Success for your organization in 2017 and beyond will require a honing of skills and technical expertise. A training development program brings all employees to a higher level, so they share similar skills and knowledge which will produce a higher quality of work produced by those who complete basic work tasks as well as those who perform complex procedures. Employees with access to the appropriate technical training and development programs are far better off than the employees in other companies who are left to seek out training opportunities on their own.
Impact Employees Where They Are
Providing the necessary training raises the overall knowledge level of processes, procedures, techniques, and best practices for your maintenance staff. Employees can cross-train and take over for one another when needed, work better within teams or independently as required. It’s a huge win for your organization at the shop floor level. Investing in employee training shows them they are valued, appreciated and working in a supportive workplace.
Employees can renew their arsenal of available tools through refresher training. Time is changing technology, time erodes memory, and often personnel have advanced beyond their initial training. When experienced people attend fundamental training, they bring into the class real world experiences rather than hypothetical scenarios. The result is often deeper training for both the novice and the seasoned professional.
As an individual reading this, you need to know that if manufacturing is your career path, you must continue to gain and improve technical skills or you will be replaced by someone who possesses the requirements of the job. The skills you’ll need to gain must be practical, immediately useful and use the most current technologies and methodologies available to solve the needs of your role, organization or customer. Once you’ve identified an applicable training needed to improve safety, accuracy, reliability, uptime, first-time production output, lower operating costs, or save time, it’s time to get training.
The Selection of a Training Partner or Program
The quality of technical skill development depends on the selection of a training provider where confidence through competence is imparted to the participant. Another measure of quality training is the depth of subject matter knowledge and the interest or passion infused into the teaching delivered by field-experienced, certified professionals. To receive the most benefit from training, it is suggested that technical knowledge is applied through the appropriate methods of hands-on, controlled and safe real-world machinery to ensure mastery.
Why Companies Don’t Invest In Training
Technical training presents an opportunity to develop the knowledge base of all employees. Employers cite two main reasons for not engaging in skills training and development:
1. Expense
2. Employees miss work to attend training which creates a backlog of work
In truth, despite the potential downsides listed above, skills training and development provide the organization and the individual employee with immense benefits that more than make up for the resources invested.
Improve Employee Morale
Investing in employee training enables them to perform their job safely with competence (often translated into expedience), and accuracy. What company wouldn’t want that? As maintenance personnel become aware of safety practices, proper procedures for tasks, realizing their readiness to perform the tasks, there’s a confidence achieved and a stronger understanding of their industry and the responsibilities of their job. When an employee is confident, they just perform better and begin to share their knowledge of industry development with continuous improvement ideas. This is where you’ll find your leaders in the organization, and they will drive your maintenance program improvement and become your competitive advantage within the markets you serve.
Find out more about how IVC Technologies can meet your organization’s technical skills training and development needs today.