Podcast Introduction
00:00:06
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome to Mustard Hub Voices from the Frontlines. Here we talk to all kinds of leaders who roll up their sleeves to support and engage their teams. From healthcare care to hospitality, retail to the trades, we're diving into real stories and real strategies from the people who make it happen with their teams every
Meet Jamie Amos
00:00:24
Speaker
day. And today i am super happy to have Jamie Amos with us here.
00:00:30
Speaker
um Jamie, Tell me about yourself because you are currently you're in the manufacturing space and you are a talent and engagement partner. Yeah. um As you can tell, I've got that really um strong Kentucky draw. um i am in the talent and engagement role with a company called Fetchheimer.
00:00:52
Speaker
We're actually one of the... top 10, maybe even top five oldest companies in Cincinnati. We got our start 1842.
00:01:03
Speaker
And as a uniform manufacturer, and we have been throughout that 180 plus year period, we actually ah got our big break selling to both sides of the Civil War.
Jamie's Career Journey
00:01:15
Speaker
um but we are a name that if you ask anyone in cincinnati about um our company name they haven't heard of us um so we're one of cincinnati's uh best kept secrets if you will um in terms of me as an individual um i have been in the states for 13 years now i got my start um ah in HR in 2014 after having worked in a security role at the local casino when it opened.
00:01:47
Speaker
And I've been doing it ever since. Before that, I actually in my previous career back home in the UK was a police constable or a cop um and gave up out here to ah come here and marry an American citizen and kind of restart my career from there and and fell into the ah HR space that way.
Full Circle: Uniforms & Law Enforcement
00:02:07
Speaker
um I do kind of like how my career has taken me full circle from being a law enforcement officer in the UK to now working for a company that supplies uniforms to law enforcement officers up and down the country, as well as ah military dress uniforms to all six branches, including ah Space Force, which is a really cool a contract that we have. um So,
00:02:32
Speaker
Excited to talk today, especially about engagement and to dive in a little bit about my experiences over the years and what the future holds. No, awesome. I think that's really, I appreciate what a shift you took. You're like, okay, moving countries, getting married, completely new career. um You didn't like change your name or anything at the same time, did you?
00:02:53
Speaker
No, no. I've kept the Amos name. and I am yeah i amm the only male left in in my family with the last name. So that's not going anywhere. Awesome.
00:03:04
Speaker
So I do, I have two daughters, so it's not even going to get passed on from there either. So I mean, you know, got married a couple times, kept running with Ewald. So you never know, you know, they may start slinging it around. They may have like that, they'll just ask name enough to keep it going.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. No, brilliant.
Talent and Recruitment Challenges
00:03:20
Speaker
So I guess, you know, talk about, you know, your role now, because, you know, you're based in Cincinnati. You're a little bit south right now in Kentucky. Yes. Southeast. Yeah.
00:03:33
Speaker
Don't even go on the like, I know South enough. Okay. But my geography of Kentucky is not great. But neither neither is mine, if you if you couldn't couldn't guess. But yeah, so tell me, because you're there right now working with with employees, working on engagement. So I guess tell me a little bit more about your role. Yeah, so talent and engagement partner. and This is actually one of my my first roles where talent and and recruitment has really been like one of the sole operating factors in the role.
00:04:03
Speaker
ah My first six, seven years in HR was very heavy in the engagement and culture space, you know, new high orientations, communication initiatives, rewards and recognition programs, just just making people feel a part of of the companies that that I worked for and and buying into that culture.
00:04:22
Speaker
um I've never worked for a company as old as this one. and So it has its perks and it has its challenges, right? wait When you're with a pre-existing organization that has so much history. um But in my role, ah prior to me coming in, we actually had an ah HR generalist that did recruitment on top of all their ah HR generalist roles, which is why the job opened up.
00:04:44
Speaker
um We have two factories or plants, as we call them, in Hodginville, Kentucky. and So that really ties in with American history because it's the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.
00:04:56
Speaker
um And then in Grantsville, Maryland. And in both locations, our our team members are sewing and making ah the pants and shirts for for various uniform types, of that be police, law enforcement, the United States Postal Service, and even those dress uniforms for the US military.
