Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Growing Your Force!

Conventional wisdom says you hire people whose experience and training matches the skill you need. But, when those needs shift, productivity (and morale) tend to fall off.

It seems that every few weeks, we find another story about the challenges of finding qualified people for technical positions. Well here’s one with solutions that are low-cost and yielding high returns: Internal workforce development.

You may have a success story of your own, but you can also take the example of Diemasters Manufacturing in Elk Grove Village. They created an internal training program that gets their people “working on the system, not just in the system.” It may sound like a Lean initiative, but is far more focused on people than on procedures. The result is a better trained (and engaged) workforce. And it helps getting those specialty positions filled.

You might have success stories of your own. Read more about the new issue of MetalForming Magazine.