Small Manufacturers Detail Workforce Impacts of Pandemic
The Manufacturing Institute’s Center for Manufacturing Research and national CPA and advisory firm BKD released results from their fall survey of small and medium-sized manufacturers. This semiannual survey looks at workforce impacts and the “new normal” for manufacturers with 500 or fewer employees. The inaugural survey was released in February.
Key survey findings include the following:
• Nearly 79% of SMMs have enhanced workplace safety measures and requirements since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
• More than 71% of respondents said their firms had not received any resistance or hesitance to returning to work.
• Fifty-six percent noted a need for increased worker flexibility, and roughly half had reevaluated what work could be done remotely where possible. With that, 41% said that their business was working to reengineer the production process with social distancing in mind.