How Knorr-Bremse Improved Hiring Quality and Workforce Stability Across Global Manufacturing Operations

Knorr-Bremse is a global market leader in braking systems and safety-critical subsystems for rail and commercial vehicles. Headquartered in Germany, the company operates more than 100 locations worldwide, employing highly specialized engineering, manufacturing, and quality professionals across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

As a safety-critical industrial manufacturer, Knorr-Bremse places exceptional importance on precision, reliability, and compliance—not only in its products, but also in its people.

Across multiple regions, the talent acquisition team faced several complex hiring challenges:

• Inconsistent hiring quality across plants and regions
  Engineering and manufacturing roles were filled using different sourcing approaches, screening standards, and market assumptions, leading to uneven on-the-job performance outcomes.

• High cost of early attrition in technical roles
  Early-stage attrition among plant engineers, quality specialists, and maintenance leads had a disproportionate operational impact due to long ramp-up cycles.

• Limited visibility into talent availability for specialized skills
  Skills related to mechatronics, embedded systems, braking technology, quality assurance, and industrial automation were scarce, but data on regional supply was fragmented.

• Compliance and documentation pressure
  Hiring processes needed to align with internal audit requirements, works council expectations, and regional labor regulations—making ad-hoc sourcing and screening risky.

• Difficulty aligning hiring managers on role realism
  In some locations, expectations around skill combinations and compensation were misaligned with local market realities, resulting in stalled hiring efforts.

Knorr-Bremse needed a solution that could standardize hiring intelligence, reduce quality risk, and support data-backed workforce decisions—without compromising governance.

Knorr-Bremse implemented Lightpoint as a talent intelligence and decision-support layer across selected engineering and manufacturing roles.

Rather than focusing solely on speed, the deployment prioritized quality, predictability, and compliance.

Key solution components included:

• AI-driven talent market mapping
  Lightpoint analyzed regional talent pools for specialized engineering and manufacturing skills, helping TA and HR leaders understand true skill availability and competitive pressure.

• Standardized candidate evaluation frameworks
  AI-supported screening introduced consistent criteria for assessing experience depth, technical relevance, and career stability across regions.

• Quality-of-hire signal analysis
  Historical hiring outcomes were used to identify patterns associated with stronger on-the-job performance and longer tenure.

• Early risk indicators
  Lightpoint highlighted candidate profiles with higher likelihood of early attrition based on role mismatch, career trajectory, and market dynamics.

• Structured insights for hiring manager alignment
  Data-backed insights enabled more productive conversations with plant leaders around role scope, compensation positioning, and feasible skill combinations.

The platform integrated with existing hiring workflows and reporting structures, ensuring transparency and auditability throughout the process.

Within the first two hiring cycles, Knorr-Bremse observed improvements that went beyond traditional recruiting metrics.

Key outcomes included:

• Reduction in early attrition for technical hires
  Improved role–candidate alignment led to a measurable decrease in first-year attrition across selected engineering and plant roles.

• More consistent hiring outcomes across regions
  Standardized screening and market intelligence reduced variance in hiring quality between locations.

• Improved hiring manager confidence
  Plant and engineering leaders reported higher confidence in shortlists and fewer downstream performance concerns.

• Better workforce planning accuracy
  Realistic talent availability data enabled more accurate headcount planning and reduced last-minute hiring escalations.

• Stronger compliance posture
  Structured, documented decision-making improved readiness for internal audits and regulatory reviews.