Weyerhaeuser Trains 50 Thanks to Going PRO Talent Fund Award
Weyerhaeuser HR Manager, Jessica Mika, knows that building Weyerhaeuser staff skill sets is critical to support their capital projects and allow their mill to continue to be a strong business influence in their community. Over the next several years, they anticipate five to ten retirements each year, and they have hired over sixty new employees in the last five years. Several of these positions are their most technical and managerial roles within the mill. Weyerhaeuser continues to prepare for additional departures by developing strong succession plans, which include extensive training and expertise to be obtained by their workforce.
Working with Michigan Works! Northeast Consortium, Weyerhaeuser secured $44,321 in Going PRO Talent Fund awards, which they used to train 50 of their staff. Training included smoke school, several levels of programmable logic, and first responder.
“Going PRO dollars assisted Weyerhaeuser in providing training to over thirty of our employees in 2019!” reports Jessica Mika. “Training ranged from improving our Emergency Response support at our mill by increasing the number of qualified Medical First Responders that we have onsite to increasing the skill set of our Operators and Maintenance staff in Allen Bradley troubleshooting.”
She continues, “As a result of these Going PRO Funds, we were able to improve the safety of our mill and impact the development of the technical abilities of our employees. The funds from Going PRO have supplemented our Training Programs for several years and we appreciate that the State of Michigan supports these efforts!”
The lengths of employment and rate of pay varied among the trainees, but the starting salary for entry level positions is $16/hr.
In addition to this Going PRO award, Michigan Works! has assisted with other collaborative grants to further Weyerhaeuser’s skills in Root Cause Analysis and 6 Sigma Green Belt Lean Manufacturing. Weyerhaeuser has also participated in several Michigan Works! On-the-Job Training contracts and sat on a panel discussion with Michigan Works! staff on collaborative training at the Michigan Works! Association’s Annual Conference.