High-Precision Product Manufacturer Retains McDermott Associates to Develop Skill-Based Pay System

Manufacturing custom-engineered products is a capital- and labor-intensive process, one that a New Jersey-based firm has done with considerable expertise since 1973. As a growing, privately owned company, however, this firm found it needed a more formal structure and rationale for jobs performed by its hourly workers,which the workforce could more clearly and easily understand and tie to overall business goals, if it expected to stay competitive.

The company’s Director of Human Resources reached out to McDermott Associates for help in competitive benchmarking and re-evaluation and revision of the existing, more informal pay structure and job descriptions for hourly employees.

Don McDermott and his team collaborated with the HR Director as well as the company’s COO and first line supervisors. They conducted interviews and walked the manufacturing floor to assess the actual tasks performed by workers.

“Don and his team helped us to link hourly skilled workers’ performance to business results. They systematically questioned and assessed what was done in the process – why the steps were done at all, what skills were essential to the steps, and what the real value to the overall business outcomes were. This helped us to structure jobs more formally and develop more skill-based levels,” says the HR Director. “Don facilitated and kept the project on track. He and his team have a depth and breadth of knowledge in both hourly and executive compensation, which is unusual.”

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