0’s are the target group. These are the people who have vast experience and knowledge in the steel making industry, gained over many years and they have now been removed. The challenge is to replace this knowledge in a short space of time.The average age has been lowered by 10-12 years since the implementation of team working, this reduction in age has highlighted the reduction in knowledge and experience of the remainder posing a further and future problem that the age range of those employed is such that they will all leave the industry at or around the same time. The cycle will start again unless there is intervention to bring about change.TrainingTraining of the individuals that are left needs to be urgently considered. As stated previously the lack of training over the last few years and the changes that have taken place have led to a deterioration in plant operational performance. This poor performance is unsatisfactory and is incurring costs to the process. The cost of training is not quantifiable, is seen by other organisations as a benefit but at present to corus it is a burden to costs and as such has not been pursued. This ‘benefit’ has now been realised by senior management and the re-instatement of a Training Owner for plant and the re-launch of the Investor’s In People initiative should be the start of an increase in performance. The HR function for their part are required to implement and continuously apply the new recording system required to follow this scheme up. This is not just for plant requirements but also for legislation such as COMAH, (Control of Management and Change) where there is a requirement to be able to identify an individual’s competency in the job that he is doing.Critically, we as an organisation should be looking at the theoretical side of how to implement training programmes, studying the likes of ‘Kolb’s learning cycle’ to ensure thorough un...
