University of Us

Vapotherm employees engaged in Table Talk conversations, a scalable way to conduct discussion-based training sessions. Courtesy photo.

When it comes to higher education, you’ve heard of Southern NH University, the University of NH and NHTI (originally the NH Technical Institute). But did you know NH is also home to Medicus University, Merchants University and the Hypertherm Technical Training Institute?

These are just a few of the customized programs used by NH companies to provide training and development for their own employees. Not only do these programs smooth the way for on boarding new hires, they ensure that training continues to be available for existing workers and that employees with leadership potential can advance within the company, learning skills they’ll need to move the
business forward.

In an era of low unemployment, these programs help some companies improve retention as well as create a business culture that attracts young and ambitious employees, company leaders say.

And, before dismissing these as programs viable only for the state’s largest employers, consider that Vapotherm, which makes respiratory care devices for hospitals and home care use, started its programs when it had fewer than two dozen employees in 2012.

“(CEO) Joe (Army) was passionate about training and development, and specifically about the customization and really making sure that it’s what the people in the organization need,” now and in the future, says Tamara Souriolle, director of training and development for the Exeter-based company.

Vapotherm now has about 249 employees with 40 open positions, and internal training and development helped to make that rapid growth possible. Adding an internal sales training program enabled the company to build its own sales force instead of relying on distributors as it had until a few years ago.

Medicus Healthcare Solutions, a Windham-based staffing company for hospitals and medical practices launched in 2004, also focused on staff development early. “Our philosophy was always: if we get the right folks in here with the right set of skills and competencies, we can teach them the job,” says Grant Smith, co-founder and chief development officer. The company’s internal development efforts have evolved into more structured programs such as Level Up, a training program aimed at high performing recruiters during their first three to 12 months to improve productivity and increase employee retention; the Sales Institute and even the on boarding program known as “Med” School.

Investing Internally
Vapotherm started with teaching basic communication skills training for all its employees, relying on the book “Getting to Yes” by Roger Fischer and William Ury. More recently, it added programs for sales training and leadership training. Early next year, they will add a program focused on planning skills.

While the company used a consultant initially, much of the development came from asking managers what they needed and building educational programs around those specific needs. Leaders at Merchants Fleet Management and Merchants Auto in Hooksett used a similar process to identify skills needed by employees at various levels of the company.

Employees at Merchants Fleet Management participating in a training program. Courtesy photo.

Medicus, Vapotherm, Merchants and Hypertherm, a manufacturer of advanced cutting technology in Hanover, have all invested significant time and dollars in their internal development programs, and most have designated departments and staff to manage them. The payback is not always easy to measure, but these companies remain convinced of the value.

“It’s tough to measure the ROI,” says Mike Reilly, human resources director for Merchants Fleet Management. “You have to look at it from a customer perspective. You can’t satisfy your customer, you can’t grow your customer base, unless your employees are able to provide the level of service that they require.”

Another benefit is improved retention rates and the ability to attract quality candidates. Souriolle says the majority of new hires join Vapotherm because they’ve heard positive things from current employees. “They’re happy, and they’re fulfilled, and they’re being stretched, and they’re being exposed to new things. And they attract similar people who want the same things, which is what we want,” she says.

Company “Universities”
At Medicus, Matt Presti, 34, serves as director of operations for the West Coast. But he started as a recruiter and has used Medicus University’s leadership development programs to advance his career.

Medicus University has a college professor and the company’s executive leaders conduct class-based leadership and management seminars for all levels of the company’s management team. “It’s almost like a master’s-level training course,” he says of the multi-year program, where he and other emerging leaders at the company are presented with case studies and required to develop solutions that they present to the executive team at Medicus.

Asked why he didn’t pursue a traditional MBA or take a university-run leadership class, he says the Medicus program has allowed him to learn from and present to the very people responsible for advancing his career.

More businesses seem to be developing their own internal “universities” to deliver training. Employees at CoreMedical Group, a health care staffing agency in Manchester, are reimbursed up to $1,000 per calendar year for external development opportunities such as conferences, motivational speakers, professional development courses or college classes. But CoreMedical also developed CoreUniversity, designed to give its new recruiters the tools they need to succeed at Core. New recruiters spend four weeks in an intensive program that teaches them a variety of skills, including candidate search and strategy, outbound calling and voicemail etiquette. CoreUniversity also customizes training based on the division in which employees will work.