00:05:17
Speaker
um We, because they're government contracts, those items have to be made in the States. ah And some of our other stuff that is non-government contracting gets made in places like Central America.
Factories & Workforce History
00:05:30
Speaker
We did have a ah ah footprint in Asia for a little while.
00:05:34
Speaker
um But the biggest challenge for me and for our company and why my role was brought in is sewing has become a little bit of a dying art in the manufacturing industry within the US, right? There's only a handful of, you know, well-established,
00:05:51
Speaker
you know businesses that still exist in the Georgia, the New York areas, the the California areas. i think there's some in in Chicago. um And that means that you know to get new talent in, there's no longer...
00:06:07
Speaker
you know five, six, seven factories in and around the area that you can pry talent from.
Attracting New Talent Strategies
00:06:12
Speaker
ah It's also a role that takes a lot of time and dedication to master the skill because yes, it is manufacturing, but there is a level of skill that goes with it. It's not like you're just doing quality control or checking. You're not just pushing a button and changing a part.
00:06:32
Speaker
You're actually doing the work with the machine at various levels of automation, right? There's still manual machines, there's automated and semi-automated options. um But a lot of our workforce, particularly in our in our Kentucky location, um it's been open for just over 60 years now.
00:06:49
Speaker
And we came in the 1980s and took on the facility And the majority of the staff that came in originally to that facility were folks like farmers' wives, right? So in Kentucky, they've got that proud farming history.
00:07:02
Speaker
And what would happen is the farmers and the boys and the sons and and the male family members would stay and work on the farms. And then the wives and the daughters would go into manufacturing roles. And sewing was definitely a very female forward sewing role back in the day. Mm-hmm. do have a lot more ah males involved than probably we we would have seen in the past.
00:07:24
Speaker
um But that would be their way of securing benefits and insurance for their their family because with the farmers, they were self-employed. Yeah. Yeah. And it made sense. And for the last 30, 40, 50 years, that workforce has gone through the lifecycle. Many of them have stayed there for a long time.
00:07:45
Speaker
And now we're getting to the point where a lot of that initial input of team has got to the end of their career. They're starting to retire or they're staying beyond retirement, but we have limited time left with them.
00:07:56
Speaker
And we're starting to try and bring in new talent. So one of the challenges that that I've had in my role has been how do we think outside the box in terms of talent that we could partner with and start to build talent pools with and start the The thinking for us has been, you know, we're making army dress uniforms.
00:08:18
Speaker
So veterans is a huge part of that. We know that there are lots of very talented and skilled veterans that are going to on go on to bigger and better things than sewing. But there's also some folks that have served the country that maybe they they want something a little bit more simple where they're in charge of their own yeah and of career in terms of with sewing because it's based on piece rate.
00:08:39
Speaker
your output is what directs your pay. So if you're at 120, 150, and even some at 200%, you're really driving your income through your effort and your quality in which you're doing your job.
Engaging Younger Workers
00:08:52
Speaker
um We're also looking at second chance employment. We know that Those that are judicially impacted, right, and and and come from incarceration and prison terms and prison sentences, they get exposed to sewing in those facilities. And they're making next to no money during that time doing that.
00:09:11
Speaker
And with second chance employment, the whole goal is to give people steady and regular work that keeps them working. away from the crime and involvement that they had prior to because they have that stability there.
00:09:27
Speaker
And most folks that come out of the judicial system, they don't want to go back. yeah yeah want They want steady, they want reliable um work. And that's something that we're exploring. we're We're in the early stages. I've only been in the role for about seven months now. I came in in April.
00:09:44
Speaker
And we're starting to build those relationships locally. We're also looking at folks in the last five years that have been impacted by the post-COVID layoff and hangover where businesses have gone under and maybe they've made they've done rifts and and even some closed down.
00:10:01
Speaker
And you've got folks that maybe have 5, 10, 15 years in their career and they want something where they know what they're doing every day, they want that structure there. They don't wanna be guessing what's happened next. And that's where manufacturing as a whole, but particularly with the sewing side, you know what you're doing every day.
00:10:18
Speaker
Yes, there is the counter argument of it being very repetitive, But again, you're in charge of what you're making and how you make it. And the hours are pretty much set. We're very lucky that we're a one shift plan.
