Morris University

In business today it's not enough to have great products and procedures. In order to thrive, companies must have committed and knowledgeable employees. Morris Group Inc. came to this realization and took bold steps to ensure that its employees have the necessary educational resources readily available.

Morris Group Inc. operates 13 subsidiaries supplying machine tools, tooling and accessories, applications engineering, machine tool service, maintenance and financing to customers in the eastern half of the United States. What began originally in 1941 known as The Robert E. Morris Co. has grown into a solid performing group of companies with more than $300 million in annual revenue. The Morris Group was built upon strong and enduring values that continue to guide all Group companies today, including treating customers, principals, suppliers and employees with respect, humility, and honesty.

The Morris Group continually seeks new ways to provide better service and value for customers and suppliers. Last year, a survey conducted of manufacturers represented by Morris unveiled an important discovery — many of those surveyed are using Tooling U, the leading online trainer to educate employees in a variety of disciplines. This was an important finding for the Morris Group. Longtime consultant Mike Whitney was tasked with finding a solution that would help employees learn more about the products they were distributing and servicing. Whitney turned to Tooling U as a basic building block in creating "Morris University."

Originally, the Tooling U content was intended for just 40 select employees. Once word spread through the company that Morris University existed everyone wanted an opportunity to advance their industry knowledge base. Now, every Morris Group employee is enrolled in Tooling U training courses.

"With the limited number of skilled personnel who can be hired to contribute to Morris achieving its strategic objectives we have decided to grow our own," said Whitney. "Tooling U has been a solid base for us to build upon to accomplish this home grown objective."

Now, Morris University has become a regular part of the Morris' employees' work experience. Morris University is comprised of more than 70 courses, 28 of which are from Tooling U. Tooling U courses range from Introduction to Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing to Metal Removal Processes and Introduction to Six Sigma.

Both company and employees are benefiting from tangible results with incoming customer calls being handled with better efficiency, orders packed more accurately and troubleshooting becoming less time consuming. In response, customers are demonstrating loyalty with more machine orders and requests for other services. The total education curriculum is designed to build a robust value delivery system that benefits Morris customers and suppliers.

"The Morris Group has gone from 320 employees to 500 while we have been offering Morris University and Tooling U courses, since 2010," said Whitney. "This fact alone makes our investment worthwhile in order to achieve a common baseline of technical knowledge for all Morris employees."

Interestingly, Morris University also provides a platform for the human resources department and company supervisors to measure employee's dedication to expanding their knowledge base. Having a dedicated educational program also helps with recruiting new and retaining existing employees.

The investment made by Morris Group in its own in-house educational training and development program sends a clear message from management to employees — "we want you to grow and thrive here at Morris Group Inc."