By Kevin Femal
Marketing & Industry Awareness Committee Member
EMS Industrial, Inc.

Since today’s marketplace has oftentimes been labeled the “Great Resignation,” companies need to dial up the focus on training their employees more than ever. This is true for several reasons. Let’s start with the current wage dynamic across the globe. All companies have been forced to examine their current wage scale to ensure they’re competitive in their respective markets. In many cases, companies are giving out more or larger raises than they’ve been accustomed to in an effort to stay competitive. This goes for both retaining and attracting talent. After the dust settles on the process of giving larger or more frequent raises, the company now must shift gears to strategizing on how the company can afford to give those larger or more frequent raises. The answer is greater productivity. And as much as we’d love to snap our fingers to increase productivity by 10%, the true answer lies in a company’s ability to train its workforce. With a greater focus on training, companies can increase productivity, which can far exceed the cost of increased wages.

Another reason training needs to be a larger focus in the current climate is because our employees are asking for it! McKinsey & Company, one of the world’s most renowned businesses in researching employee thought processes, recently conducted a survey of roughly 14,000 employees who left their job. The survey focused on why people quit their job in the past 12 months. The No. 1 reason for employees leaving their company, even above total compensation or a bad boss, was the lack of career development and advancement. Many EASA members will struggle with a plethora of career advancement opportunities yet nobody can make an excuse for struggling with development. Development is training. Our employees are asking us to develop them, teach them more and allow them to give more back to the business. And tying in the first paragraph of this article, we would gladly give our team members more substantial raises if we knew, as a business, their output or productivity would increase because of it. Let’s give them the tools to do so!

Where does EASA come into this equation? The great thing for all EASA members is we get the opportunity to take advantage of a large catalog of industry-specific content. Once on the EASA website (easa.com), click the Training tab on top to unlock a wide range of content suited for technicians, machinists, managers, marketers, inside sales and outside sales.

• Monthly Webinars: Each month, EASA hosts a monthly webinar for 30 minutes plus Q&A time, which is designed to help train our teams. Topics vary from fitting a sleeve bearing to a remote condition monitoring overview to converting motors from horizontal to vertical mount. And remember, they’re recorded in case an employee can’t view the day of the webinar.
• Seminars: EASA offers outstanding 2-day seminars around the country focused on repair team development. Topics that will be tackled in the upcoming nine months include Mechanical Repair Fundamentals of Electric Motors, Fundamentals of DC Operations & Repair Tips, Fundamentals of Pump Repairs, Principles of Medium and Large AC Motors and Root Cause Failure Analysis.
• Currents: Each month EASA distributes Currents, a publication aimed at giving you industry updates, training content, technical articles, a list of new EASA members and a list of EASA chapter and regional meetings.
• Tech Tips: In today’s world, everyone enjoys concise content. Similar to a toolbox talk topic, tech tips are designed to give your team a quick reminder or an easily digestible fact. You will find these tech tips in both EASA’s emails and monthly editions of Currents.
• Training Films Archive: One of the most underutilized training tools is EASA’s archived training films. These films cover 25 different topics that will help to develop even the most tenured of technicians.
• Past Convention Presentations: Many forget that EASA keeps all of their past convention presentation material. This material is great for sales, management, technicians and machinists. Within two minutes of scrolling, you will see 3-4 training materials that can benefit your team today.
• Private Webinars and Seminars: EASA will even offer private seminars to companies, EASA Chapters or EASA Regions. Topics range from motors to pumps to vibration/ balancing to marketing and sales.