MACH 2026 Pioneers Employee Engagement
- Kathy Ratcliffe
- May 7
- 3 min read
Updated: May 8
There are two kinds of workplace - commercial and industrial, often characterised as white-collar and blue-collar. That differentiation implies a colonial bias that sticks around even in today’s age of diversity, inclusion and equality. While recent years have seen white-collar communities shift towards remote working and flexibility, skilled engineers tied to production lines are pushed harder to compete with foreign powers, the conditions under which they work demanding, unyielding and pressurised. To make matters worse, management styles have held fast to modes of authoritarian control.
The industrial community is more than ready for change. Made in Britain used to be a symbol of excellence but tides have turned towards cheap imports and the sector suffers as a result. In the meantime, people are looking for a role where they can be the best of themselves, enjoy working life and feel proud of the brand they represent so they can fulfil their own dream of being valued for what they do well.
Going back 150 years, the Industrial Revolution set benchmarks in hard discipline, restrictive practices and ‘there’s-the-door’ creeds; the only methods known when commerce was running off the back of the slave trade; no-one had heard of workplace engagement, autonomy or cultural health. The idea that a worker gets paid for their time “and should be glad of it” is still prevalent in a sector that now needs, more than ever, a workforce that is staunchly on its side. A workforce that's tired of traditional tyranny.
Rarely would a leader look after a worker’s welfare, help them fulfil personal needs and support their family commitments. Today, these things are baseline priorities in terms of what an employee is seeking, and the kind of criteria they emphasise now is very much aligned with cultural motivation.
"Understanding how important it is for industrial companies to raise the bar on people-centric strategies, we're pleased to be hosting the first public forum on workplace engagement in the UK at MACH 26,” said James Fudge, Head of Operations at the Manufacturing Technologies Association who run the biannual show at the NEC. “As the largest exhibition in the country dedicated to the sector, we recognise that breaking new ground on what really matters to engineering and manufacturing leaders is very much part of our remit."
Widely respected as the largest expo of its kind in the UK, MACH is entirely independent of the media conglomerates behind most shows of comparable scale. With the future of British industry at heart, the focus of the MTA is dedicated to advancement across a range of partner associates and trade bodies. Breaking ground in employee engagement by showcasing the subject on its speaker stands for the first time at a sector exhibition, MACH lays a strong foundation for modernising protocols and raises the profile of people-centric strategies.
Disengaged cultures cost the economy dearly, and Britain has one of the worst records internationally on employee engagement.
The UK is the 12th largest manufacturing country in the world, with an engineering workforce at the core of commercial output supporting a wide range of enterprises in innumerable ways. But ranking 34th of 40 countries on engagement, we clearly struggle with future-fitness. Harvard and Gallup have estimated the cost in this country alone to be in the region of £300billion p.a..
This year, for the first time ever, major exhibitions have found a place for employee engagement on their speaker platforms. A panel will be taking questions from the audience at SubCon in June; with MACH breaking that ground in April, these developments speak volumes on the importance of workplace welfare, placing it front and centre of industrial attention at last, and enabling leaders to confidently pursue strategies in cultural advancement.
Manufacturers and their engineering allies urgently need to get themselves future-fit with stable cultures that embrace human need, prioritise employee welfare and raise productivity to pinnacles of excellence. Made in Britain can be amazing again, with a little imagination and a lot more faith in its own capability.
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Here's a little snippet to show what I was up to on the MACH platform;
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