Workforce Status Review

The Workforce Status Review (WSR) is an in-depth, focused review of the critical components of internal workforce development activities. This confidential, unbiased assessment of a manufacturer’s efforts to build a dependable team of workers, is designed to look at key areas such as the organization’s workforce development history, recruiting processes, training programs, attrition patterns, retention efforts, safety systems and the ways technology might impact the workforce.  

The WSR process starts with research in the local market to establish your company’s Talent Magnet Score – a measure of how well positioned you are to attract local talent. Then, two UT CIS team members come to your facility for a one-day data gathering event that involves, among other things, exploratory discussions with select members of your executive staff and some of your frontline supervisors. Your entire team will be offered the opportunity to participate through a 14- question, anonymous survey. This survey helps your leadership team gauge the overall buy-in of the staff regarding the current workforce development efforts.

After the information is gathered and analyzed, a final report is delivered. The WSR Report contains findings, recommendations and suggested solutions to help identify what steps or resources might be necessary to align workforce needs to your overall business strategy.

The WSR is a diagnostic tool that helps Tennessee manufacturers identify gaps, opportunities for improvement or potential issues related to workforce development that might hinder success. This assessment also allows the opportunity to compare your company’s workforce development efforts with those utilized in the wider labor markets. The objective is to provide useful insights that could help you avoid the distress of an “If only we had known!” moment.

UT CIS is part of the Institute For Public Service (a division of the University of Tennessee system) and is the Manufacturing Partnership Extension for the state of Tennessee. The mandate from both is the same: serve and assist manufacturers in Tennessee. To deliver on this dual mandate, the UT CIS team assists manufacturers in a variety of ways, including process improvement; health and safety training; new product launches; economic development training; help in becoming a supplier to the government and of course; workforce development.

To learn more, or to schedule your Workforce Status Review, contact tim.waldo@tennessee.edu.