HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF TRAINING YOUR STAFF

Snyman, T.J.
Training Manager, NCS Resins, PO Box 392, Pinetown, 3600. Tel. (031) 713-0614. E-mail: trevors@ncsresins.com

ABSTRACT
The Composites Industry, like many other in South Africa, suffers from a shortage of skilled workers. The shortage is not in people to fill the positions of Laminator or Supervisor, or Foreman, but in the skills that these people have in doing their jobs every day. Why should we train our staff? Surely we can expect that they will do their jobs better as they get more experience at doing it? Surely they will learn from their mistakes, or from their colleagues of Foremen on the shop floor? Training your staff not only shows them how to best do their work, it also shows them how to do the best quality work, how to do the most productive work, how to do the most consistent work. Quality, productivity and consistency are three important parts of the vocabulary of any business, so training staff to address these three areas is of great importance to the business. So how can you, as a Composites manufacturer, get the best out of training your staff?

REASONS FOR TRAINING

Firstly, you should decide why you want to train you staff. Do you want to see quality improvements? Do you want to see less wastage in your plant? Do you want to produce more products every day? Or do you want all of these things to improve?

WHAT TRAINING DO YOU NEED TO DO?

Once you have decided why you need to train your staff, you need to decide what training you must do to meet your objective. Thus, if you need to see an improvement in quality, what needs to be done to see this improvement? Do you need to show the laminators better ways of laminating resins and glass? Do you need to show them how to calculate the right quantities of resin and glass? Do you need to show them how to do overlaps on the product? Have they ever seen what a good quality product looks like? The best way for deciding on what training needs to be done is to carry out what is known as a Gap Analysis. A Gap Analysis is simply a measurement of the differences between what you want your staff to be able to do, and what they are able to do in practice. So, if you want your laminators to make products that all weight 5 kilograms, and they actually make products that weigh 6 kilograms, you need to develop training that will show, them how to reduce the amounts of resin and glass they are using. Once you have shown them, and have demonstrated that it is possible to make a product that weighs 5 kgs, you should test them by allowing them to make a product under your supervision, and you should show them anything that they do wrong whilst they are doing it. You should allow them to do the practical test a number of times. This is known as assessment, and it measures not only the knowledge that you newly

Proceedings of the 2nd Biennial International Composites Africa ISBN Number: 1-920-01720-8 Proceedings produced by: Document Transformation Technologies cc

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trained staff have about reducing the materials that they use, but also their competence in making the product using their new knowledge. To carry out a gap analysis you need to break down the work that is done in your plant into small parts as follows: Cleaning a mould. Applying release agent to the mould. Calculating how much gelcoat to weigh out for the size of the mould. Weighing out the gelcoat. Reading a data sheet to find out how much catalyst needs to be added to the gelcoat being used. Working out how much catalyst needs to be added to the gelcoat. Adding the catalyst to gelcoat. Mixing the gelcoat. Applying the gelcoat to the mould. Leaving the gelcoat to cure. Etc. Training to ensure that both knowledge and competence are the outcomes of your training, is the best way for ensuring that training is effective.

HOW TO DO THE TRAINING

Whilst it might be pretty simple to decide what training needs to be done, actually doing the training is a different matter. Few production-oriented people are able to effectively develop training materials for shop floor workers. Many questions arise when you start to develop training for staff. Some of these are: How do I measure if they understand what they are being taught? How will I know that they will be able to do what I teach them? How will I explain to them what they have to know and do? Modern training in South Africa is carried out on the basis of outcomes that trainees are expected to deliver, and specific outcomes that they are expected to know. Doing the training for shop-floor staff therefore requires standards against which trainees can be measured. In our country, these standards are known as Unit Standards, and they describe in simple language what trainees (or Learners as they are known) Companies should find these standards, and should plan to train their staff to meet their outcomes.

SUMMARY
To get the best out of training your staff, you need to know and do the following: Decide why you need to train. Break down the shop floor activities into small parts. Decide which of these small parts are not being done as your require. Decide what training you need to do to correct this Decide how to do the training.

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HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF YOUR TRAINING

Few companies realise the value that training adds to their businesses, and as a result they do not train their staff because: They do not know how to. They do not know what to do. They see training as a cost and not as a value-add. They cannot afford for their staff to be away from work for even short periods of time. Let us deal with these issues one at a time.