00:10:30
Speaker
Both our locations, which makes it very attractive. um We run seven till 3.30 PM, Monday through Friday. And then if they do a Saturday, they're only working until about 11.30 AM. And what they're outputting could really improve that money they're making alongside that.
Workforce Engagement & Retention
00:10:46
Speaker
And then the fourth and final piece um has also been trying to get that next generation, which this is probably the biggest battle because we know and the researchers out there that attention span is something that is impacting our younger workers as they're coming through, particularly because of the entertainment and media that they've been exposed to. We also know that SHRM has the average work time, I think, in 2024 was down to less than three years now.
00:11:13
Speaker
And, yeah, and you know It takes anywhere from 6 to 18 months to really master the skill of sewing to where you're regularly hitting 100% or more.
00:11:23
Speaker
And it's down to the individual. There are some people that pick it up quicker than others. There are some people that take a bit of time. um but you also have that, you know, we have a hungry young group coming through and, you know, every generation has its differences and its nuances, you know, whereas we know that the that the boomer and the exes were all about, you know, the hours worked, the the time put in, the journey. Um, We have a generation coming through that not just because of COVID, but in general, they're more thinking about the the what's in it for them. They're looking at the the goal and the target of where they want to be and just how quickly they can get there.
00:12:04
Speaker
And the journey is less important. And that's something that with a manual job is very hard to convince folks of. So so we're we're all looking outside the box to try and secure that talent.
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, no. And that's really interesting. And, you know, one of the things that you're talking about, it takes so long to master that skill. Obviously, you're talking about some of the second chance hires, you know, they're they're learning that already, but not all of them have. And it's like, when we're talking about engagement and building culture, I think that's so important because you, an engaged workforce has more presenteeism, they probably are performing better. So they're making more money that makes them more likely to stick around. yeah And of course, I can imagine because it does take so long to master those skills. If you have someone unengaged and you end up having high turnover, that's financially, i'm going to say not great.
00:12:54
Speaker
Mm hmm. yeah so yeah and and that's And that's the other part of what we're looking
Leadership Changes & Future Strategies
00:13:00
Speaker
into, right? and We just did our employee engagement survey at the company.
00:13:06
Speaker
And, you know, as expected with most manufacturing companies, there is a drop off in the engagement score of your main office and, you know, national remote team members and your folks on the front lines in the factory.
00:13:21
Speaker
Now, you know, you're probably going to expect that to drop off by about 10% or so. And we saw that with one factory and with another factory, it was a little bit more than that. So we we know that there is work to do. And the great thing is, even before we did this survey, our company's been through a lot of change this last year. Our CEO retired after 25 years.
00:13:42
Speaker
his His replacement is is in and was was recruited internally um through their own career progression within the company. So they know the company back to front. So it's not like we're having someone come in that's got to learn the business.
00:13:54
Speaker
yeah um And then we also have a brand new board chair um who is very people focused and people forward. And the whole leadership team is is focused on taking the time to go through and find the company's strategy and vision for where we're going now, right? We know where we've been, we know what our history is, there's 108 years of it, and then there's a lot of fun that's been within that.
Skill Development with LinkedIn Learning
00:14:20
Speaker
But we also have to start thinking about how do we keep the textiles and sewing industry alive? How do we keep people interested in it? And a lot of that is going to be built on culture. So, The first six months of my role have been very heavy on the recruitment side. I'm now starting to dive into the engagement side of the role. We're doing feedback sessions and meetings with our leaders to see what we can do within their teams. um Some of the feedback is out of their control because it's more about the company as a whole and some of the industry issues we've faced, right? For manufacturing in general,
00:14:55
Speaker
And particularly for us in the textiles industry, the last nine months with with tariffs, with changes in rules and regulations, that's impacted our supply chain.
00:15:06
Speaker
But really, our supply chain has been getting impacted for five years since COVID. You know, everyone in the manufacturing industry has experienced that in some way, shape or form over the last five years. And that's added additional stress to the supply and demand side of things. And a lot of our feedback has kind of talked to that, right? um So we've tried to focus on the little things in the teams that we can control.
00:15:28
Speaker
Things like, you know, a lot of the conversation pieces we've had have been about how do we just check in on our team and see how they're doing? How do we utilize the programs we have in place? We give every one of our team members access to LinkedIn learning as part the company.
