You’ve heard of on-the-job training, but RENEW is taking that phrase to a whole ‘nother level.

RENEW has implemented a training regimen for its technicians that results in better, safer work and higher morale among employees. This Technical Training Program is a 3-part training system designed to help technicians retain information and continue to develop the skills necessary to maintain our commitment to safety and our exemplary track record.

“The Senior Management Group and the managers at RENEW wanted to create something that would address the day-to-day operations that our technicians were going through,” said Brett Citrowske, Director of Training for RENEW. “We met with our managers and lead techs of projects and asked them what they expected technicians to know within the first six months of being here. And then we built out what we call a Training Matrix, which has very highly specific technical criteria for what is expected from an individual as they go from a Tech 0, or a Trainee Level, to a Tech 3, which is more of a Lead Technician Level.”

The training matrix is made up of different quadrants that focus on a variety of training materials. It utilizes both online training courses and practical, hands-on objectives. Course work includes information on nomenclature and identifying basic tools, understanding drivetrain anatomy and wind turbine anatomy, signaling, rigging, fasteners, torquing, and more. These are all subjects that technicians work on or with on a daily basis.

A big component of the Technical Training Program is the fact that as technicians continue to learn, improve, and progress in the matrix, they are compensated each time they move from one level to another.

“One of the nice things about the program is that when an employee increases their competency through completing the training, there’s a direct compensational increase tied along with that, because they become even safer on the job and they know how to use the tools and the processes that are required,” Citrowske stated.

Offering that compensational increase has resulted in technicians being even more eager to complete the training program because, in layman’s terms, the more they learn, the more they earn.

“Since utilizing this training program, we’ve noticed a dramatic increase in correct terminology, and better understanding with our new hires,” Citrowske stated. “Our managers have said that, through our increased training that we’re doing now, in person and the technical training courses; they have noticed that the individuals that typically excel in the training program are those individuals that are going to be our heavy hitters in the future.”

Citrowske said that the rate in which technicians are able to move up in the program ranges from person to person but that, on average, a tech can progress from a Tech 0 to a Tech 1 in six to eight months, from a Tech 1 to a Tech 2 in approximately 10-12 months, and from a Tech 2 to a Tech 3 in anywhere from one to two years.

“The minimum amount of time somebody could go from the base level to that foreman level would be around two years or a little above that,” he said.

This Technical Training Program is innovative for a myriad of reasons, and it has resulted in higher morale and even safer job sites.

“This training program is not something that we purchased from another company,” Citrowske stated. “We actually made the training materials. We shot the videos, we put together the presentations; we made all of that intracompany. Not only was the curriculum conceptualized with the matrix; we created all of the material internally as well, to make it hyper-focused on our task objectives. And it has been a success.”