A Culture of Sharing
One of the things our engineers value is the fact that they are part of a team of incredible engineering professionals, with vast experience, who they can call on if they need a hand. We’re often asked HOW we manage to build this culture of skills sharing when our team members are seconded with clients around the country. Here are some of our tricks …
Skills Survey
Our Skills Survey is a complex interactive database that means we can see at a glance who has what experience across different aspects of mechanical engineering and what level of experience they have … as well as who would like to develop experience in certain areas. This survey is done regularly, to ensure we’ve always got an accurate snapshot of our team’s skill set, and to help us place the most appropriate engineers on each project.
This skills sharing initiative benefits our engineers (they can find mentors within the team, mentor others within the team, and spot skill gaps that they’d like to develop); our clients (they get the right engineer for their specific project and that engineer can tap into the knowledge base of the Caliber team if required); and our business (we can see the skill set of our team at a glance, ensure we maintain a wide skill balance, encourage skill sharing, and deliver on our purpose of delivering the best solutions in the world and to provide NZ engineers with world class experience).
Webinars
“Learning is a must” is one of our company values that we staunchly adhere to. We hold regular inhouse webinars. These are opportunities for experts within the team to share their skills and knowledge, for us to ensure that Caliber standards are understood and maintained, and to support our engineers with their ongoing professional development. Some webinar examples include:
• machinery safety
• task and productivity hacks with macros
• checking your FEA results best practice in different CAD packages
• analysing welds
• best logbook practice
• meshing tips for structural FEA
We have considered opening these up to clients and other interested parties. If you’re interested, drop us a line.
“Show & Tell” Buddy System
We’ve also started a new “show & tell” initiative, where different engineers are buddied up each month to discuss/review each other’s projects. This gives our team members more insight into what their colleagues are working on, creates opportunities for collaborative problem solving, and means that, despite working remotely from each other, our engineers develop relationships and a sense of belonging within Caliber.