Comcast in Manchester offers leadership development courses through Comcast University that are open to supervisors, managers and directors, including the Leaders of Tomorrow program that is aimed at improving management skills of frontline leaders.

Reilly says the commitment to developing an ongoing education program at Merchants came from the top, from executives who said, “I want leaders who think three years out, not just today.” The company rolled out its Merchants University in 2016 and offers what they call BA and MA tracks for employees at different levels of the company. The BA, or Merchants Advantage, is for all employees and focuses on general core competencies as well as technical business knowledge. The MA track—Merchants Best in Class Leadership—is available to all managers, supervisors and future leaders.

“We want to maximize their potential and give them every opportunity to be successful,” Reilly says. In the first year, 440 employees took one of the offered courses. Eight months into 2017, more than 200 employees are participating in a program.

Delivering Content
Most companies that start down this path begin small and then grow, often turning to local colleges and universities for help. Hypertherm, for example, partnered with the nonprofit Vermont HITEC and later with River Valley Community College to customize training so new machine operators can begin work in a much shorter period of time.

In Merchants case, the company reached out to the University of NH, where Dan McCarthy, director of executive development programs has worked with dozens of companies and continues to do so. “It’s part of our mission,” he says of the university’s commitment to making its educational expertise available to NH businesses.

Similarly, Medicus worked with Associate Professor Jim Grinnell who teaches at Merrimack College to help develop the leadership training program that employees like Presti are using.

Even when companies can identify what they want their people to learn, finding the best way to teach them can be challenging. McCarthy says UNH matches professors with individual companies to figure out how best to convey the desired material. Merchants began the process by offering individual classes, starting with a technical writing class taught by a UNH English professor. “It was a huge hit,” McCarthy says. Since then, UNH has provided courses for Merchants’ employees on critical thinking and problem solving, emotional intelligence, and finance and accounting, to name a few.

McCarthy says he also works with smaller employers who may have only a few people each who need, for example, leadership training, by bringing them together to form a larger class.

Companies differ, however, in how they allocate time to these training programs. Medicus brings all of its new hires in for a week of training before they assume their new positions, where a combination of coaching and practice continues. Meanwhile Medicus’ leadership training requires ongoing homework outside the office just like a college class.

At Vapotherm, there is a rotating schedule of learning opportunities. Since 2015 it sets aside one week annually that is dedicated to a company-wide education event, with a range of programs offered similar to a professional conference.

Merchants, on the other hand, works primarily with half-day seminars, though the Merchants University effort requires a multi-year commitment from its employees to complete the BA or MA tracks.

Many of these companies rely primarily on lectures and discussions as opposed to online or video technologies, though Medicus is looking to add a learning management system that would make articles, videos and testing accessible online. Still, the company remains committed to classroom settings. “Having somebody give a presentation in a room with the new hires and having it be very interactive, answering questions, telling stories, making it personal is very important to start the link to our culture,” explains Smith.

Tips for Launching Programs
These companies offer a few suggestions for other business leaders interested in launching their own training and development programs:

• Get buy-in: Use the expertise of managers and executives to identify the type of training that will most benefit the company. Remember, you’ll be asking managers to relinquish some of their top performers for training or class time. Managers need to be supportive and see the benefits. Hear out everyone’s concerns and make sure they can see the value of new training programs. “If I miss that step, I find I have to do a lot more work later on,” Souriolle says.

• Be careful of the “firehose” mentality: Medicus learned quickly about the risk of overwhelming people with more information than they could absorb. “We’d bring somebody in, and we’d really load them up on training in those first two or three weeks,” says Matthew Morrissey, executive vice-president. Now they give employees time to apply what they learn before moving to the next step.

• Don’t imagine this is a one-shot deal: A single training program or a few regular classes may not be enough in today’s dynamic business environment. Customizing a training or leadership development program for your business works best when leaders are prepared to review, adapt and expand them as needed.

• Give employees the chance to learn from each other: Consultants and professional educators have a role, but employees often appreciate learning from their role models at work. Customizing a training program means letting your own experts talk about challenges and how they apply new skills to their work. Bring leaders and employees together and allow time for plenty of discussion.