Guide your production staff effectively through their employee journey

Loyal readers of our blogs know it: if you want to retain your employees, a good, smart onboarding process is a must. It prevents staff turnover, ensures good productivity, and reduces absenteeism. This applies to every organization and to employees at every level. Including production staff.

But how do you ensure that everyone is properly guided through the entire employee journey, including those with low literacy skills or a different language or cultural background? This requires extra attention on the shop floor, where a highly diverse population typically works and where dangerous or physically demanding situations can occur.

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What do we mean by an employee journey?

Literally translated, an employee journey refers to the path an employee takes, but we aren't talking about a long vacation or a company outing. We are referring to the entire "journey" of an employee with an employer, from the first point of contact with the organization through to their final day of work.

The average employee journey consists of several key stages:

• recruitment: sourcing and selection
• employment terms discussion
• onboarding: the employee is welcomed and trained
• integration: your employee feels like part of the team and stays engaged
• personal or career development: through classroom training, e-learning, or blended
• off-boarding: the employment relationship is concluded properly

In addition to these standard stops, some employees may take a small detour, go on a "dream journey," or pause for a while due to their life stage, health, or organizational changes. Be sure to give these moments sufficient attention as well.

By making every stop a positive experience (yes, that is the employee experience), you not only do your employee a service but also polish your employer branding. A clear win-win situation.

The challenges of the employee journey for production staff

As we mentioned before, every employee goes through an employee journey, and it is important to make it as positive as possible. That is not always easy, because you cannot assume a one size fits all approach. Every person is unique, and there is often a significant difference in knowledge and communication styles at the departmental and functional levels. This is hardly surprising: the average CFO naturally has a different background and perspective than a truck driver or a packaging employee.

Zooming in on the work situation in the production sector, there are quite a few challenges to overcome. To name a few:

• Staff turnover is often higher than the intake of new employees.
• Some sectors involve seasonal work, meaning very temporary staff.
• Many companies operate in shifts, which means colleagues and their supervisors rarely see each other.
• Miscommunication because employees do not speak the same language.
• Work is often physically demanding and involves potentially dangerous situations.

The benefits of effective communication in the workplace

It should be clear: if you fail to include production staff in your communication, the risk of negative consequences for both the organization and the employees themselves is significant. If you find this daunting, try to shift your perspective. Keep the benefits in mind; it is a great motivator. For example, consider:‍

• more efficient business operations;
• saving time by not having to explain everything over and over again;
• employee engagement and connection to the organization;
• preventing absenteeism and accidents.

Are you convinced? Then we have a few handy tips to help you get started.

Create an optimal employee journey with these communication tips

1. A unifying joint induction day

Once they start working, many people don't venture far beyond their own department, which creates the risk of silo mentality and isolation. Make the most of the start of someone's career and ensure connection from day one. Offer new employees from different departments a joint induction. This is great for strengthening bonds and fostering a sense of unity within the organization.

A tour of the company and introductions from representatives of various disciplines are interesting for every new colleague. Make this as broad as possible: from board members to payroll administrators, from the works council to facilities, and not forgetting the company doctor and the confidential advisor.

2. Online learning environment: tailored onboarding and development

Has the new colleague completed the joint induction? Then it is time for the real onboarding. Have them log in to a personal online learning environment right away. Not only for step-by-step training in their specific role – this learning environment can also be the go-to place throughout the rest of their employee journey to take online courses, catch up on news, or chat with colleagues.

3. Clear and simple language

Do not blindly assume that everything you write is immediately understood by everyone. Not everyone has the same grasp of language, and that is perfectly normal. It makes a big difference whether you are used to processing written information daily, especially if Dutch is not your native language.

So, if you want to convey something to employees on the work floor, keep it simple. Avoid long sentences and complicated words. Keep your language at a B1 level, especially when communicating with the shop floor, and you can be sure you are on the right track. If you are unsure about the readability of a text, check it on special websites like ‘Is het b1?’ by the Klinkende Taal Foundation.

If you find that too cumbersome, you could use AI, like our good friend ChatGPT. Provide your formal, technical, or scientific text with the prompt "Rewrite this text at a B1 level" and be pleasantly surprised.

It doesn't get any easier than this!

4. Add visuals to your message

People are becoming increasingly visual and are less used to wading through walls of text. So it’s a good idea not to write everything out, but to package your message in an appealing vlog, visual, or . The good news is that creating visual material is getting easier and cheaper all the time. 

You can take this multimedia approach even further with gamification: a low-threshold, playful way to convey information to employees, regardless of age, background, or education level. 

5. Encourage and facilitate language development

Do you have many employees whose native language is not Dutch, and does it get in the way of their daily work? Then adding one or more language courses to your training menu could be a good idea. This can be done online, in a classroom, or blended.

If it concerns a smaller number of employees who struggle with language on the shop floor, or if you work in a small organization, you could consider offering a language course to your employee(s). If your budget is too limited to invest in this, refer them to the local library or welfare organization, where free ‘language buddies’ and/or a ‘language café’ are offered. It is of course a nice gesture to make some paid hours available for this.

Need even more fresh communication ideas?

‍Several companies in the production sector have already discovered the benefits of Pluvo for (online) communication. We would love to share the various best practices with you. So feel free to contact us!