The Enlightened Employee Handbook
Orientation handbook helps workers teach workers everything they need to know about the company.
Web Industries' orientation handbook helps workers teach workers everything they need to know about the company -- in four weeks
"Training program?" everyone at the meeting looked at one another and exploded in a fit of laughter.
A training program? Right. Training at Web Industries Inc., a $20-million converter -- the company cuts materials into smaller sizes for manufacturers -- was like training at most small companies: nonexistent. People were thrown into their jobs, and most swam instead of sinking. Sure, supervisors showed them how machines worked, and someone explained the benefits package. Almost everything else -- from the vocabulary of the industry and the cost of the equipment used, to issues of corporate identity -- was picked up over the following months and years. With any luck.
The logic isn't unusual: fast-growing companies often don't think they have the time or the resources or the need for extensive training programs. But at Web, that kind of thinking began to change about two years ago. "One of the reasons is, we had a new general manager in Atlanta," says Charles Edmunson, Web's vice-president of manufacturing, based at the company's corporate office in Westborough, Mass. "He came in from outside the company, and unlike most of us, who'd worked our way up, he took over leadership at a high level without the roots."
Like other employees, that manager experienced a couple of months of mild confusion as he learned the business; he was one of the people who suggested a more methodical system. Web's managers began to acknowledge that although they thought they were too busy to provide training, they were spending the same amount of time later dealing with problems caused by lack of training.
After gathering a cross section of employees together to brainstorm about what a training program ought to include, Edmunson spent nights and weekends outlining a plan. Eventually, this is what he came up with:
* A system of 20 one-hour sessions, held one a day for four weeks;
* Teachers drawn from the staff, including general managers, plant managers, customer-service reps, machine operators, maintenance people, and office workers;
* A detailed written outline for both teacher and new company trainee.
"This program was built around the philosophy that we can spare any one person from the job we hired him or her to do, for an hour or two a month to be a trainer," says Edmunson.
On the following pages, using the summary page of the orientation handbook new employees receive, Edmunson talks about the content of the program, which debuted at the end of 1990, and its payoff to the company.
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WEEK ONE
WEEK TWO
WEEK THREE
WEEK FOUR
1.1 Welcome
Give Handbook
What We Stand For
What You Can Expect
What We Expect
Enrollment
Plant Introductions
2.1 Our Business
Review of First Week
Video
What Is Our Business?
How We Serve Our Customers
3.1 Growing Our Company
Review of Second Week
Growing Our Culture
Organization Chart
4.1 Your Future at Web
History of Web
Ownership
Participation
Empowerment
1.2 Your Job
Our Business
Job Description
Professionalism
Attendance Policy
Office Introductions
2.2 Teamwork
Building Teamwork
Team Learning
Shift Transitions
Housekeeping
3.2 Safety
Safety
Housekeeping
Organization of Machine Parts
4.2 Constant Improvement
Quality
Productivity
Creativity
Housekeeping
1.3 The Work Order
Importance of the Work Order
How to read a Work Order
Warehouse Overview
Uniforms
2.3 Math for Converting
Using a Tape Measure
Calculator Skills
Math Vocabulary
Core Cutting
3.3 Work Order Review
Converting Vocabulary
Labeling
How to Check Material
4.3 Math Review
Math Vocabulary
Tape Measure
Calculator Review
Core Cutting
1.4 Recordkeeping
Converting Vocabulary
How to Fill Out a Packaging Record
Using Our Scales
2.4 Packaging Standards
Types of Packages
Where Packaging is Stored
How to Strap a Pallet
3.4 Recordkeeping Review
Packaging Records
Offcut and Butt Roll Procedures
Office Uses of Records
4.4 Packaging Review
What Makes a Good Package
Stretch Wrapping
What Packaging Costs
1.5 Your Benefits
Pay Policies
Benefits
Insurance
Profit Sharing
Review of Handbook
2.5 Maintenance Awareness
Daily Maintenance
Correct Use of Tools
Keeping Things Clean
Cost of Machine Parts
3.5 How We Compete For Customers
Price and Productivity
Responsiveness
Quality
4.5 The ESOP
What is ESOP?
What You Own
ESOP Vocabulary
The Power of Ownership
A Detailed Outline
To make the teaching at each of Web's five factories more consistent, Edmunson wrote a detailed outline for each lesson, which gets passed out at the beginning of the sessions. Teachers are free to add their own examples and emphasize what they want, but are asked not to delete sections during their presentations. That, says Edmunson, helps keep the program from being too idiosyncratic. "As the program changes over time, we want to keep it documented, so we don't have people teaching whatever they think ought to be taught."
