Chapter 7
Onboarding Employees at Ford Motor
Contributed By: Kristopher Kumfert, Human Resources Business Partner, Ford Motor
About the Author: Kristopher has 13 years of experience with Ford Motor, with a background in Security, Health and Safety, and Lean Manufacturing.
Kristopher’s Contact Information:
Ford Motor of Canada
Oakville Assembly Complex
905-845-2411, ext. 3626
[email protected]
Kristopher has obtained a Six Sigma Black Belt. Kristopher earned his BS degree in Administrative Studies from York University. He is currently an HR Business Partner of Salaried Personnel and Organizational Development at Ford Motor.
ONBOARDING NEW EMPLOYEES IN AN ASSEMBLY OR MANUFACTURING WORKPLACE
Ford Motor Company of Canada’s Oakville Assembly Complex is the world’s only producer of the Ford Edge, Ford Flex, Lincoln MKX, and Lincoln MKT crossover utility vehicles. The site encompasses 410 acres of land, and the six buildings cover over 6 million square feet of state-of-the-art flexible vehicle manufacturing. The 55-year old site includes its own daycare center and emergency response (fire and medical) department.
With over 3,500 employees on site, the orientation of new employees is a critical element of the operation’s success. The New Employee Orientation program was developed after a series of focus groups. In our focus groups,
Current Employees discussed their experiences and conveyed what went well, and what they wished their orientation had included.
Senior Management Leadership discussed the critical knowledge required for their own employees as well as internal suppliers and customers.
Senior Union Leadership discussed the orientation elements that would support an ongoing productive relationship.
With the feedback received from the focus groups, the current orientation program was developed. Some of the critical elements included:
Staggered learning between the classroom and the manufacturing floor. Focus group participants explained that many training courses were specific to the local manufacturing operation, and were best understood after seeing the operation for a short period.
Consequently, certain programs such as lean manufacturing and quality processes are taught in a classroom setting only after the new employee has had a prescribed amount of time on the manufacturing floor. This staggered learning enables the new employee to understand the training course in better context. This has led to increased training effectiveness.
Total understanding of the site’s operations. A flexible manufacturing assembly line that spans a 410-acre site is dependent on several functional areas and operations working together, and this is dependent on understanding one another.
As an example, Paint Operations is most successful when employees understand their internal supplier (Body Welding) and their internal customer (Trim Shop). Therefore, part of the new hire orientation includes a tour of the whole site’s operations, and a short time (1/2 day) working in each area. This has proved to be very effective in helping employees to understand the total system and how actions in one department affect others.
A FOUR-WEEK ONBOARDING PROGRAM
Week 1:
Onboarding paperwork
Corporate policies regarding harassment and discrimination
Computer resources training
Mandatory pedestrian, chemical, and general safety training
Week 2:
Total site tour
One-half-day work experience in Body, Paint, Trim, Chassis, Pre-Delivery, Material Handling, Quality Control, and Finance
Week 3:
In-class training (lean manufacturing, quality processes, scrap handling, proprietary information systems, safety auditing)
Week 4:
On-the-job shadowing
Focus group session with Human Resources to review orientation and readiness
Skip Level meeting with Plant Manager to obtain high-level leadership vision
OUR RESULTS
After the 4-week session, employees are ready to begin their jobs. Our program provides the opportunity for the newly hired employees to understand the total operation and learn the new skills required to be successful. Ford Motor has experienced a 24 percent improvement in Training and Development scores as measured by our corporate Pulse dimension. The success of the program is due in large part to the fact that it was designed by employees and senior leadership.