If you’ve spent time on other contract manufacturing websites you’ve seen the language: “expertly trained staff” or “dedicated staff,” etc. You’d be hard pressed to find one who wouldn’t boast a highly trained staff. Co-packers and co-manufacturers have to train their employees to get certifications and to retain the trust of the marketplace.
But once you’ve been certified it’s enough, right? Why spend the resources, especially in this economy, on training that no one can “see” the effects of?
We’ve been trying to change the conversation. Instead of thinking about training as the “bare minimum,” or a “necessary evil” we think of it as an important component of our value proposition – one that differentiates us thoroughly from our competition.
We feel so strongly about this that we mandate 225 hours of training per employee per year.
What types of training do our employees receive?
We offer a 3-tier, on-going training program that we require of all our employees. This includes:
- English as a Second Language training
- Target talks (which cover essential responsibilities for doing specific tasks more effectively and efficiently)
- Quality control (to develop strategies to avoid “internal deviation” from the customers’ expectation)
We also want to give our employees a chance to communicate with each other and us – outside of work. We promote solid communication up and down the corporate ladder and have an open door policy. We ensure that they can look to us for support – whether it is work-related or not.
What do we have to show for it?
We’ve been in this business a long time. And yes, like everyone we’ve made errors. But as of today we’ve blended, dried, processed, and mixed 120 million pounds of ingredients without deviation or complaints from our customers. We also run three shifts a day and can get a campaign launched in 24 hours – well above industry standards.
We are also audit ready. Right now. Go ahead and test us by stopping by. We think you’ll notice how good the place looks – and how our core values (honesty, integrity, family, and hard work) shown in the work place.
Because of our commitment to our people, our customers have experienced increased flexibility and improved client service, lower turnaround times for their campaign launches, and fewer deviations. We don’t have to train our employees this much, but we simply can’t ignore the benefits.
And we are happy to report that our employees are happy! We boast a less than three percent employee turnover rate – four times lower than the industry average.
Now the words “expertly trained” have a new meaning.