Carmeuse Trains Over 30 Thanks to Going PRO Talent Fund Award
In 2019, Carmeuse Lime & Stone was awarded over $44,000 in Going PRO Talent Funds. They utilized these funds to help train 35 existing employees and hire and train 6 new workers.
Carmeuse HR Manager Erika Comerford states, “GPTF funding has been a critical component of our training program. With so many new employees, we have a lot of skills and concepts that need to be introduced or taught, and without the extra man-power internally to help expedite this learning curve, we rely heavily on third party vendors to help. Good quality training, however, typically comes with a premium price tag, and as such, is often not heavily utilized as a result. The Going PRO funding has allowed us to be able to offer high-quality, relevant and needed training resulting increased productivity from our employees.”
She continues, “About half of our workforce has 5 years or less of experience "on the job". It takes years to learn some of these skill sets and the "tricks of the trade", but unfortunately, with a lean workforce, time and man-power is not on our side. Our ratio of highly skilled, experienced employees to new, less experienced employees is about 1:4 in some departments. We need employees to be able to learn quickly and build upon their skill sets so that they can help contribute to the productivity of the plant, and there just aren't enough people internally to facilitate the training efficiently (as they still need to perform their jobs in addition to training). We rely on outside trainers to help with the process, which is costly. Fortunately, Going PRO funding helps alleviate some of that financial burden and expedite training. Thanks to the Going PRO award, we were able to train over 30 of our employees to help learn new or enhance current skill sets that resulted in them being able to be more versatile, productive employees.”
The employees who received training ranged from entry-level new hires, to 20 year experienced operators. The training, for some, resulted in a wage increase of over $2.00 per hour due to learning a specialized skill. Training focused on welding, crane operation, bearing/conveyor maintenance, and aggregate certifications, in addition to new hire development training.