This week’s #WorkforceWednesday features Steve Fisher, President and CEO of Novelis, Inc., which is using classroom coursework, coaching, and on-the-job projects to develop talent and opportunity for its employees.
Steve Fisher explains:
“Boosting engineering skills and experience is a critical need at Novelis and throughout America’s economy. Novelis is dedicated to providing high-quality training and development opportunities to help recent graduates jumpstart successful careers in engineering and advanced manufacturing.
Here’s a look at a few ongoing workforce development initiatives led by Novelis and CEO Steve Fisher. Additional information can be found here.
The Problem
Engineers are at the forefront of developing and delivering new products for Novelis customers. However, the American Staffing Association Skills Gap Index identifies engineering positions as one of the hardest-to-fill occupations in the United States. With a number of recent expansions at Novelis, engineering bench strength is critical to maintaining a leadership position in the aluminum industry.
The Programs
In order to grow talent within the organization, Novelis created the Engineering Development Program (EDP), a curriculum structure that consists of four, week-long classroom sessions held at locations around the globe. These classroom meetings give engineers exposure to Novelis’ top engineers as well as other participants in the program, fostering a community of collaboration and camaraderie while building a global mindset and network early in their career. Upon completion of the program, Novelis works closely with each participant to provide a clear career path that aligns his or her interest and Novelis’ business needs across automation engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, process engineering, and environmental health and safety.
The Progress
Novelis’ EDP has become an important and effective recruitment and retention tool that continues to deliver for employees and the company:
- The EDP program has graduated 350 early-career engineers in the six years that the program has been in existence.
- Through this program, Novelis has been able to fill the engineering pipeline, which enables engineers at all levels of the organization to move into roles that interest them either laterally or through promotions and helps fill the pending retirement cliff.
- This program has proven to accelerate the development of an early-career engineer as it provides him or her with knowledge of the end-to-end manufacturing process and an understanding of how his or her role aligns to it.
To learn more about workforce development initiatives led by Novelis and other Business Roundtable CEO member companies, please visit: https://www.businessroundtable.org/skills.