00:15:45
Speaker
Now, our leaders are still learning how to utilize that because, you know, the AI piece of LinkedIn learning is great because if you've got a team member with a certain goal, you can go to the LinkedIn AI and go, right, I've got a team member.
00:15:59
Speaker
They've got this much experience and they want to grow in this area. What courses would you recommend? Yeah. And that really helps those leaders. But now it's about me educating the leaders on being able to use LinkedIn yeah like to help their team. But then you also want to see where the leader thinks the team needs to grow. And you can use that there as well, which is one of the perks of LinkedIn learning too.
00:16:20
Speaker
um But then on the other side of that, and one of the biggest pieces that that we're looking at is rewards and recognition.
Rewards & Recognition Program Update
00:16:27
Speaker
Manufacturing has done rewards and recognition in the same way for decades, right? You know, it's employee of the month. It's based solely on production and numbers.
00:16:40
Speaker
And it's usually the head honcho at the plant that makes the decision. So I'm in the process so of of mapping and forming based on experience I've had in other places I've worked where I've developed these programs is how do we modernize this manufacturing approach to rewards and recognition where you are really making it about your culture and your values? Because I think that's the one piece that's missing right now. And that's something that i think we can be very intentional with.
00:17:09
Speaker
um and also get more people involved. So right now our programs are very super supervisor heavy in terms of nominations. the missing ingredient that I feel we have is peer-to-peer.
00:17:22
Speaker
And once you get folks working alongside each other, recognizing and celebrating each other, and I've i've seen it when I worked at Newport Aquarium, we saw, I think it was this a to 8% increase over three years in our engagement score, just solely with a lot of the recognition programming that we went in and redid.
00:17:44
Speaker
And it took six to 12 months to really get team members bought in. And then we started to see more variety in our winners, um more trying to think of the word now that that we're we're we've ah gone away from them based on the current rules and regulations, more diversity in our winners.
00:18:03
Speaker
and And that's something I'm looking to repeat here, but also making it industry specific as well. And us having free locations, how do we implement rules where everyone within the organization is getting some kind of chance to be showcased in one way, of shape or form. So that's the next big step on our engagement journey is really modernizing that approach.
00:18:24
Speaker
oh Man, i have ah I have so many thoughts. One thought is I'm going to give you such a sales pitch
Educating Leaders for Engagement
00:18:29
Speaker
later. oh because This is like music to my ears in terms of what we're building at Mustard Hub, but this is not about Mustard Hub. This is about you, gosh darn it, and your people. And you also said something that I was really like latching onto because one of the things with engagement, and I so appreciate that you're putting the educational piece, and of course it is like you know the chain reaction, have to show the leaders how to do the thing and down the line and they have people to actually, you know, you know, know that the program is out there and take advantage of it. But in terms of engagement, you know, you have these folks who want to grow, they want to upskill, they want to know, you know, what's kind of next, you know, and they they need these proper training because otherwise, if they do go into a more of a leadership role, they're
00:19:14
Speaker
possibly going to fail or flounder. And then you know chain reaction the other way, that's gonna affect the the team and really undermine engagement. Because so often, um you know I don't want to point fingers at at leaders, but so most what I refer to as like people problems, you know often they're their' leadership problems. That kind of all all stems back.
00:19:37
Speaker
um And I guess you know with that, just kind of pivot, I know we had asked you about this um it wasn' ahead of time. there we go I'll just kind of go back to So o kind of to pivot a little bit, and I know we had chatted about this, ah people problems. You know, I'm just curious overall, you know, what are these, you know, people problems that you're seeing, you know, in business today? What are the things that um HR professionals and business owners should stay abreast of?
Leadership Empathy & Connection
00:20:08
Speaker
I think, and this is this is my personal opinion, um I have always been very people focused. I'm a natural like body body language reader.
00:20:20
Speaker
i i so I read what i see in the room from the people, from the behaviors. um And one of the areas I have to grow in for my career is, you know, what does the data say? What do the stats say? Right. I'm very good at reading the room.
00:20:35
Speaker
What I have to grow in is reading the data to help me get that message of what i read in the room across. um But i also think, you know, there's there's this argument, right, that HR needs to speak the language of the C-suite.
