PALM SPRINGS, CA — The American Bakers Association (ABA) and the American Society of Baking (ASB) have released a joint study, 2022 Workforce Gap in US Commercial Baking: Recruitment and Retention Challenges and Best Practices, in conjunction with Cypress Research.
Conducted in October 2021 and February 2022, the study assesses challenges and best practices for workforce recruitment and retention in the US commercial baking industry.
An update to the original study conducted in 2016, the 2022 report’s findings help bakery employers better understand the current retention trends for hourly, skilled and unskilled production employees and how they have changed during the past five years.
The key findings and opportunities discovered in the study were presented at ABA’s Annual Convention by Marjorie Hellmer, president of Cypress research.
Hellmer noted that the survey response data allowed the firm to draw conclusions between the study years in how baking companies are adopting best practices to address workforce issues. It also helped identify new strategy opportunities for the years ahead.
Similar to the 2016 study, respondents were asked to rank on a five-point scale the extent of the skills shortage in specific areas. The Cypress team was then able to identify the differences in severities over the five-year period.
“We have shortages among machine operators, which increased significantly during the past five years, whereas with maintenance and engineering positions, shortages over time have decreased in severity,” Hellmer said, noting that even with a decrease, 58% of respondents still reported high to severe challenges with those positions today.
Drilling down into hourly unskilled positions, Hellmer noted a critical need for production workers, loaders and shippers, and sanitation workers. Shipping, incidentally, has become a particular pain point as supply chain disruption is impacting shipping and logistics across virtually every facet of manufacturing.
In terms of recruitment and retention efforts, the study asked participants for a five-year projection on what the primary challenges will be. The top five challenges emulated the 2016 baseline study, indicating these problems are not near-term challenges that come with an easy solution; they require strategic planning.
The top concern noted in both the current and baseline studies was difficulty in identifying new talent pools, followed by the branding difficulty in making bakery manufacturing an attractive career choice.
Rounding out that top five included a lack of appreciation for non-monetary company benefits, an overall lack of awareness of the industry, and a lack of needed skillsets.
