Wanted: A Good Fit

This section of the Canadian Welding Bureau Group’s Acorn course road map shows a five-step training plan for welders, with all of the training areas and specialties. Image courtesy of CWB.

If you are a business owner you know that finding the right people for your company can be challenging. Even when the pool of candidates is large, it can be difficult to get a real handle on someone’s true skills and knowledge.

Things we traditionally use to vet the quality of candidates can be hit and miss: Resumes, trade tickets, memberships, and schools they attended all have their issues as tools for measuring and assessing skills. The truth is, we all use these tools, but no single tool will provide a valid overview of a candidate’s actual skills.

Each and every one is subject to interpretation or misinterpretation. For example, you might know the school but not the instructor or program details. The candidate may have a ticket, but did he or she just squeak by on the test or pass it with flying colors?

How about resumes? Well, we all know they have their own set of issues as a real measure of candidates’ skills, knowledge, and experience.

To state the obvious, from a skills-trade perspective, we are lacking critical tools that can help us make smart hiring decisions. What we want to know is the quality of a candidate, without having the expense of testing on the shop floor or out in the field. At a basic level, what everyone is looking for is fit. Fit is everything – and it can be hard on both your wallet and aspects of your overall operation if the fit is not there.

Clearly, given a large enough pool of candidates, you will likely find one or two who, at least on paper, look to be a good fit. That said, while you might find a fit for a current position, it can be very hard to determine how a potential candidate will fit when the job inevitably changes, and he or she takes on new roles, more difficult tasks, and added responsibility.

What is needed is a road map that outlines where people can start in a trade and the path they can follow to get to somewhere else.

While the current model of training for a specific job might help meet immediate industry needs, it does not set up the candidate -- or the employer -- for future success, because once the training is done, it’s done, and employees are on your own. This method assumes knowledge is static, unchanging.

Unfortunately, change is a constant in business. Your business is going to change, as will the tools, technology, materials, and a whole host of other things your business depends on. Having access to training geared toward moving between the job functions within your industry is one good way to help future-proof your business, as is a system to benchmark and assess fit, encourage ongoing learning, and reward success.

An ideal system qualifies, quantifies, trains, tests, assesses, and rewards at all levels within trades-focused careers.

The good news is that CWB Group, as Canada’s nationally mandated welding oversight body, has through the work of the CWB Institute put together a new national program that fully addresses these needs.

Further, it has been done specifically for, and on behalf of, industry -- in this case, the welding, joining, and fabrication industry. This is big change, real change, and change that will happen nationally.

It is called CWBi Acorn, and it is coming soon to high schools, colleges, and trade schools near you.

Acorn can have a direct and positive impact on your business. One of your most valuable resources is your staff, so a program designed to help you assess fit and grow, manage, and reward your skilled employees is important.

Finally, just in case this sounds like a sales pitch, all this is free to industry; all you need to do is ask for it.

www.cwbgroup.org/acorn