ABOUT DAILY’S® PREMIUM MEATS. Daily’s Premium Meats® has been focused on providing customer with the finest processed meat products for over 125 years. Known for many years as “The Bacon Specialists”, they now offer a complete line of wholesale food service hickory smoked hams, sausage links and patties, and other value-added pork products. They also offer an extensive line of raw and precooked back for both wholesale and retail markets. As a part of their commitment to producing high-quality meat products, Daily’s® is part of a food system connected every step of the way from raising the pigs to processing the pork. They use exacting specifications and quality control systems to ensure products are always delicious, and most importantly, safe.
THE CHALLENGE. Daily’s® processing facility in St. Joseph, Missouri faces an ongoing struggle to find and hire qualified entry level candidates who are willing to work, learn and grow with their company. In spite of their excellent new hire training regimen, a lack of basic skillsets in the local workforce pool contributes to high employee turnover rates. Sandy Duncan, Daily’s® recruiting specialist, is tasked with the ongoing hiring challenge of maintaining and growing adequate workforce levels to keep the operation running smoothly. “We have plenty of applicants,” laments Duncan, “but not enough who fit our needs – too many lack even basic skills and they don’t understand how a solid work ethic can allow them to grow with our company and make a better life for themselves and their family.” A seasoned recruiting veteran, Duncan uses every resource she can to bolster her hiring efforts, so when she was approached by Missouri Enterprise about the Basics of Manufacturing job training program, she was ready to give it a try.
MEP CENTER’S ROLE. As the state’s MEP National Network center, Missouri Enterprise is uniquely positioned to connect manufacturers with outstanding resources to help them overcome challenges. To help Daily’s Premium Meats® with their hiring issues, Missouri Enterprise’s Area Business Manager partnered with the local Missouri Job Center, which provides programs and activities to support job training under Title I of the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA). It proved to be a winning combination. The Job Center recruited applicants to attend a no-cost Basics of Manufacturing training program, designed to give people basic skills that make them better applicants for entry level manufacturing jobs. Missouri Enterprise Project Managers teach this course to introduce job seekers to the fundamental basics of blueprint reading, measuring, principles of manufacturing processes, teamwork, communications, professional behavior and problem-solving techniques.
On the last day of the week-long course, Daily’s® and other local employers conducted personal interviews with course graduates and made job offers on the spot. “These people had some basic knowledge that other applicants simply didn’t, and they handled themselves really well in our interviews,” said Duncan. “Plus, they showed up all week to complete the course, which says a lot about their work ethic. Last time around we made job offers to 6 out of 8 of the people we interviewed. Wow! We found some great new employees. One of them, Tony, has been with us less than 6 months and he’s already been promoted. He’s been our solid!”
“Missouri Enterprise did a fantastic job! They were extremely professional, the communication was outstanding, and you could tell they really cared about the people they trained. It’s a win for Daily’s® and for our community. From now on, we’ll be interviewing every time they run the Basics of Manufacturing course. What a great resource for manufacturers!” -Sandy Duncan, Recruiting Specialist