Struggling with Losing Skilled Workers to Other Departments? How Can HR Policies Help?

Hello,

I work in a Manufacturing Industry as a Production Manager. Every time I receive requests from other supporting departments such as maintenance and warehouse facilities to transfer people from the production department. In our company, there doesn't exist any HR policy. Every time I face losses of skilled people migrating to other departments. Please suggest how I can address this issue. I am planning to recommend to my GM that there should be a defined HR policy. Please advise.

More than policy, what you need is manpower planning. You need to have a clear understanding of the employee strength required in various functions and levels, as well as where to locate them, internally or externally. Maintenance, warehouse, etc., are ancillary to manufacturing areas, and putting experienced people from the manufacturing area in these functions will be of immense help to manufacturing itself in the long run. So there is no need to feel bad if good employees from manufacturing are reassigned to such ancillary jobs.