Continuing Education: Beneficial for Employee and Employer

Investing in the development of equipment-reliability professionals is a win-win proposition and a key element in sustainable operations.

By Jane Alexander, Managing Editor

The late internationally acclaimed self-help guru and best-selling author Stephen Covey listed a compulsion to “sharpen the saw”—meaning a drive to improve oneself—as one of the seven habits of highly effective people. “Sharpening the saw,” however, is becoming a challenge for many people across industry today, given the cuts in discretionary spending on training/education, fact-finding and benchmarking that countless companies have made.

John Ross and Rinnette Lowder of Marshall Institute, Inc., assert that those types of cuts—which might have seemed fiscally responsible at some point—have begun to dull senses, stunt intellectual growth and reduce worker potential. They say that the practice of building knowledge and skills of industry personnel is losing ground as a core competency. That’s bad news for companies wanting to achieve and/or maintain world-class status.

Ross and Lowder believe that one of the best ways to grow the talent and knowledge of a professional workforce is through continuing education. Organizations that dedicate resources to continuing education form a mutually beneficial relationship with their employees. Employees view it as an opportunity to boost income potential, increase feelings of self-worth, become more engaged in the bigger purpose of the organization and present themselves as ready to learn and grow. Employers, in turn, are viewed as strategic planners in a fluid and unstable world, and employee-focused.

Doing what it takes
Readers of this magazine know that maintenance workers are constantly adapting to meet the demands of a more globalized and technology-driven workplace. Yet many are still challenged to justify and increase their worth to their organizations, and survive future downsizings by adapting to new jobs and positions. Multitasking and taking on additional responsibilities, though, exposes knowledge and skill gaps. While furthering his/her education may reflect a worker’s adaptability, work ethic and eagerness to grow, learning, by itself, isn’t enough. Learning must bear fruit through the demonstrated competency of the new knowledge gained.

Organizations that invest in continuing education often have higher employee retention—and by retaining what can become higher-caliber employees, businesses can become more competitive. According to the American Council on Education, continuing education and opportunities are cited as the second most significant reason employees stay with their current jobs.

With the growing industrial sector—and too few workers to fill too many critical roles—the value of developing skilled trades has become painfully clear. As a result, continuing skills-based training has become more important than ever for companies everywhere. The high-performing ones, according to Ross and Lowder, assess their skilled-workforce capabilities and develop a future-state goal. This factors into a gap-analysis to find the holes and leads to a tactical plan for improving and meeting strategic goals.

While a common metric indicates that the best companies invest in 100-120 hours of actual skills-based training each year, there’s no comparable measurement for world-class adherence to advancing the skills of leadership and middle-management groups in their growth. How do individuals in these categories—specifically equipment-maintenance and reliability professionals—sharpen their saws today?

Establishing the business case
Ross and Lowder explain that in the most basic change model, any movement from the status quo to the vision has to demonstrate an understandable value to the employee (W.I.I.F.M. or What’s In It For Me). It also must clearly describe the return on investment (ROI)—in economic terms—for the company. A compelling case for continuing education must include both W.I.I.F.M. and ROI.

They also say that a proposed level of adult education has to appeal to the professional—it must inherently “speak” to the employees and assure them they will benefit from the knowledge gained. Companies, on the other hand, expect a dynamic learning environment and course material that gives their employees (and by association, the company) a competitive edge.

Many companies, as Ross and Lowder note, view their employees as their number-one resource. Investing in the professional development of those resources demonstrates that value. Organizations that don’t invest in a growth strategy for their primary resource are making two bets: One is that such investment is unnecessary. The other is that their competitors aren’t already doing it.

High-performing, highly effective companies share a common interest when it comes to their professional workforces—the development of knowledgeable, skilled, professional employees. As a company seeks to develop a position on continuing education and build a business case for it, Ross and Lowder encourage them to ask, “Is our organization operating off of what people ‘knew’ or what they ‘know now,’ and are learning even more about it everyday?”  MT

Where to Learn

The following two leading educational institutions have developed standout diploma-series studies designed to meet the needs of today’s maintenance and reliability professionals:

The Reliability and Maintainability Center (RMC) at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (rmc.utk.edu) offers educational opportunities for undergraduate students, graduate students and working professionals. At the undergraduate level, these include a Minor in Reliability and Maintainability Engineering, a Certificate in Reliability & Maintainability Engineering, and internship opportunities to gain experience in reliability and maintenance. The programs are offered through on-campus and off-campus distance-learning, along with various seminars and short courses.

North Carolina State University (onece.ncsu.edu), in partnership with Marshall Institute, offers a three-week diploma program designed to develop maintenance and reliability knowledge and sharpen leadership skills. The program uses real-world examples to provide practical knowledge and skills applicable in any plant or facility.

Dr. John Ross, CMRP, is a Senior Consultant with Marshall Institute, Inc. (marshallinstitute.com), and Rinnette Lowder is one of the Institute’s Instructional Designer.