Alpha Baking shares insights into overcoming new-hire challenges

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Alpha Baking shares insights into overcoming new-hire challenges

1 Mar 2023

Evan Bail

Evan Bail is a is a multimedia journalist from Overland Park, KS. Her passion for writing and media was developed at a young age through film and literature. She graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism. In her free time, you can find her playing tennis, spending time with her family or walking her dog at the dog park.

CHICAGO — The aftermath of the pandemic in the work field took a nosedive for many companies. Many people relied on stimulus checks and extra unemployment as pay for their everyday needs, rather than working. Miguel Villa, plant manager for Alpha Baking Company, spoke on challenges the company faced with new hires during a BREAD Talk at the American Society of Baking’s BakingTECH Convention, held Feb. 28-March 2 in Chicago.

Villa and his team thought that people would start returning after the distribution of stimulus checks ended.

“You know, they’re going to come back because now they don’t have the extra $100 that the government is giving them, but they didn’t come back,” he said.

This led the company to scramble with the hiring process, which ended up with an extremely high turnover rate.

“You would hire 10 people, and two of them will stick around,” Villa said.

With the lack of employees returning, the company knew they needed to shift its guidelines as far as hiring requirements for employees. One of the major changes that was made was drug testing. Alpha Baking Company no longer requires drug testing for marijuana due to it not being recreational in Illinois. The company also parted ways with background checks to try and retain employees.

Once the hiring process was complete, the company had to learn to be flexible with its call-in policy.

“We had to be lenient on that policy, and just be understandable to their issues that they had or whatever,” Villa said.

Accommodations to the employees’ schedules was thought through diligently, this way new hires would have a higher chance of sticking around.

Management style was another area that had to alter its approach. Villa noted that the new hires were not used to a traditional management style.

“We had to do a lot of training, not just with the new hires, but with the managers as well,” he shared

After lots of trial-and-error, Alpha Baking Company has secured loyal new hires.

“But with the resilience of the team, we’re finally able to get to a stable point, which we are now,” Villa commented on how this helps the future of the company.

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