Vollrath partners with Lakeshore College for staff training

Heather Graves

Staff

August 26, 2024

NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – In today’s economy, businesses of all sizes are facing their own unique challenges and opportunities regarding building and retaining their skilled workforce.

Quality, productivity and safety, Lucas Dulmes – associate dean of economic development at Lakeshore College – said are paramount 

Expanding the skillsets of that workforce to keep pace with the industry and company goals, Dulmes said, is critical.

“It’s important, especially in today’s atmosphere and job market, to upskill your workers,” he said. “Because the labor force looks the way it does today, employers are realizing more and more they need to hire individuals for the soft skills they have and then train them up on those hard skills once they get into employment.”

That is where Lakeshore can contribute, Dulmes said.

Through the Workforce Solutions division, he said the college partners with regional employers to train their workers in whatever areas they need – including manufacturing, leadership, quality and safety.

Supporting employers through the Workforce Solutions division, Dulmes said, provides companies with options.

“In today’s labor market, being able to offer specific options to employers and their employees, to begin looking into is important – whether that is them sending a couple of individuals to Lakeshore for specific courses or programs or having that option of providing training to a larger group at their place of employment,” he said.

The Vollrath Company

One such company utilizing the resources provided by Lakeshore, Dulmes said, is The Vollrath Company – a full-service product solution company headquartered in Sheboygan.

“We have worked with Vollrath in the past for contracted customized training,” he said.

This time, however, Dulmes said, the connection came from the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation.

“They were looking at exploring certain grants to increase productivity at their locations,” he said. “The Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation referred them to us because every year we can apply for what’s called the Workforce Advancement Training grant.”

Hulmes said Lakeshore met with Vollrath leadership, including Maureen Lee – senior human resources business partner – to gather more details on what the company was looking for in terms of training. 

“We decided to move forward and write that grant with Vollrath, and ultimately, we were awarded the grant,” he said.

Lee said thanks to the grant and its partnership with Lakeshore’s Workforce Solutions division, 479 Vollrath employees will be provided with 700 hours of training.

The $86,000 of training, she said, will focus on manufacturing, leadership, quality and safety.

“It will help employees become more skilled at meeting industry challenges and better prepared for leadership roles,” she said.

Lee said having the trainings take place at Vollrath visually shows employees that the company is committed to them.

“We’re bringing people in, meeting people where they are, rather than making our employees take those extra steps to figure out what their schedule looks like and how they might get to Lakeshore,” she said. “We want to show that we’re invested as an organization in them, and we’re trying to make things better for them to have access to this training.”

Training curriculum

Hulmes said developing the training curriculum was a collaborative effort between Lakeshore and Vollrath.

“Each instructor teaching those classes will communicate with the supervisor at the location and talk about what the specific needs are for the company,” he said. “They will then tailor those needs specifically to the classes they are teaching.”

Some of the activities included in the trainings, Dulmes said, will include enhancing skill sets, equipping managers with meeting facilitation tools, educating employees on problem-solving techniques and creating a positive company culture. 

Other areas of focus, he said, will include Lean Six Sigma training, blueprint reading and hand tool and forklift training.

Training started this month and will run through May 2025.

In terms of when each training will take place within each department of Vollrath, Dulmes said that will again be a collaborative decision.

“We meet with each individual area of the plant to determine when they want those specific classes to start,” he said. “Then we have that schedule set based on the shifts they’re looking to prioritize.”

Hulmes said most of the trainings will take place during the first and second shifts.

“There will be some third-shift trainings to allow those workers on that shift to still be able to come into work and take those specific classes when they normally would be working,” he said.

Those participating in the trainings, Hulmes said, have been determined by Vollrath.

“During the conversations with Vollrath, they identified several individuals they would like to receive these specific types of training,” he said.

For some of the leadership courses, Hulmes said, Vollrath is focusing on supervisors and plant managers, while the safety trainings will be geared toward everyone.

Hulmes said most trainings will take place at Vollrath’s Sheboygan manufacturing location, with some taking place at its Kiel facility.

Overall, Lee said the goal of the trainings is to increase engagement and provide employees with a level of confidence in their role – in turn, improving employee retention at Vollrath.

“We want people to be engaged, and a lot of that has to do with, do they have the right tools to not get frustrated by not knowing how to do something?” she said.

Lee said one of the main things Vollrath is trying to accomplish with this training is getting everyone on the same foundational level, “so we’re communicating with consistent language.”

“We have a lot of tribal knowledge here – we have a lot of great tenure at Vollrath,” she said. “But as our workforce gets older (and the younger generations start transitioning in), there is sometimes a gap in the communication.”

The grant and the partnership with Lakeshore, Lee said, provides Vollrath an opportunity to start from a common foundation – “not only in terms of skills but the language we are using related to those skills.”

“There’s an excitement and certainly an understanding that this is a great step forward to get everyone on the same page of understanding and having the basic tools to do their job,” she said. “There’s definitely been excitement around the efficiencies we think we’ll see.”

Lakeshore, Lee said, has always been a great resource for area businesses – adapting as needed to support the needs of each business.

“I think it’s very much a two-way street,” she said. “They’re willing to be flexible, and as an employer, we need to make sure (our) best practice is to promote education and skills for our employees. It’s a great symbiotic relationship.”

More information about Lakeshore’s Workforce Solutions offerings can be found at gotoltc.edu.

For more on The Vollrath Company, visit vollrathcompany.com.