Employee Retention in Manufacturing: How Reducing Physical Strain Helps Keep Skilled Workers

With 1.9 million manufacturing jobs at risk of going unfilled by 2033, employee retention in manufacturing has become as important as hiring. Flexible scheduling and skills development are well documented retention levers. Another one sits on the plant floor: the physical demands of the job itself.

High physical demands push experienced workers out of the workforce early, and every departure puts a replacement into the first year on the job, when injuries cluster. This article covers what that cycle costs, how to find it in your own data, and which ergonomic equipment takes the strain out of the work.

Why employee retention in manufacturing matters more than ever

Manufacturers could need as many as 3.8 million new employees between 2024 and 2033, according to Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute. As many as 1.9 million of those jobs could go unfilled if skills and applicant gaps are not closed. In the same release, 65% of respondents to the National Association of Manufacturers’ Q1 2024 outlook survey named attracting and retaining talent as their primary business challenge.

Every skilled operator who leaves has to be replaced, and replacement is expensive. Gallup puts the cost of replacing an individual employee at one-half to two times that person’s annual salary and calls that a conservative estimate. Gallup also found that 52% of voluntarily exiting employees said their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving.

On retention specifically, the Deloitte and MI research found that nearly half of the manufacturers surveyed named flexible work arrangements as the most impactful lever. Employees who feel they can build future skills are 2.7 times less likely to leave in the next year. Physical work design belongs in that conversation too, and it is a lever a plant can pull with equipment.

How physical strain pushes experienced workers out

The evidence is clearest for the people a plant can least afford to lose. A 2021 prospective study followed 2,800 Danish workers aged 55 to 59. Those in the most physically strenuous jobs were 33% more likely to stop working before age 65 than those in mostly seated jobs. The result held after adjusting for income, education, prior sickness absence, and other factors.

The study, published by Sundstrup and colleagues in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, names lifting devices as one way to reduce that exposure. It also cites earlier research in which senior workers in physically demanding jobs said they would stay longer if the work were less strenuous.

When those operators leave early, their knowledge of the parts, the fixtures, and the problem solving that keeps a line running leaves with them.

The scale of strain-related injury goes well beyond older workers. Private industry recorded 937,620 musculoskeletal disorder cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer across 2023 and 2024, according to the National Safety Council’s summary of BLS data. Of those, 484,620 involved days away from work. The NSC notes that musculoskeletal diseases and disorders typically result from prolonged exposure to repetitive tasks, exertion of force, or awkward postures.

Turnover and injuries feed each other

Turnover does more than add a recruiting bill. It changes who is doing the work. In a study of 1.5 million workers’ compensation claims from 2015 to 2019, Travelers found that 35% of injuries happened during an employee’s first year on the job. Overexertion was the most common cause of those first-year injuries, at 27% of claims.

So each departure from a strain-heavy job puts a new hire into the year that accounts for more than a third of injuries. If that hire gets hurt or burns out, the position turns over again. That cycle is where employee retention in manufacturing and safety become the same problem. Our article on injury risk for first-year employees covers that risk in more depth.

The cost compounds. The NSC estimates the cost of a medically consulted work injury at $48,000 in 2024, counting wage losses, medical and administrative expenses, and employer costs. When an injured worker does not come back, the replacement cost Gallup describes comes due as well.

How to find where strain is driving turnover

Most plants already have the data. The work is putting it side by side.

1. Map turnover by job as well as by department. Pull separations and absenteeism for the last two to three years and sort them by job, line, and shift. Look for the jobs where people leave or call out most.
2. Overlay your injury records. Add OSHA 300 log entries, first aid visits, and near-miss reports for those same jobs. Look for strains, sprains, and back, shoulder, and neck complaints.
3. Read exit and stay interviews for physical reasons. Comments about pain, fatigue, or a job being too hard on the body point straight at the work. Gallup found that 51% of departing employees said no manager or leader had talked with them about their job satisfaction or future in the three months before they left. Ask current operators before they decide to go.
4. Walk the job. Watch for bending to reach a part, lifting from floor level, twisting while carrying, holding a part in place while working on it, and reaching overhead. Our guide to ergonomic hazards covers what to look for.
5. Ask operators which task they would fix first. NIOSH recommends that workers and supervisors evaluate controls on a regular basis, so bring operators in before the equipment is chosen, not after.

Fix the job, not the worker

Job rotation spreads strain across more people. Engineering controls reduce or remove it at the source. In the NIOSH hierarchy of controls, engineering controls rank above administrative controls such as job rotation, and above PPE. They change the equipment or workspace instead of depending on people to work around a hazard.

Match the equipment to the strain you found:

• Bending and reaching to work on a part. A work positioner holds the part and brings it to the operator at the right height and angle. Our guide to the three types of work positioners explains how manual, motorized, and programmable models compare.
• Lifting and carrying parts or totes between stations. Compact lift transporters such as the Ergo Tranz®, a compact hand truck with battery-powered lift, take the strain of manual lifting off the operator. They accept standard and custom end effectors for totes, rolls, and other parts.
• Working at the wrong height all shift. Telescopic lift systems such as the Ergo I® lift columns raise the work to the right height and can be operated by hand pendant, foot pedal, or PLC input.

Ergotronix positioners and lift transporters are operator-controlled. They take the weight and the awkward positioning out of the task, and the operator keeps the skilled work.

What operators say once the strain is gone

Equipment only helps retention if the people using it want it at their station. Customer feedback on Ergotronix equipment points that way.

At Sikorsky Aircraft, Senior Manufacturing Engineer Joe Weisbruch reported that one operator called the Ergotronix positioning equipment there “one of the best tools he uses within the entire company.”

At Polaris, Controls Engineer and Project Coordinator Rick Enger described moving a large, heavy product that “has always been physically challenging and required two people.” With the Ergo Tranz® in place, he said, “just about anyone can handle this job without assistance.” He added, “All of our operators love using the Ergo Tranz® unit.”

At LA-CO Industries, where staff lift and pour 90-pound pots of hot liquid up to five feet off the floor, Floyd Palmer said: “The workers like working with the Ergo Tranz®, it has increased efficiency, and most importantly, it has made this operation very safe.”

The Polaris example matters for hiring as much as retention. A task that used to take two people became one that more of the workforce can do.

Build the retention case with your own numbers

Leadership will ask what the equipment pays back. Build the answer from figures you already track:

• Turnover cost for the target job. Multiply departures per year by your replacement cost. Use your HR team’s figure, with Gallup’s range of one-half to two times salary as a cross-check.
• Injury cost. Total the workers’ compensation claims and lost days tied to that job over the last few years.
• Productivity cost. Add the overtime that covers absences and the output lost while new hires come up to speed.
• Equipment cost. Include the purchase, installation, and operator training.

NIOSH notes that engineering controls can cost more up front than administrative controls or PPE, while long-term operating costs tend to be lower, especially when one control protects several workers. Our framework for ergonomic lift equipment ROI walks through the calculation.

Then pilot one station. Measure turnover, absenteeism, recordable injuries, cycle time, and operator feedback before and after the change, and let the results make the case for the next station. Good ergonomics equals good economics.

Start with the job people leave

A practical place to start on employee retention in manufacturing is the job people leave most. Pick the station with the highest turnover and the most strain complaints. Send us what the operator handles there: part weights, working heights, and the moves the job requires. The Ergotronix team will help you find the equipment that takes the strain out of it.

Start making your factory safer. Schedule a consultation to review the job.