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Meeting the HR Challenge

recruiting, selecting, onboarding

Small and mid-sized businesses, including manufacturing, face a special challenge in recruiting, selecting, onboard, upskilling or reskilling, and retaining their workers.

This virtual workshop series, offered online in 5 convenient 90-minute sessions, will address the special challenges faced by small and mid-sized businesses with attracting, selecting, onboard, engaging, and retaining workers today.

Objectives:

Upon completing this 5-session program, participants will be able to:

  • Review key workforce issues affecting employers today
  • Describe creative ways to recruit good workers
  • Summarize ways to select good workers
  • Delineate ways to onboard good workers—and explain why onboarding is so important
  • Review effective on-the-job training for new hires—and explain why it is so important
  • Discuss ways to address HR in organizations too small to hire full-time HR professionals
  • Engage workers today and list the reasons why engagement is more than a fad
  • Discuss practical approaches to drive down turnover and retain the best workers

Sessions:

Session 1 – Today’s Human Resource Challenges for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

  • Providing an overview of the employment landscape facing small and mid-sized employers today
  • Managing HR challenges without an HR department
  • Conducting an HR audit (when the organization has no full-time HR people) to discover HR strengths and weaknesses and identify a long-term HR strategy
  • Discussing the final project for the program

Session 2 – Recruiting and Selecting Workers

  • Planning for the future workforce of the organization
  • Creating an employee handbook by establishing and implementing consistent HR policies and procedures
  • Building an employment brand and leveraging it to advantage
  • Devising effective talent acquisition and recruiting strategies
  • Creating effective job applications (rather than rely on one-size-fits-all forms)
  • Interviewing effectively using behavioral and performance interviews
  • Using the “hurdle approach” in selecting workers
  • Maintaining effective documentation of employment actions

Session 3 – Onboarding and Training Workers

  • Planning for effective onboarding
  • Reviewing the relationship between onboarding and absenteeism/turnover
  • Understanding the difference between onboarding for worker productivity and onboarding to build social relationships
  • Summarizing key issues in upskilling and reskilling workers

Session 4 – Engaging Workers and Using Effective Corrective Action

  • Defining worker engagement
  • Clarifying why worker engagement is critical to attracting and retaining talented workers
  • Reviewing ways to measure and increase worker engagement
  • Examining effective ways to address corrective action

Session 5 – Driving Down Turnover and Improving Employee Retention

  • Defining turnover
  • Reviewing what research has indicated about turnover and how to improve worker retention
  • Clarifying why worker engagement is critical to slashing avoidable turnover
  • Examining why not all turnover is bad—and why some turnover hurts more than others
  • Reviewing effective exit interviews
  • Conducting “stay” interviews
  • Final project discussions

Meeting the HR Challenge for Small and Startup Businesses Outline

Who should attend?

HR professionals, including HR Generalists, HRBP’s, HR Supervisors, Managers, Directors, and VPs. Business owners, C-suite Leaders who work with HR teams, and other organizational leaders who want to know more about improving the challenges connected with staffing, onboarding, retention, engagement, and other issues facing leading HR challenges in organizations today.

Why you should attend:

You or your team will benefit in these five ways and more…

  1. Discover approaches to an HR strategy that fits your company.
  2. Minimize or end frustrations over talent acquisition and recruiting strategies.
  3. Improve your onboarding confidence and learn strategies that build high-performance employee relationships.
  4. Gain new understanding for worker engagement that will positively impact your workplace culture.
  5. Refresh your perspective on obtaining and retaining the best employees.

Bonus Materials:

Participants will receive:

  • A draft employee handbook that can be tailored to your organization
  • A worksheet for use in creating an interview guide to use in job interviews
  • A sample employment application for use in creating one for your organization
  • A checklist for employee onboarding
  • A sample checklist for guiding on-the-job training (OJT)
  • Surveys to use for assessing employee engagement levels
  • A survey to identify ways to drive down turnover (100 research-based ways to improve employee retention)

