For the next few days, we will be sharing Legal best practices around the ever-changing workforce challenges that Illinois Manufacturers are facing.

New unemployment laws and the switch to remote work environments can be tricky. Thank you to our partners, Greensfelder Attorneys at Law for their guidance.

Yesterday we wrote about companies being essential businesses and staying open during the "Stay at Home" order. If you do remain open, here are some recommendations to help keep employees safe while they are at work:

As the Illinois MEP, IMEC’s role is to be a resource for Illinois manufacturers and advocate best practices. Helping with strategy and creating systems to solve the challenges that these businesses face is our mission.

It remains our goal with today’s challenges. To that point IMEC, has created the Illinois Manufacturing Helpline and has been accepting questions 24/7 for the past week. It is our hope that some of these answers will save you precious time and assist with the challenges that you are facing.

Many companies have been asking whether their business is essential and, if they are essential, do they have to require employees to come to work. The Illinois Executive Order issued this past Friday caused much concern and confusion.

"The times they are a changin’”-Bob Dylan 1964

No doubt all our work schedules and routines have been altered in the last few weeks. If we still report to a station in our workplace, procedures and social distances have changed. This impacts our communication style and frequency. If we are now remote, more drastic changes have occurred. Conversations with colleagues and customers may have most likely decreased from our normal rate and volume. Communication styles and tools have also changed, particularly for the remote worker.

An original article by Nico Thomas, Performance Analyst for the Program Evaluation and Economic Research  group of NIST MEP.

Technology is the single greatest challenge (and opportunity) for the manufacturing industry … or is it? It’s true that technology has evolved and changed how manufacturers—especially small and medium-sized manufacturers—operate their businesses, in ways that even a few years ago didn’t seem possible.

This is an original article by Scott Rempala, President of Mighty Hook and member of IMEC's Board of Directors.

It’s fashionable these days to promote corporate culture as a means to ensure long-term business growth. Promoting is one thing, but making culture a priority requires a systematic approach that permeates everything a business does. We refer to our systematic approach as PTP—Process, Training, and People.

What does it take to build a truly remarkable team and a high performing organization? At the IMEC 2020 Conference on Enterprise Excellence, leaders in manufacturing, healthcare, education and business will come together to highlight best practices and strategies they use to achieve performance excellence. Despite representing different industries, these organizations have taken a similar path to performance excellence, and as such have overcome common challenges across industry. One challenge that is all too familiar to manufacturers is the workforce crisis. With the rise of the silver tsunami, manufacturers – and other industries – must take strategic actions to protect and build their greatest asset – their people.

IMEC is helping to bridge the manufacturing skills gap through an innovative new approach. The recently launched Skills Gap Analysis project is expected to help participating manufacturers plan their future workforce requirements and strengthen their communities. Recognizing the urgent need for a project like this in many Illinois manufacturers, IMEC’s president, Dr. David Boulay explains: “One of the biggest issues for managers in the manufacturing sector today is knowing what knowledge and skills workers will need beyond today’s work.  We’ve seen the same series of events occur across many of our client companies: changing customer preferences lead to new products, which then leads to changing the way the work is done.”

It is awe-inspiring to walk into today’s manufacturers and see the efficient and productive way things are made. Yet, even though the United States remains one of the most productive countries, manufacturing productivity has remained flat over the past decade. This should be a major concern. Productivity is a vital foundation for stronger companies, rising standards of living, and vibrant communities.