Retaining through training

When I get a phone call about something I’ve written, I tense up a bit. That’s because the people who take the time to call are usually upset. It’s human nature when you’re mad about something you’ve read. If you’re not upset, you just turn the page. So when Marv Fieberg of PTooling, a machine shop in Ontario, called a few months back, I braced for the worst.

To my surprise, he was calling to compliment me on my July 2011 Lead Angle column. In the column, I discussed how, during the Great Recession, German manufacturers had sent their temporarily idle but well-paid employees back to school to learn advanced skills instead of laying them off.

Marv’s shop takes the same approach, investing in training for his employees and paying them above-market wages. Our conversation led to a profile of PTooling on page 38 of this issue.

At a time when North American companies are trying to attract new employees, it also makes sense to examine how to keep current employees on the job. Continuing education is part of that equation. Better-educated employees can do more, so shops can profit more, and employees can then earn more. It’s a virtuous cycle.

Smart shop owners recognize this and keep employees learning and earning. For example, in Contributing Editor Kip Hanson’s machine tool training article on page 78, he describes how one shop invested $12,000 in online training for 75 people. By the end of 2011, the shop had logged more than 5,000 training hours and completed 1,200 courses—after-hours with no effect on production.

Training is also a key part of new employee development. I’m not an education expert, but I’d suspect the initial training received by incoming employees plays a key role in their long-term perceptions of the company.

Perhaps that’s one reason DMG/Mori Seiki USA is investing in an elaborate apprenticeship program for incoming service technicians (see Industry News, page 21). In addition to traditional training, the machine tool builder plans to fly apprentices to company plants in Europe so they can see how its products are manufactured and serviced. On my first job, I was lucky to get a trip downstairs to fetch coffee for the boss—but that’s another story.