Radio Ad Succeeds for Shop Seeking Staff: Five New Hires This Year

We make note of Matt Guse’s recruitment efforts from time to time. The owner of MRS Machining is blessed to oversee a thriving contract machining business, but he is routinely challenged to find enough employees to staff his rural Wisconsin shop. In his attempts to meet mechanically adept young people who might succeed in the work of CNC machining, he has undertaken efforts we’ve reported on including joining the school board, hosting annual tours of his shop, supporting a local high school manufacturing program and even refereeing football.

His latest successful tactic: radio advertising.

He says, “One of the gentlemen I referee football with works for a radio station. He told me to run a radio ad. At first I thought it was not a great idea and that it would be very expensive. But it didn’t cost very much, and in one week, we had more people reach out to us to apply than we might have gotten in a year’s time previously.”

The radio spot cost MRS about $3,000 for 3 months of running on the air. It ran on various stations owned by Mid-West Family Broadcasting in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He and the broadcasters developed the script together, and their voice talent recorded it. Here is the ad:

Mr. Guse says, “When we first ran the ad in December for one week, we got six calls,” but none led to a hire. Then, “When we aired it for a week in January, we got 12 calls and hired five people from that.”

He has stopped running the ad for now, because responding to the inquiries is time-consuming, and five new hires is sufficient. But he expects the impact of the ad might continue.

“Most who contacted us said they didn’t know we existed,” he says, even though his company is long-standing, successful business in Augusta, Wisconsin, an area not heavy on manufacturing. Now, no doubt many others have become aware of MRS Machining who perhaps have not yet made contact.