Meet our presenter for this event…

William J Rothwell

William J. Rothwell, PhD. is President of Rothwell & Associates, Inc., President of Rothwell & Associates, LLC, and President of Rothwell & Associates Korea. He has worked full-time in human resources, training and organization development in both government (the Illinois Office of the Auditor General) and in a multinational company (American Brands, #48 on the Fortune 500 list) from 1979 until 1993. He has been a consultant for over 50 multinational companies. He has served many manufacturing clients in both the U.S. and abroad. Some of his clients include: Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Siemens, Sony, Phillips, Erickson, and HP. In addition to serving as the President of three consulting firms, he and his wife, have several other successful for-profit business endeavors in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Rothwell is a prolific author, coauthor, editor, or coeditor. Since 1987 he has published more than 130 books, edited 24 books in various book series, and authored numerous training packages, guides, technical reports, and scholarly articles. Complimenting his vast experience as an internationally recognized consultant, he also spent several decades serving The Pennsylvania State University as a Distinguished Professor in the Workforce Education and Development program in the Department of Learning and Performance Systems, College of Education, on the University Park Campus. He holds top-level certifications and credentials with National SHRM and ATD.

Contact IMC to learn more.

SHRM Recertification Provider

IMC is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® recertification activities.

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Testimonials


“Through the Winning Teams program, we increased throughput in our laminate cleaning/inspection area by 18%, which also shortened the time for us to respond to vendors about defective products and t… Read more

Northway Industries, Inc.


“We’re very pleased with the results of the training. It was a great way to break the ice regarding a systemic change in one of our oldest and most experience facilities. By training on change man… Read more

Bo PrattPresidentRockland Manufacturing Co.


The IMC and its staff have played an integral part in the success of Pik Rite’s Continuous Improvement culture as well as directly influencing more efficient production and operations. The proof is … Read more

Caleb ThomasProduct Line ManagerPik Rite, Inc.


We are a small organization and do not have IT staff. Before we found IMC, the task to implement CMMC seemed almost insurmountable. With their help, the process was no longer overwhelming, and we were… Read more

Terry KnouseVice President of OperationsNuVisions Center


5 Whys, SIPOC, Value Stream Maps, etc. are great ways to visualize problems that are difficult to pinpoint.

Brandon SmithQuality Control Lead TechnicianSilcoTek


The attendees of both training programs came away energized and eager to apply their new skills in training, coaching and communications. There is broad consensus that these skills should continue to … Read more

Jeanette WraggTraining ManagerPrysmian Group


We make investments where and when our workforce is skilled and ready.  The training was a solid foundation for supervisor development.

Steve PrentissVice President of Human ResourcesNittany Paper Mills, Inc.


The Value Stream Mapping exercise conducted by the IMC enabled us to visually see the overall production process and the areas we needed to target for improvement. Without this process, QCast may not … Read more

Terry ArnoldGeneral ManagerQCast Aluminum


IMC’s resource consultant’s background and knowledge were so relevant, and his delivery set a solid foundation upon which we could build for our re-certification as well.

Robert LangOwnerLang’s Chocolates


“IMC has been an excellent resource for us to accomplish objectives that we would not have been able to achieve on our own. We would highly recommend any company taking full advantage of the services … Read more

Marc DagataPresidentMetal Integrity




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Upcoming Events



Jan


8


11:00 am – 11:30 am


Rapid Fire: Supply Chain 2026 Outlook – Natural Gas, Solar, Data Centers, Nuclear, and more



Jan


15





Featured


9:00 am – 12:00 pm


Create a Winning Safety Culture



Jan


22





Featured


9:00 am – 12:00 pm


Create a Winning Safety Culture



Jan


22


11:00 am – 11:30 am


Energy Industry Overview Map – Natural Gas Midstream Opportunities for Manufacturers



Feb


3





Featured


8:30 am – 3:30 pm


Lean Manufacturing Level One Practitioner Certification – Centre County


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News

IMC Joins CESMII Smart Manufacturing Roadshow to Showcase Innovation Across Pennsylvania

On December 11, 2025, the Innovative Manufacturers’ Center (IMC) along with approximately 100 industry manufacturing professionals, attended the CESMII Smart Manufacturing Roadshow hosted by the Digital Foundry in New Kensington, PA, an event highlighting the …

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Happy Manufacturing Month!

Celebrating Manufacturing: October Is Manufacturing Month & Friday Is National Manufacturing Day Every October, manufacturers across the U.S. are spotlighted for their vital role in innovation, jobs, and regional growth. While National Manufacturing Day (this …

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IMC Business Advisor, Rick Terry, Earns Smart Manufacturing Acceleration Roadmap Professional Certification

The Innovative Manufacturers Center (IMC) is proud to announce that Frederick (Rick) Terry, Business Advisor, has successfully earned the CESMII Smart Manufacturing Acceleration Roadmap Professional Certification from Rensselaer at Work, a division of Rensselaer Polytechnic …

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