Education Advantage
Last November, a team of educators from Hennepin County Technical College tested the academic proficiency levels of the three dozen employees at EJ Ajax and Sons, Inc. and discovered quite a few who scored below the 12th-grade level in either math or reading or both.
So beginning this quarter, Erick Ajax, the company’s vice president and co-owner, contracted with the college to provide two instructors to visit the company for two-hour periods, two days per week to provide one-on-one private tutoring to any employee who wanted to participate. Ajax would pay, but the employee had to invest his or her own time.
Every employee signed up. “They are very enthusiastic about it,” Ajax says.
Since the early ’90s, EJ Ajax and Sons has become a paragon of employee training programs. The company’s Fridley-area plant has been producing progressive metal stamping — 70 percent of the hinges for the domestic freezer market were manufactured by Ajax — for 65 years.
But under Erick Ajax, a third generation metal framer in the company founded by his grandfather, it has also become a source of learning.
Under Ajax, all employees are required to complete 100 hours of individualized training each year in programs coordinated by the company’s HR department. Programs can range widely from safety training to Dale Carnegie. Last year, Ajax says, the company underwrote $1,748 in training costs per employee.
Ajax became one of Minnesota’s first manufacturing companies to institute a formal apprenticeship training curriculum for three separate career ladders: punch press operator, sheet metal worker and tool- and die-maker. Working with the National Institute of Metalworking Skills and Minnesota’s Department of Labor and Industry, Ajax employees receive formal credentials for different skill level attainment.
The apprentice program requires 8,000 hours of work experience over four years, plus 144 hours of annual classroom instruction. To achieve full journey worker status also requires passing multiple tests. Ajax says that almost half of his workforce today has achieved a level III NIMS skill level, the top credential, and class A journey worker.
As part of its agreement with the state, Ajax agrees to pay wages commensurate with skill level achievements. Ajax says that employees who successfully complete the program have the opportunity to double the $12 per hour starting wage of an apprentice.
The Minnesota Department of Labor’s apprentice program currently has 9,500 apprentices registered statewide, according to Rich Davy, a field representative. Most them, he says, are unrelated to the construction trades, but manufacturing has great potential.
To Ajax the proof is concrete. Compulsory safety training, for example, is largely credited with Ajax’ 17-year record without a lost-time injury.
Another benefit is pure efficiency. Ajax says his better trained workforce has doubled the company’s productivity. “Ten years ago, I had one employee running one machine,” he says. “Today one employee runs several machines simultaneously.” During that time, sales volume has increased substantially while the number of employees has shrunk from 60 to 35.
“It has enabled us to compete in the global marketplace,” he says. Fully 35 percent of Ajax’ 2007 sales came from exports. Ajax expects that to increase to 40 percent in 2008.
A final advantage is simple team spirit, according to Ajax. More than half of his workforce are graduates of a $1,500 Dale Carnegie program designed to enhance speaking and interpersonal skills.
“I challenge anyone to come into our company and go to any employee on our plant, they are going to find that our espirit de corps is second to none."