tracey Fletcher, dug deep into the data and uncovered a startling truth. We didn’t have a hiring problem. We had a retention problem. This realization was the first critical step towards an intensive multi-year journey to improve Machine Operator turnover – a role that is the very lifeblood of our business.