p r o p e r t y r i s k a n d i n s u r a n c e s o l u t i o n s f o r a c o m p l e x w o r l d
Reason
reprinted from issue 4: 2009A+ Real Class Act
FM Global’s field engineering training
program gets high grades
According to FM Global Chief Learning Specialist Jason Ries
,
the resources the com-pany allocates to training its field engineers are unrivaled in the industry. “When we hire someone, whether fresh out of college or someone with a decade of experience in industry, we put them through an organized training program that lasts approximately 16 to 18 months,” Ries said. “Dur-ing this time, the engineer learns about all aspects of FM Global’s business and the intricacies of the exposures and issues faced by our clients. And they learn directly from the people who developed the applicable standards—something our competitors cannot offer.”With quality instruction and intensive hands-on mentoring,
FM Global’s field engineering training program gets high grades
»
STUDY HAUL New engineers spend countless hours learning the FM Global way, including three weeks at the company’s Norwood, Mass. (USA) offices engaged in intensive classroom study. One of their instructors, Chief Learning Specialist Jason Ries, knows his way around a white board. This one’s marked up with sprinkler calculations for storage occupancies.New Hires Hit the Books
Training begins with a 12-week period of self-study to acclimate a new hire. Selected reading material is provided, along with encouragement to interact with more senior engineering staff. Next, the hire spends three weeks at FM Global’s Nor-wood, Mass., USA, offices engaged in con-centrated classroom study. “This program, called Field Engineering Basic (FEB), helps the employee develop the technical skills needed to function successfully as a field engineer,” Ries said. The classes are taught by the company’s experts in the areas most critical to FM Global’s current business; oc-cupancies covered include machine shops, light hazard property (hotels, for example) and warehouses. “Within those occupancies,
foundational topics include construction, hydraulics, aerosols, storage, human ele-ment considerations, wind, flood and report writing,” Ries explained. “There’s also a visit to the Research Campus.”
For many of the new hires, the return to formal classroom training can be chal-lenging. “My first three weeks of training in Norwood were intense,” said Roger Wat-son, a consultant engineer who works out of FM Global’s Manchester, U.K., office. “In FEB there was a lot of classroom work and studying. Because I joined the company after nine years in industry, university was long in my past and I was unaccustomed to the rigors of intense studying. But I found it really helped ease my transition into the company.”
Allison Smartt Olsen, an account engi-neer at FM Global’s Plano, Texas, USA, of-fice, agreed with Watson. “Completing this basic training course was clearly beneficial,” she said. “I am far more effective and less frustrated than I would have been if I was left to my own devices upon hire, armed only with a stack of operating standards and no guidance. That sink-or-swim attitude is a problem at a lot of other companies, but not at FM Global.”
After several months in the field trail-ing more seasoned engineers and visittrail-ing client facilities, new engineers undertake the next phase of their formal training, Field Engineering Intermediate (FEI), which comprises a week in Norwood and a week at TSB Loss Control, an FM Global affiliate company. Located in Rome, Georgia, USA, TSB Loss Control is a progressive emer-gency service training organization that pro-vides comprehensive training for emergency response personnel and those responsible for organizing, managing or directing emer-gency response activities. It also provides training for personnel who maintain and in-spect equipment and material necessary for an effective loss prevention program.
“Classroom instruction includes spe-cial hazards, plant emergency organization, flammable liquid and understanding the risk, among other topics,” Ries said. “Then there
are the real-world scenarios carried out at TSB. Hands-on firefighting and hazmat re-sponse training are among the most popular experiences in the entire program. Learning about what it’s like inside a burning build-ing, understanding fire suppression from a practical perspective, and having the op-portunity to participate in real-life case stud-ies has a big impact on most people who go through our program.”
It certainly made an impact on Ol-sen. Just a few years out of college, Olsen said she is not limited by her lack of years on the job. “Thanks to the training I’ve re-ceived, both the classroom instruction and the in-the-field experiences, I’ve been able to establish my credibility without sounding like someone who graduated from college not long ago,” she said. “I am far more ex-perienced than my number of chronological years would indicate.”
Another experience that made an im-pression on Olsen, who has a degree in in-dustrial and systems engineering, was a visit to an International Paper (IP) mill in Arkan-sas with a more senior engineer. “IP has a long-standing relationship with FM Global so it was interesting for me to see firsthand how we’ve been able to affect the client’s corporate culture and attitude toward loss prevention,” she said. “And, of course, I also really enjoyed the up-close view of the huge, specialized machinery used in the facility. That’s one of the things I really enjoy about being an engineer.”
The final phase of classroom instruc-tion, held several months after completion of FEI, is called Field Engineering Advanced (FEA). While this course includes instruc-tion on technical subjects such as sprinkler systems, maximum foreseeable loss (MFL), construction and special protection, the fo-cus is on developing effective consulting skills. “FEA is where we teach our engi-neers about managing change at our cli-ents’ facilities,” Ries said. “Engineers learn how to evaluate clients’ building plans be-fore construction begins, adapt to different communication styles, and gain critical negotiating skills.”
Experts Help With the Big Picture At the same time an engineer is completing the various formal instruction programs, he or she also is participating in a mentorship program. “We feel it is vital that our engi-neers learn from the more seasoned within the company,” Ries said. To this end, every new hire is paired with a mentor who can an-swer questions and look over the neophyte’s shoulder as he or she develops the necessary skills and base of experience.
The mentor checks on the new hire’s report-writing skills and offers guidance so the new hire does not feel overwhelmed by the massive amounts of information he or she is expected to absorb. In some offices, an engineer is assigned a single mentor who follows the new hire for the entire duration of his or her formal training, about a year and a half. In other offices, mentors rotate weekly or monthly so the new hire can gain access to experts in a wide variety of areas.
In Olsen’s case, she was paired with about 10 different mentors throughout her training period. “By trailing different people I experienced a variety of communication styles and had access to professionals with diverse skills,” she said. “That helped me form a complete picture of what the com-pany does, how it does it, why it does it, and what my role within the company is.”
It also helped her to prove herself. “The abundance of training I’ve received has helped me demonstrate my knowledge to clients,” she said. “I know I have to gain their respect and prove within the first 15 minutes that the cost-benefit of my recom-mendations is there for them.”
For Field Engineers, Learning Is a Way of Life
After nearly two years of formal training, mentorship, self-study and trailing, engineers are brought up to full productivity in the field. Of course, this does not mean an end to learning or corporate support for professional development. Engineers can elect to take additional training courses in an effort to become a specialist in sensitive areas such as chemical or pulp and paper, or work toward becoming an account engineer, for example.
According to Watson, opportunities abound at FM Global. “I spent my first decade out of school in the automotive industry,” he said. “In my former job there was not a significant investment in or support for engineering training. It was up to the initiative of each person to find and enroll in relevant classes. There was not the overwhelming corporate-level support for professional development as there is at FM Global. Here, the opportunities for engineers are practically limitless.”
Olsen agreed. “There seemed to be career plateaus at other firms I had worked for or had considered joining. I thought I’d get bored doing the same thing. The wealth of opportunities here is a major factor that attracted me. Now that I’ve been with the company for about three years and feel confident in my basic field engineering skills, I’m pursuing specialized maxi-mum foreseeable loss (MFL) training. It’s impossible to stagnate at FM Global because there is always something new to learn, no matter how many years you’ve been on the job.”
“ For every dollar the company invests in my training, it gets
back at least two dollars in terms of increased productivity.
That’s an exponential return for FM Global’s investment in me.”
– Allison Smartt Olsen, an account engineer, FM Global
Mentorship
Advanced Study
and Specialization
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