When Arthur Johnson joined U.S. Robotics about 11 years ago, the Skokie-based company was still a start-up operation, making computer modems for a small but growing consumer marketplace.
The software engineer dived immediately into the front lines, writing operating programs for most of the company’s products–one of many high-tech jacks of all trades in a company that thrived on its flexibility and fast response to change.
Today Johnson is still on top of his game, but only because he trains hard to keep up with new technology, evolving computer programming languages and changing customer needs. U.S. Robotics has grown into a communications powerhouse with 6,000 employees, manufacturing and marketing a broad range of high-tech communications tools, and just keeping track of the diverse products lines takes up time.
“Ongoing training is one of the most important aspects of my career,” he says. “The company is in one of the most competitive technology fields and it is critical to stay ahead of the curve.”
From DOS to Windows to Windows NT operating systems, from C to C++ programming languages, Johnson has had to change with the company. He spends at least one week a year in formal company training–off-site courses and in-house seminars–but lots of other hours in less formal sessions–learning from other engineers fresh out of advanced technology training or jobs with subsidiaries acquired by the expanding corporation.
“A lot of training is passed on from engineer to engineer–hands-on, on-the-job stuff that they have learned elsewhere,” Johnson says.
“As the company acquires new product lines, everything changes, software has to be rewritten, strategies change. I have to change, too.”
New technology isn’t the only challenge. Johnson has an eye on the next stage of his career–a shift from the research and development labs to marketing. And that job shift will require a whole new set of skills.
“I’d like to become the liaison between the company and the customer,” he says. “I’ve always been pretty good at explaining technology and there is certainly a need for people who can talk to customers and engineers. But I know that I’ll have to learn new skills. When I’m out there talking to customers, I’ll be representing U.S. Robotics and I’ll have to project the right image.”
High-tech companies take training seriously–usually budgeting from two weeks to one month each year to keep each employee sharp on the latest in technology. At U.S. Robotics, new employees begin with a one-week orientation and continuing employees regularly spend from one to three days being briefed on the company’s evolving product line–whenever a product is added.
As the company expands geographically, the training techniques also have evolved, notes Megan Crowley, a corporate trainer. Video teleconferencing has replaced on-site classes for many new product briefings, and eight technical courses are now on the Internet, using the company’s own modems and interactive technology to allow employees around the country to learn new skills.
Tellabs, a Lisle-based marketer of voice and data communication equipment, also offers ongoing training for its 3,300 employees and is using Internet and Intranet technology to deliver information to all employees as they need it–just-in-time training, according to Steve Sellers, director of learning and development.
Intranet technology uses interactive programming similar to the global Internet, but hosted on corporate office networks. Employees in Tellabs offices can use the system to access product and technology information whenever they have a question.
“Our goal is to have information available to everyone at all times through the network,” he says. “In the world of technology there is tremendous pressure to get things done and not much time to arrange formal training sessions. Our Intranet provides information as they need it–technical manuals, human resources information and professional newsletters–at their desk.”
The company also uses CD-ROM-based computer training programs for specialized training and old-fashioned “chalk-talks” to let specialists share what they learned at conferences and seminars with other employees, he says.
Training isn’t limited to scientists and engineers at leading high-tech companies. Nanophase Technologies Corp. in Burr Ridge started shipping its new products derived from research conducted at Argonne National Laboratory only a year ago–and has been adding employees ever since.
“We’re hiring a broad range of employees from Ph.D.s to vocational school graduates,” says President Robert Cross. “Everything we do is so new, everyone has to be trained from scratch.”
College textbooks haven’t caught up with the company’s nanocrystalline powders that are used in everything from cosmetics to diesel engines. The only source of up-to-date information is the company itself and new employees spend up to four weeks learning about what the company really does–and what kind of performance the company expects.
“Our belief is that to accomplish our corporate goals, all of our people have to be working at their full potential,” Cross says. “Ongoing training is the only way to keep our people working at that level.”
General job skills, such as interpersonal communications techniques, have a long shelf life and can last a whole career, but technology training has a half-life like radioactive particles, shrinking rapidly in large increments, notes Elliott Masie, director of the Masie Center, a technology and learning think tank in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
“Technology is on a 29- to 36-month cycle. Unless a new employee has graduated from a top school in your field within the last 36 months, that person will have to be retrained completely in the latest technology.”
Companies can take one of three approaches, he advises:
– IV dripping, or continuous learning that gives employees a steady feed of the latest techniques and approaches.
– Velcro stripping, or attaching learning to employees whenever they change jobs, and requiring some sort of change every two to three years.
– Complete retooling, or stopping production by all or some employees to dedicate a period to full-time training.
Training doesn’t just serve employer needs. High-tech workers in transition, moving from job to job or field to field, also have a personal need to stay on the cutting edge, notes Bob Cassiani, vice president of the Derson Group in Chicago, an outplacement consulting company.
“Education is an ongoing process. It’s a school from which you never graduate,” he says. “Every worker in a professional field has to do whatever it takes to stay up-to-date in his or her field.”
