What Is HR's Real Role in Apparel Recruitment with High Turnover? Seeking Insights from Peers

Dear Friends,

I am working in the apparel industry as an HR assistant. I would like to know what the role of HR is in the apparel industry, particularly in recruitment, where there is a high attrition rate and new workers are hired by the production manager and batch supervisor. HR simply fills in the employment form as a formality (this is the process followed in our organization).

I am interested in learning about the actual recruitment practices in other apparel industries from my dear friends working in the same industry.

Mangala

Hello friend,

First of all, you need to study the attrition - is it possible to talk to the people who are leaving? If it is the staff category, then you can conduct a formal exit interview. I suppose you are talking about the workmen category.

Since the attrition rate is high, it must be a cause of concern for production people as well. Any new employee will not be able to deliver the quantity of output as well as the quality. If you discuss this aspect with the production manager and supervisor and suggest how we can work on reducing attrition by implementing proper recruitment procedures. You can also propose starting a training course for a set of people who will be trained on certain machine operations for a period of 1 month. Upon successful completion, they will be given a job in the company. This will ensure that there will be a set of trained people available at the end of every month to fill the vacancies. Additionally, since the manpower is trained, the production quantity and quality will be maintained.

You will, therefore, need to think of a training setup that can be run in the second or third shift when the workload is less.

You will also need to consider some other aspects for workmen - the wage structure, etc., and other issues that are causing attrition will need to be addressed.

I am sure your production manager and supervisors will give full cooperation to these initiatives because it is very much in their interest as well.

Regards,

Nishikant

Hi friend,

In the apparel industry, the production team typically dominates the recruitment process. However, the HR team plays a crucial role in providing proper induction and ensuring that the new hires feel comfortable in their roles.