00:20:48
Speaker
But I would also argue and f throw out there that I think the C-suite needs to learn how to read the humanity of HR and people um just as much.
00:21:04
Speaker
Because I think some, you know, I know that a lot of leaders are human too, and they struggle with the big decisions that they have to make. But I think sometimes we're very quick to make decisions and knee-jerk reactions based on a poor couple of months or, know,
00:21:23
Speaker
things like that. and And I'm lucky that I, in my role, I've never been in that leadership role where I've had to make those kinds of decisions yet. And, you know, kids in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and you don't know until you've experienced it yourself. But I think learning about people as well,
00:21:39
Speaker
and how to speak the language of empathy, of understanding. And and there was a, there was a great ah video clip that I watched today on Facebook from the diary of a CEO where he was speaking to Brené Brown and she was talking about trust and and the marble transition, right? You know, when you're depositing the marbles in the jar of the person you're building, you're starting to trust.
00:22:02
Speaker
And I think leaders assume that people will understand and back them when they make that decision because of their title when actually the people will follow you based on the way you've treated them before that decision and i think sometimes and and again we're only human right even ceos are human we only have so much capacity for you know our own minds and our own brains and our own decisions but sometimes they forget what the little person is
Impact of Focusing on Bottom Line
00:22:34
Speaker
going through, right? What the person on the front line, what the person who is really and solely responsible for the success of your business is going through.
00:22:43
Speaker
And that's where... when you're only like bottom line focused, it can really have a negative impact on Yes, you've got to run your business. and but that's also why I'm not an accountant. That's why I'm not in finance, right? I'm mean i'm in ah the world of people for a reason.
00:22:57
Speaker
But when you only focus on the bottom line, your top line is going to suffer because your people are going to suffer. And I think that's really important when you start to bring intentionality to what you do. No, that's absolutely, you know, you gave me a really good segue. So as we wrap things up, you know, you mentioned like, you know, you're not in that role where you have to make some of those kinds of decisions.
Career Approach: Impact Over Titles
00:23:20
Speaker
What's next for your career? Where, what, what, what do you see in your future? So this, this is the thing with me. i am the one person that when you interview me, I am dreading that. Where do you see yourself? like ah um I've never gone.
00:23:34
Speaker
into a room or into a job with a plan. and Even going back to my days as a police officer. When I joined at the age of 22, I had people join in the same time as me and they were targeting getting promoted to a sergeant within three to five years.
00:23:50
Speaker
It was a 35 year commitment and career right to retire at 57, et cetera. When I joined, it's a little bit more matt more now because you know the world has changed and and and the the role has changed a little bit.
00:24:03
Speaker
But I have always been about, and the way I've approached things is I just want to be good at what I do and make an impact in what I do.
00:24:15
Speaker
um I've never chased the title or the role. And, you know, since becoming a father, that's made me chase the money a little bit more, right? Because I've got kids to to care for and and I have to think about more than just myself.
00:24:27
Speaker
um But, yeah, money's never been the driver for me. And and some of that is also, i come i grew up in a different country, right? I didn't grow up in in a capitalist economy, um which I don't think I've ever really got truly used to in the US.
00:24:43
Speaker
and When I moved here 13 years ago, i was just brought up in a different way, you know? And i think sometimes we get so focused, um not just in ah HR, but in business business,
00:24:56
Speaker
Where does this person need to grow? What title do they need to have next? That sometimes we miss that growth doesn't always have to happen by title. Growth can happen by impact and by responsibilities and by situations.
00:25:10
Speaker
um And for me, you know, ah I've had a few instances this year. um It's been a rough year personally, but I found myself in that year invited into a lot of rooms where, know,
00:25:25
Speaker
the um The people I'm surrounded by ah very successful. They're very good at what they do, very inspirational. And I'm starting to take note that I keep getting invited into these rooms.
00:25:38
Speaker
But i also, i don't have that fire in my stomach to, you know, chase being a VP or a CHRO or anything like that. But clearly some people see something in me that I need to tap into.
00:25:55
Speaker
But for me, the way I learn and and, you know, I went to college, but I dropped out, you know, before becoming a police officer. So going back to that story, like I dropped out after six months of going to university.
