A Total Approach Providing Skill Solutions with Sierra 57 Consult

Sierra 57 Consult are well positioned to support a business’s strategic growth, succession planning and upskilling of a workforce as a strategic partner from one of its four business arms. These being Technical & Engineering Recruitment, Polymer Process & Materials Training, Engineering Consultancy and Contract Process Engineers.

Every business faces challenges, whether that is from staff retirement, transient personnel or unexpected processing demands. To mitigate these demands a strategic plan is important as it enables positive response to these challenges, reactivity or remaining passive are not the way forward and Sierra 57 can work alongside you to help develop your workforce and fill your skill gaps.

RECRUITMENT SERVICES

The focus of the team is to support businesses and people to succeed, whether that is finding new roles, upskilling their team or filling a short-term gap in the organisation. This has been achieved by building long-lasting relationships with both businesses and candidates.

Sierra 57 have a distinctive approach to recruitment as they work in collaboration with the client and potential candidates using their knowledge, expertise and experience of the sector to ensure success for both business and candidate. With a far-reaching network they can offer a bespoke and structured approach to plug those difficult to fill vacancies.

At Sierra 57, all businesses and candidates receive excellent communication during the recruitment process, providing support and constructive advice. They tailor each recruitment assignment to meet the objectives of the client and candidate to ensure a good fit.

POLYMER PROCESS & MATERIALS TRAINING

In 2021 Sierra 57, recognising that the sector faced a major challenge due to significant skills gaps and an ageing workforce; established a training division. This was undertaken by listening to the voice of the customer to determine what their ideal training provider would look like. From the feedback, they learnt that the main challenge was releasing staff for an extended period away from the workplace and lack of follow-up after training.

Sierra 57 came up with a training model that delivered bite-size modular training on the client’s site that builds up to Continuous Professional Development (CPD) accredited by the IOM3 and follow-up mentoring/development to reinforce skills learnt. S57C recognise that Training and Development go hand in hand, training being the process that you use to teach employees the skills they need for their current job.

While training focuses on specific areas of knowledge that employees need to fulfil their day-to-day tasks. Development is focused on the career progression of the employee with activities based on each individual’s career goals and areas of improvement that help them take the next step in their profession.

Research has shown that an employee’s skills generally have a “half-life” of about 5 years, with more technical skills needing improvement after just 2.5 years. It was also found that nearly 30% of skills are lost annually because they aren’t performed regularly or reinforced through training/development. This means that employees continuously need to complete training/development that improves their business, technical and soft skills.

In 2022 Sierra 57 won the Plastic Industry Awards Training and Development category for the way they met the needs of TEX Plastics (Barnstable) delivering their high-quality training modules which bridged the skill gaps providing an immediate solution and creating mentors within the business to encourage others.

This was followed up in 2023 with Sierra 57 winning the Plastic Industry Awards Best Business Initiative category for its approach to providing an online Training Need Analysis Portal. This identifies individual skill gaps to ensure the correct training is delivered maximising the ROI on training.

The Sierra 57 approach has been very successful with training statistics that speak for themselves since inception:

• 405 courses delivered
• 1,108 people trained
• 98% pass rate
• 174 IOM3 accredited CPD certificates issued
• 3,904 IOM3 accredited CPD hours completed

ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY

Sierra 57 can also provide, via their Engineering Consultants, expertise and guidance on engineering projects and advise customers how best to meet their design for manufacture and processing needs. They are able to discuss the technical needs and then project manage the implementation of technical solutions in accordance with industry best practices. Their aim is to:

• Understand the needs of the project and scope out the deliverables
• Conduct research, interviews and analyse the data to resolve the issue
• Detect the issues and propose ways to resolve them
• Identifying the advantages and disadvantages and providing solutions
• Developing and implementing new procedures and training to support the introduction of these.

CONTRACT PROCESS ENGINEERS

When there is a short-term need for expertise Sierra 57 can provide a solution by offering a Contract Process Engineer to work on-site with your team. They have the knowledge to deliver fit-for-purpose solutions to process engineering issues and New Product Introduction (NPI). Our consultants have good all-round experience covering IML, Medical, Automotive and contract moulding sectors.

SUMMARY

Sierra 57 can offer a blend of services from recruitment to training. The combination of structured bespoke bite-size industry-led training, consultancy and contract services are aimed at all operational levels with a focus on enhancing skills, knowledge, productivity and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).

This suite of solutions helps to tackle skill shortages whether via recruitment, upskilling via training, onsite consultancy or a processing engineer on site for short-term projects or tool trailing.

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Sierra 57 Consult
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