As demand for skilled workers continues to grow, Engauge Workforce Solutions and Rely Contract Manufacturing have both seen a boom in demand for their unique approach to sourcing and training manufacturing employees.
The sister companies, owned by family members Kim Korth, Erin Greenwald and Katie Malnight Meisinger, along with one non-family member, work in tandem to tap into underutilized populations of workers.
Rely Contract Manufacturing, which is headquartered in Menomonee Falls, is a contract manufacturer specializing in value-added services including wire harnessing, packaging, sub-assemblies and third-party sortation.
Rely helps manufacturers equip future employees with a set of skills tailored to their specific business needs. Engauge, also located in Menomonee Falls, then works to place those employees in a permanent position.
“I believe staffing companies should have one of the most positively profound impacts on communities because of how many companies we work with,” said Malnight Meisinger, chief operating officer at Rely. “The majority of staffing companies have actually bastardized it.”
She transitioned from the manufacturing industry to the world of staffing nearly a decade ago, looking to “break the mold” when it comes to how a traditional staffing firm works. This meant shaking up who was trained for manufacturing roles and how.
Malnight Meisinger helped Rely and Engauge establish partnerships with Wisconsin’s Karen and Rohingya populations of Myanmar more than eight years ago.
Since then, 13 local manufacturers have invested in training this new population of workers. Those same companies are often able to fill second and third shifts quickly.
Engauge and Rely act as an extension of a manufacturer’s operational team, Malnight Meisinger explained. Employees receive training related to each company’s specific product catalogue.
“We have people that are fully trained in every position on the line,” she said. “It helps significantly with the retention piece.”
When Engauge places a newly trained worker with a local company, the firm makes sure that more than one translator is available. The goal is to have three or four bilingual workers per department on each shift. Then, less fluent English speakers can slowly be brought on.
This is particularly important with populations from Myanmar because there are seven different dialects spoken.
“You could have seven different people that can’t say anything to each other because it would be like someone who’s speaking French speaking to someone who’s speaking German,” said Malnight Meisinger. “It wouldn’t work.”
Finding relevant skills
The recruitment and training Rely and Engauge provide is only successful if manufacturers re-examine their hiring process.
Several of the immigrant populations that Rely trains gained relevant job experience in their home countries that might not necessarily be uncovered through a traditional hiring process.
“HR managers will walk through (Rely) and say, ‘Oh, my God, this is great. I would have any of these people at my company.’ I’ll say that’s great, but do you realize not even one of these individuals would get through your hiring process?” said Malnight Meisinger.
Requirements like a high school diploma aren’t always relevant to the hard skills a company needs, she explained.
What’s more important is matching an employee’s experience and interests to the appropriate company – a process Malnight Meisinger said can be similar to matchmaking.
For example, the Burmese Karen and Rohingya populations often spend time in Malaysia working as welders before making the move to the U.S. This means they can often pick up brazing quickly.
“Finding welders is hard enough. Finding second shifters is hard enough. Finding second shift welders is ridiculously hard. You’re able to fill a gap with a skill set that people already have,” said Malnight Meisinger.
Burmese populations also have the advantage of typically having smaller hands and better dexterity, making them invaluable to projects that include building wire harnessing.
As manufacturers continue to electrify their products, wire harnessing will grow to be a “huge skill set” that’s missing at most companies, according to Malnight Meisinger.
“When we tap into other populations, we really want to understand what environment they are going to be in and what type of work they’ll be doing,” she said.
New facility
Rely grew 230% year-over-year in 2024 due to its ability to scale more quickly and efficiently than competitors, according to Malnight Meisinger.
To accommodate this growth, Rely is opening a new manufacturing facility just up the street from the company’s existing Menomonee Falls location at N59 W13500 Manhardt Drive.
Rely, which currently occupies a 17,000-square-foot facility, will have 52,000 square feet of new space. The additional space will quadruple production capacity. With a larger facility, Rely will also be able to handle larger products.
The new facility represents an investment of approximately $7.5 million, which includes the cost of leasing the new space, planned capital expenditures and new technology.
If the company keeps pace with its current rate of growth, Rely will be able to add 250 new positions throughout the next seven years. That would bring the company’s headcount to 300 people.
The new facility will be fully operational by November, and Rely has already started moving new production lines into the space for major companies, like Whirlpool, that are shifting some manufacturing work back to the U.S.
Despite the current political environment surrounding immigration, Rely and Engauge have not seen any decrease in demand for their services.
Malnight Meisinger said she’s yet to speak with anyone who is “passionate” about disliking immigrant workers. Instead, more immigration will be needed to support the country’s manufacturing industry, she said.
“We need to figure out how to allow immigrants into the country the right way, because the numbers of visas that we allow has not gone up for decades, even though our population increased dramatically,” Malnight Meisinger said. “That’s not going to sustain the amount of manufacturing that Trump wants to bring back to the U.S.”
