The Importance of a Learning Culture

  • Date: August 24, 2017
  • Posted by:Jeannine Kunz, Vice President, Tooling U-SME

“Culture will eat strategy any day of the week.” That’s a quote by management guru Peter Drucker quoted by another leadership expert: Kevin Martin, Chief Research Officer of i4cp and our 2017 tuX keynote speaker. See his entire presentation here.

At the event in May 2017, Kevin went on to say, “Unless your culture supports your strategy, your strategy is not going to execute at all. It's going to implode. What does it take to really drive culture? You need leadership behaviors that exemplify the culture. It’s the leader behaviors at the executive level, but most importantly at the mid-level and front line leader level, that make the biggest difference.”

Read More.

Community Partnerships Address Skills Gap

  • Date: August 09, 2017
  • Posted by:Gretchen Shultz, Director of Workforce Development, Tooling U-SME

Many manufacturers face a dual challenge: They are losing business because they can’t find qualified workers to produce the quality products customers need and expect, and they have to turn new business away because they don’t have the capacity to complete the jobs.

This quandary was reinforced at our tuX event this spring when nearly one third of attendees said they do not have access to enough skilled workers to meet their needs. Almost everyone (98 percent) either needs help or is only moderately successful at closing their technical skills gap. Read More.

5 Reasons Training Must Go Beyond Onboarding

  • Date: August 08, 2017
  • Posted by:John Hindman, Director of Learning Services, Tooling U-SME

Happily, we see the industry embracing onboarding as a way to quickly and effectively shift new hires to full productivity. We applaud companies that are implementing a formal training approach at this important time in an employee’s lifecycle.

But training can’t stop there. Too often, after successful onboarding, training falters. Employees are left to navigate a web of informal learning and development tactics in the form of job shadowing and tribal knowledge sharing. Read More.