Challenge

When the Alber Enterprise Center met with Ken Jackson, Human Resources Director of Triumph Thermal Systems in 1999, the company was facing a troubling challenge - 40% of its manufacturing workforce was scheduled to retire within two years. Not only were their best employees leaving, “bumping rights” allowed existing workers to move into vacant positions… and other workers to move into newly vacated positions. The Company desperately needed a solution that: 1) captured the worker expertise and wisdom before it left the building; 2) used that information to create “expert” training materials and associated HRD tools; 3) quickly implemented the structured on-the-job training program; 4) complied with their ISO certification program. They needed all of this yesterday.

Solution

The Alber Center partnered with Proactive Technologies, Inc. to quickly job/task analyze the job classifications, in order of the scheduled retirement dates, for best practices, work performance standards, prerequisite skills and abilities, and other criteria. After the data was reviewed for accuracy by the incumbent experts and management, PTI immediately developed the tools for the human resource development process including job descriptions, structured on-the-job training manuals, training checklists for both new hires and incumbent workers, procedural manuals and other tools to manage the process. Training progress was tracked and reported monthly to Triumph management along with the change in “worker, department and company capacity.” Triumph management could now make management adjustments based on movement of personnel to maintain performance levels. To enhance the process, onsite core skill training was delivered to support the structured on-the-job training, including welder training, safety training, lifting devices, blood borne pathogens, and other manufacturing related coursework.

Results

This approach is exactly what our company needed”, said Ken Jackson. “We kept critical expertise from leaving with our retirees, some of who came back as trainers to train younger workers to their level of expertise. The Alber Center and its team were vital to making this happen.” Already 19 people have received certificates of job mastery for the job classification for which they were trained; around another 20 employees have mastered 90 percent of their job-tasks. Eighteen of twenty-one manufacturing jobs have workforce development programs established. Triumph Thermal Systems continues to implement and expand this approach to train new workers, cross-train incumbent workers, process improvement and facility design planning.