![My Experience as a Hiring Manager in 2025 at a Union Manufacturing Facility [OC]](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/qqsui7muipfg1-1536x922.png "My Experience as a Hiring Manager in 2025 at a Union Manufacturing Facility [OC]")
I posted this last year, and it got a lot of traction- so here are the results for 2025!
Visualization made using Sankeymatic and information compiled throughout the year after each stage of the recruitment process.
Some more information:
– This was just for 2025 (Jan-Dec). We were more selective with who we called this year, although the benefits from that were mixed. Many applications are blank with just their name or the location of their current/previous job.
– Pay is good for the area. 60k to 100k . I would say the average is about 75K a year. Excellent healthcare, 401k, etc. Plus union benefits (shift differential, double time Sunday, call time, etc.)
– HS diploma or GED is the only requirement to work. We actually really like hiring folks right out of high school when possible.
– The biggest deterrent is that we run 24/7/365 and operate a northern swing shift, which makes it difficult for some to manage. Weekends, nights, holidays, etc. We are running. The difficulty of work is hit and miss. Some tough days, some easy days. Not an easy schedule, but this is very common in our manufacturing sector.
– I left voicemails for every non-answer that had a working phone number or open voicemail box. I found that emails get a non-existent response rate.
– Small town and generally impoverished area. Very "blue collar" workforce.
– The bar to pass an interview is low. Just be able to maintain a conversation, understand the job requirements, and indicate a desire to learn.
– Orientation is 3 days of paid training for OSHA 10 certification and some overview of the company organization. We get a good indication of who isn't going to make it here, as many will be late their first few days of work.
Many of these were through Indeed job postings, and I've found that emails go unanswered, so I always call and set up an in-person interview if they are interested in the job after hearing the hours and requirements.
Posted by SectionXII
17 Comments
Always nice to see the other side of the application tree. Helps to put things in perspective from the employer side. We (as someone who is somewhat involved in the hiring process) can get ghosted just as much as employees do.
I feel your pain, but one thing I’ve found helps is to never leave a voicemail.
I will always call back a couple of times and reiterate some of the deal-breakers that come with the job. I find it saves a lot of time in the long run.
Reading this, I can’t help but think this is basically saying: we’ll hire anyone, as long as you bend your life around our schedule.
24/7 operation, swing shifts, weekends, holidays, and somehow that’s presented as a *great opportunity.* The pay is fine, but there’s really no work-life balance here.
Low bar for interviews, chasing blank applications, small-town workforce, it feels less like hiring and more like an endurance test for anyone who needs a paycheck.
What happened with the one missing “Did Not Contact” application? Did you just reject it out of a personal Vendetta to the applicant’s family, or the more simple answer of “editing error”?
I wonder if a small portion of the “bad resume/blank” are those who may never wanted to have actually worked at the facility but due to SNAP requirements were forced to put in applications. SO, they can claim that yep, I “applied” to a job and fulfill their (weekly?) requirements.
No comment on my feelings about that….just wondering if the low effort ones could be such. I guess you, OP, will never know
6.5% rate of hire is pretty damn good. When I hire I’ll get one opening and 200+ resumes. Out of that there’s maybe only 10 people qualified for the role.
Now I’m curious about how unions are manufactured.
Would love to know the story behind the person fired for safety at a grocery store!
you have a lot of turnover, be it from your side or the employee’s.
Indeed’s problem could be that they spam so much notifications and back when i searched they used the exact same email style for “hey this might interest you” and “somebody replied”.
What is a norther swing shift?
I am not surprised at the bad/disinterested applications. As someone with a fancy highly specific white collar job who has been laid off before, getting unemployment insurance and the demands to prove you were looking for work, even though only a handful of orgs in the state could use me, meant a lot of half-assed applications I did not want to go forward with.
Wow. These numbers are just depressing from a workforce readiness perspective.
What are we doing (writ large, I mean, as a country).m? The few manufacturing jobs that are left can’t get humans even capable of showing up…
I’ve been in a very different sector – high tech in the Bay Area, and all the folks who say we don’t need h1bs are just online trolls. There’s no model of filing jobs with just domestic labor. Our jobs are $100k-$300k generally speaking plus à lot of equity upside. Numbers are very different. Many more resumes screened, few interviews, an offer, and then 99% chance that person shows up to work.
What was the reason for not letting the people know they won’t be moving forward?
I’m curious why the 50+7 for the “did not contact” area does not equal the 58 in the predecessor rank.
That’s a lot of people that didn’t show up in all stages! I’m most baffled by the people who accepted an offer and then disappeared
Haha. Thats so similar to our hiring for warehouse employees.
We try to hire 10 to have 4 still on the payroll 30 days later.
Wow for the pay! What’s the age limit? If you have any. And how many are late transfers (from other professions into yours in later age)?