Be Thinking About New Hires and Training Resources
Tony Malisani
Guest Contributor
I hope this edition of the Slippery Rock finds you with good health and a plentiful workload. I am writing this article on a flight back from an MIA / Stone World Fabricators town hall education event in Edison, New Jersey.
The companies in attendance indicated that they are looking forward to a great spring and summer after the long cold winter. This is a hopeful sentiment echoed around the country. As workflow increases, the demands for new employees will increase as well. Not all of the new hires will have experience in our industry and will require some “immersion” into the natural stone culture.
The MIA has prepared a package of resources for its members to use in the new hire training process. We have three separate tracks that should help you to get your new team members productive very quickly. Fabricators/installers, restoration, and sales associates will all benefit from the industry overview, safety training, glossary of terms, and topic specific CEU resources that are now bundled together for your convenience. It is our hope that this background will not only help these employees to hit the ground running and be productive immediately, but also to help them become familiar with the resources available to the members of the MIA.
Our website (marble-institute.com) is a portal to a wealth of business forms to the Dimensional Stone Design Manual (DSDM). For example, if you are looking for the proper methods for installing a slab shower, it is there. Forms that can be modified and used for everything from job descriptions, periodic employee reviews, to disciplinary action are also available. As one of our participants in New Jersey remarked, “I can save a lot of time by using these formats instead of developing my own.” The website can be accessed by anyone in your organization who has a password. This provides relevant topics and information to those team members that find they have a passion for natural stone and wish to increase their knowledge base and advance their career.
What type of information will be found on the MIA website? All of the technical information has been reviewed by your peers in the industry. It represents the efforts of many committee members and countless hours of the MIA staff over the last 70 years. The DSDM, the technical modules, bulletins, and safety resources are a definitive best practices reference from the most experienced people and companies in the industry. The resources are under periodic review and represent the most up to date information available. This same process has been used to develop the CEUs and review all of the forms available in the MIA bookstore.
I believe that this is possibly the most underutilized member benefit and I encourage all of our members to take 5 minutes of your time to explore our website. You will be amazed by all of the resources at your fingertips. If you have any difficulties signing on or with the functionality of marble-institute.com please contact GpDistelhorst@marble-institute.com and we will resolve any access issues. As always I welcome your comments and feedback on the website or any other MIA activities. Please send them to miaexecbod@marble-institute.com