Employment in the manufacturing sector : a case study of the employment situation within a local manufacturing company

Abstract

This project focuses on a qualitative case study designed to give a comprehensive examination of the manufacturing setting at Pro Manufacture & Design Ltd. To assess the genuine employment situation within this Company, the researcher made use of the in-depth answers and observations made by the stakeholders involved in the research that consisted of the HR Director, four departmental managers, four Maltese employees, four EU employees, four third country national employees, and six ex- employees having Maltese, EU and Third Country Nationalities respectively. The main objectives of this case study are to recognize the reasons why Maltese nationals regardless of their educational status are finding it less appealing to apply for work within the manufacturing sector - this will bring forward reasons why this issue brings a larger turnover of Maltese workers. This research will also focus on reasons why a great influx of foreigners including third country nationals are applying for work in Malta and whether the quality of their work is better when compared to the work of the Maltese Nationals. Finally this case study will identify strategies of how the Organisation can implement to retain its current workforce and attract new applicants. For this purpose, the researcher made use of six, in-depth, semi-structured interview schedules with the above mentioned participants Shedding light to the reasons why Maltese workers are not applying for work in the manufacturing sector, this research found that it is the stressful nature of manufacturing environment itself to be the main factor. This research also found that the increase of foreign employees applying for work is not reducing employment opportunities to Maltese Nationals. On the contrary, since the current economic and employment situations in Malta are at their optimum levels, Maltese job seekers are having plenty of opportunities to work in various sectors with better salaries and attractive working conditions than manufacturing. From this research it was also found that the quality of work by the foreign nationals who work within this Company is to some extent and in certain circumstances better than the one of Maltese nationals. Through this research it has been highlighted that the critical points of the employment situation within this Company mainly emerged from aspects related to human resources that included the influx of foreign workers and the perceptions from the local employees, company reputation, salaries, work related stress, employee satisfaction and training. The employment situation within this Company is also influenced by the need for better operational effectiveness in retaining high skilled employees and attracting new ones. Operational effectiveness in all areas of the Company can be achieved by identifying the challenge and designing implementing realistic strategies that would solve the immediate problems and at the same time planning for the future needs of the Company. All of this has to be accomplished within an environment where cultural diversity employee motivations are high on the agenda.