In late October, 20 new employees from the Safety Division traveled to Düsseldorf, Germany, to speak with management and learn about the Division’s business, solutions, and structures, and its integration into the HOERBIGER Group. The three-day boot camp marked the kick-off for the Safety Academy, a new approach being pursued by the Safety Division for onboarding and for training its employees.
All new hires in the Safety Division will attend a boot camp to ensure they start working in their new area of responsibility with the same basic knowledge, and to meet their colleagues from other locations. Offering a multi-tiered training concept, the Safety Academy supports a fast integration of new colleagues into the team. In the boot camps, attendees learn about the entire Division, giving them an opportunity to gain a perspective of business outside their segment.
learn specialized knowledge
The knowledge employees gain serves as the foundation for as many as four additional training sessions, which new employees attend depending on their function and learn specialized knowledge, for example in areas such as Sales, Service, or Project Engineering.
The kick-off event with participants from nine countries was a milestone in our efforts to translate the concept into reality
“It is a central goal of the Safety Academy to systematically support our growth strategy. The Safety Academy will serve as a growth driver for us,” said Dr. Thorsten Kahlert, Head of the Safety Division. Additionally, the Safety Academy is a key tool for the Division to create awareness of ONE Safety. Both on an intellectual and an emotional level, new hires learn that they are part of a large team with a shared identity and culture.
additional training modules
The Safety Academy represents an entirely new training concept. Individual local training is being replaced with globally harmonized programs and content, forming a consistent basis for conveying knowledge. “The kick-off event with participants from nine countries was a milestone in our efforts to translate the concept into reality,” said Randy Davis, Head of the Explosion Protection Business Unit.
Additional boot camps will be held at three- to four-month intervals at locations of the Safety Division in Europe and North America. Management is planning to continuously expand the range and depth of the training offers. The Development Roadmap provides for the integration of additional training modules and online training sessions in the coming months.
systematically expand the program
“The boot camp in Düsseldorf was a significant step for the Safety Academy. We will systematically expand the program to prepare our employees for their tasks as best as possible,” explained John Shea, Vice President Marketing and Business Development of the Explosion Protection Business Unit.
The boot camp was overwhelmingly well received by the participants. Despite the challenging agenda, the atmosphere was great, and the attendees found the training content to be interesting and informative. “I learned a great deal about HOERBIGER and the Safety Division over the last few days. The key now is to build on the contacts made here, for example to exchange best practices. We can then better address the needs of our customers,” said Kirsten McCandless, Sales Proposal Specialist at IEP Technologies, LLC.