00:26:06
Speaker
It wasn't for me. That style of learning wasn't for me. I am someone that learns best by doing and by being shown. um And then just, you know, getting good at it, repeating it, and then I have it down.
00:26:18
Speaker
And that was basically how you got trained as a police officer in the UK. You did... 18 weeks intensive training, 12 weeks with a tutor. And then you spent the next year and a half getting real life experience doing the job. And then you'd sign off on a vocational qualification that said this person has completed their two years probation. They are qualified to be a full police officer.
00:26:39
Speaker
So like you went through that process and that suited me because that's how I learned. And and i have ye my first seven years, I had really good mentors. I had really good teams, not just from my leaders, but to people I work alongside that complimented me and gave me the chance to show what I could do or even show myself what I could do.
00:27:05
Speaker
And i think, when I have the right leader that's going to trust me or maybe even push me into that role that maybe I don't feel I'm ready for, but that I'm suited for, I'll know when that happens, but it's not something I go chasing, if that makes sense. That's a long-winded way of going about it, but...
00:27:25
Speaker
No, it makes a lot of sense. And it's really, you know, i think in many ways, you know, like when the question like, would you see yourself five, 10, 20 years, it's really also so many variables, so many things can change. It's like, you know, let's let's just do good work. Let's grow on what we're doing. Because, you know, I don't know, I'm one of those people, I've had a lot of like, well, who the heck knows, you know, things can change. Yeah. You never know know like how many of us expected what happened five years ago. Exactly.
COVID-19's Impact on Work Perspectives
00:27:49
Speaker
COVID was going to completely not just change our own lives, but professionally in HR, change the way people look at jobs and consider jobs.
00:27:57
Speaker
Very, very much so. Yeah. So no, I appreciate that approach. So um the last big question I have for you is, you know, um kind of want to hear, you know, if you could leave everyone who's watching and or listening to this, a final call to action, a really big tip, um you know, you the most actionable idea, whatever, I guess, you know, well that big parting thought when it comes to human resources, talent acquisition, engagement, et cetera, what is the one thing you want to tell people that they need to know or they need to do?
The Value of Workplace Recognition
00:28:29
Speaker
I think my approach to HR and the thing that has best served me, especially from my engagement days, is that at the end of the day, people just want to know they're making a difference.
00:28:44
Speaker
And I think the real value in rewards and recognition isn't the gift cards. It isn't the plaques. It isn't the trophies. They're thatre they're great, right? It isn't necessarily even just the promotions, right?
00:28:58
Speaker
I think we are so quick to coach people and to tell them what they're doing wrong that we forget to tell them what they're doing right. And I think there is so much value in recognition.
00:29:14
Speaker
that we've become disconnected from by chasing money behind it. I think the true value and recognition is free and that's just letting someone know that they've done a good job and that they're making a difference.
00:29:27
Speaker
That is absolutely fantastic. um And I appreciate you. This was this was great. um So I guess for folks, if they want to stalk you online, I'm assuming they can ah find you on LinkedIn.
Connect & Engage on LinkedIn
00:29:41
Speaker
Yep. um it's It's my full name. It's it's Jamie Amis. It's a pretty individualized name. It's not a common last name. It's definitely a common first name because the amount of times I get called Miss Jamie in emails um or it gets spelt the J-A-M-E way, um but it is J-A-M-I-E-A-M-I-S.
00:30:00
Speaker
ah You can follow me on LinkedIn. And and You know, I try to be active every so often on there, but I really love the fact that LinkedIn is a way for us to share ideas and to learn from each other and the diversity of thought that comes with it.
00:30:14
Speaker
ah And we will be sharing this video on LinkedIn when it's done so we can share those ideas too. So Jamie, thank you. Thank you so much for joining me today. um Really appreciate you. You are one of our our early guests. So really, really grateful to have you here, especially since, ah you know, you had no idea what the heck you were getting into. no um it's been fun.
Closing Remarks & Call to Action
00:30:34
Speaker
brilliant. So um everyone, thank you so much for joining us for Mustard Hub Voices from the Frontline. um Please like, share, subscribe, all that kind of good stuff.
00:30:45
Speaker
And please visit mustardhub.com. Right now you can go there, sign up and get started for free. ah Thank you all so much. Until next time.