They Do Not Know How to

This is a problem that is common to all composites manufacturers. No formal institutions exist for the training of composites operators. Each company is expected to source its own training providers, or to do their own training. What is needed is a training institution that is able to provide short courses of both an academic and practical nature to provide training that is specific to the composites industry. In the interim, composites manufacturers are advised to contact the writer for advice on where this type of training can be found.

They Do Not Know What to Do

Over the past three years a series of Unit Standards have been written for the composites industry, and are now available as a formal national qualification in composites manufacture. These standards provide the detailed outcomes that workers in the industry need to demonstrate if they want to be considered to be competent and knowledgeable in their work. These standards can be found on the website of the South African Qualifications Authority by following the path: http://www.saqa.org.za and by using the searchable database to look for unit standards on Composites. These standards address all of the different parts of composites fabrication, and are a fine starting point for training of workers.

They See Training as a Cost, and Not as a Value-Add

Training is always going to cost money. It should be seen as an investment in the business and not as a nuisance cost to be borne. The Skills Development strategy that has been adopted by South Africa demands that companies pay a levy each month to the SARS to fund training. This is a cost to companies. In addition, the costs of sending staff on training escalate what a company has to pay each year for training. Many companies cannot afford these costs, so they opt to pay the skills levy as an additional form of tax, and then spend no more money on training. Companies can, however, recover the biggest part of their training costs, including the skills levy that they pay, by doing three things, namely: 1. By appointing a person, either on staff or from an outside training provider, as a Skills Development Facilitator for the company. 2. By preparing a Workplace Skills Plan that shows what training the company plans to do for its staff in the year that follows. This plan is simply a record of the training that was worked out in section 2 above. 3. By delivering the training that was written in the Workplace Skills Plan. These three things will allow your company to claim back 60% of the levy monies paid into the SARS during the year.

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In this way training done for your staff during the year can not only improve their skills but can allow you to plough your levy money back into training in the next year. Rolling your money over from year to year to give your staff skills that will improve your productivity, quality and consistency, that will reduce your waste and improve your cost-efficiency, is an efficient way for getting the best out of training your staff.

LEARNERSHIPS
Learnerships are structured learning programmes similar to apprenticeships of old. They contain a classroom learning component and a practical component. Shop floor workers can be placed on Learnerships by their companies, and can receive the training in their workplace. Consultant Training Providers can be appointed to provide the classroom training and the practical training, with all of the training paid for by the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) that the company belongs to. The payment is made from the National Skills Fund (NSF) that exists to cover the costs of training that is seen as a national priority in the industry sector where company operates (the Composites sector in our case). Companies do incur some costs of the training, but can recover these costs from the NSF. In addition to having training paid for, companies who enter their employees onto Learnerships can have some of the costs of training re-imbursed from the NSF if the training that is done addresses a sector skills priority. A further incentive for entering employees onto Learnerships is the fact that for every employee who is registered on a Learnership, the company can claim a substantial tax rebate. On completion of the Learnership, the company can claim a further tax rebate.

SUMMARY
Companies can benefit from training by: Appointing a Skills Development Facilitator for the company. Preparing a Workplace Skills Plan that details the training that will be presented to staff in the following year. Doing the training that is detailed in the plan above. The benefits that can be enjoyed are: Provided that the training that is done meets the outcomes of registered Unit Standards, companies can claim back 60% of the skills levies that they paid during the year. Improved skills of the staff, which in turn will provide benefits in the form of improved productivity, quality, cost efficiency, consistency. If employees are entered onto registered Learnerships, companies will benefit from improved skills, and can, in addition, claim significant rebates in taxable profits.

CONCLUSION
Companies can get the best out of training their staff by becoming part of the Skills Development programmes that exist in South Africa today. For more information on the above, contact MERSETA on the following: E-mail: info@merseta.org.za Telephone: 011 492-1533 Facsimile: 011 492-1542 6th Floor Metal Industries House 42 Anderson Street Johannesburg

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PO Box 61826 Marshalltown 2107 For assistance with training of laminators contact: Trevor Snyman Training Manager NCS Resins PO Box 392 Pinetown 3600 Telephone: 031 713-0614 E-mail TrevorS@ncsresins.com

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