Expanding Worker Skill Sets

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Provide employees a plan for ongoing development

Is there value in giving individual workers additional skillsets to maximize your workforce? Yes. Craft workers with unique skills contribute to your corporate brand and ultimately your bottom line. Plant shutdowns and jobsite weather delays are good times for training to take place. But if that training is compliance-based only, the effort will produce fewer long-term positive results for your company. Instead, increase operational efficiency by using strategically trained workers to expand their skills. According to software developer Zenefits, this is one of the top 10 ways to improve employee efficiency.

“Forcing employees to learn their jobs on the fly can be extremely inefficient. . . take the extra day to teach them the necessary skills to do their job,” states the blog article on Zenefits’ website.

According to Zenefits: “Helping employees expand their skillsets contributes to a more advanced workforce. There are a number of ways you can support employee development: individual coaching, workshops, courses, seminars, shadowing or mentoring, or even just increasing their responsibilities. The results are employees who are more efficient and productive.

At CIS, trainers and inspectors have training and technical credentials and on-the-job experience. They understand how machinery works, from education, military training and or field experience. They can all operate equipment with proficiency. Our welders are experienced in steel erection. Our crane operators are certified. The skills are imperative, but just as important, is that our trainers understand their connection to our company strategy and the customer’s company strategy. Our employees know what folks working around them are doing, and they understand the challenges of each other’s trades.

Getting to this point means that we assess our employees for gaps in skills and provide them the tools to fill those gaps. That’s the same approach we encourage our customers to take. It’s a long-term approach to employee development.

Plant shutdowns and jobsite weather delays provide time in the schedule to take advantage of training. To make the most of it, be ready to conduct a thorough assessment of the skills gaps in the workforce, in the context of the company’s annual strategic plan. Here are a few tips for integrating strategic training and assessment in your operations:

  • Start by assessing, planning, engaging, and training crews to the current goals and necessities of the organization.
  • Assess workers and identify their skills gaps.
  • Fill those gaps with specific, meaningful training.
  • Evaluate a worker’s knowledge base and write prescriptions for further necessary training for that specific person.
  • Have half a dozen key executives each take one overview course in crafts essential to their industry so corporate leaders can develop a clearer sense of how to plan and connect to workers.

Training that is directly related to organizational goals, and that improves the skills, safety, and productivity of workers, will be of far greater benefit to your operations in the long run than simply performing compliance-based training