Marine Fabricator July/August 2022 - 24

better than another, "
says Halladay.
" The key thing is, once they're in the
door, you need to have a training program
that is deliberate. "
Marco Canvas owner Ed Skrzynski says
employers need to take the long view. " We
look for people who have some basic skills
for the position, have aptitude and the
right attitude-but not whether they can
produce profi ts for us immediately. "
Photo: Marco Canvas and Upholstery LLC
Finding the fit
Experienced fabricators tend to agree
that hiring for culture fit outweighs
hiring for developed sewing skills. " The
most important thing when hiring for
any position is that the person fits with
our culture and team, " says Charlene
Clark, IFM, co-owner of Signature
CanvasMakers, Hampton, Va. " It is
easier to train someone on the skills
required for their position than it is to
try to teach the 'soft skills,' such as work
ethic, attention to detail, teamwork and
showing up for work on time. "
Alignment with a mission statement
and core values are critical elements
Halladay considers when hiring. " Our
culture fit is what we strive to look for
when hiring, " Halladay says. " In our
onboarding process we go over our mission
statement four times and our core
values five times-and that's intentionally
redundant. We want to make it clear
that it's not one core value or the other-it's
the power of 'and.' On the first
day, we share our vision of where we
want to go and where they fit into that,
both immediately and in the future. "
SewLong's core values, which are
provided to new employees in English
and Spanish, are designed to make employees
feel secure, and fall under the
umbrella of the company's mission statement:
" Provide amazing customer service
while fusing craftsmanship and innovation
to deliver extraordinary marine
canvas, upholstery and contract textiles. "
While soft skills are important, applicants
still need to demonstrate an
REFERENCE DATABASES:
AN IMPORTANT TECH TRAINING TOOL
" All our processes are documented
and stored on an app called Trainual.
This is our master reference database
for everything that we produce.
Everyone learns differently, so Trainual
allows us to include written, step-bystep
instructions, a 'Build Sheet,' which
shows how a product comes together,
a QA checklist and pictures of certain
parts of the process and, ultimately,
the desired result. We are also in the
process of adding videos. The sewers
have tablets at each workstation so
they are able to easily access all of
the processes as needed. "
~ Charlene Clark
Signature CanvasMakers
" We've started using Microsoft
OneNote to compile our SOPs
[standard operating procedures],
so that everything is in one place.
Everyone on the team has an
iPad. The sewers have iPads at
their fi ngertips on their sewing
machine so they can easily access
instructional documents and
videos. We're in the process of
adding more videos as well. "
~ Clint Halladay
SewLong Custom Canvas
24 Marine Fabricator | July/August 2022
Marine Fabricator July/August 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Marine Fabricator July/August 2022
