21 Feb 2019
GTC Machining Response
7yThanks for this very thoughtful and even-handed review. This is a great company, with a reputation for producing extremely high quality work. The company's most valuable asset is our people and as such, we're putting a lot of emphasis on wages benefits and training.
Since taking over, we have switched to Anthem health insurance with a range of options from high to low deductible, and have a 401K with employer match. Since this review was written, we changed the vacation policy so it is earned more quickly, starting in the first year, and added an extra 4 weeks of sabbatical after 10 years and every 5 years thereafter. As for wages, we are hiring aggressively so are aware of market rates. We are putting in place a process of comparing new hire wages with existing personnel at review time so as to be fair to everyone. We have already offered one new leadership training class and are also investigating a self-paced programming course to develop/improve Mastercam skills. We hired a consultant to work with machinists 1:1 starting in mid-June, to optimize their code and learn advanced programming. Skill development is being formally introduced into the annual review process as well.
This is just the beginning (we've only owned the company since Feb 1, 2019). We'll be doing formal planning with the leadership team for 2020 in Nov-Dec 2019 using lean principles and continuing to improve over time. Your input for further improvement is welcome!