Businesses looking to maximize productivity and profit increasingly turn to new software programs to improve design or turnaround time of products. But those programs can cost thousands of dollars, and training staff to use them can cost thousands more.
For that reason, the Governor’s Workforce Board recently handed out a total of $1.1 million in work force improvement grants to 56 local employers. The money will pay for training for about 2,500 workers.
A total of roughly $900,000 is left to be allocated to a second group of applicants who apply by the May 16 deadline, said Mavis McGetrick, assistant coordinator of the board.
Central Falls-based Wardwell Braiding Machine Co. will use a $30,000 grant to train product engineers and production workers to use new software to design and build manufacturing equipment. Wardwell makes machines used to braid wires and textiles.
Business systems manager Bruce Bisbee said the software will help the company compete with its foreign competitors’ “low-cost, low-quality” products by giving its engineers the tools “to design products with greater accuracy for better quality.”
“We have to uphold the value of our equipment by designing it to provide better productivity; for example: speed,” he said. “We cannot compete on price alone. We have to show there’s value for our machines – meaning higher production, longer life, less breakdown.”
Total cost of implementing the new software and hardware amounts to roughly $60,000, with one-quarter going to training 20 of the company’s 63 employees, Bisbee said. In order to qualify for the state grant, companies must match the amount received dollar for dollar.
McGetrick said applicants also must pay trained employees at least $10.13 per hour, a new requirement initiated this year as part of the work force board’s new initiative to target higher-paying industries in order to help those industries grow.
Ocean State Job Lot also applied for a grant to train its employees to use new computer software. The discount retailer, with 80 stores in New England and 850 employees in Rhode Island, recently bought new software for its human resources and financial services departments for about $500,000, said Cynthia Farrell, director of training. The grant will pay for training for the company’s 18 financial service employees.
Merging all of the financial software applications for different functions – such as tax management and accounts receivable – into one software program will allow the company to manage and control costs better, Farrell said.
One example would be calculating payroll as a percentage of sales at the end of each week, she said. The new software would create quicker turnaround of that information, which could allow for a quicker response if the numbers aren’t as good as they should be.
“These are the calculations that drive our business,” she said. “If we know on Monday we are over budget, we can try to fix it … if we don’t know till Wednesday, there’s not much we can do.”
Farrell said because total cost for training equals about $82,000, the $29,808 work force improvement grant helps “stretch the budget a little further.”
The same is true for nonprofits that applied for grants. Day One, formerly known as the Sexual Assault & Trauma Resource Center of Rhode Island, received $5,580 that it will use for team-building, spokeswoman M. Angeline Martyn said.
The grant is essential, Martyn said, because of Day One’s plans to expand its services and move into a bigger office by the end of September. Martyn said she hopes the training creates a smooth transition between the old and new facilities and raises awareness of new services that support the nonprofit’s mission to “reduce the prevalence of sexual violence and to support and advocate for those affected by it.”
The grant provides all 31 employees with a full day of team-building training in addition to a special public speaking refresher course for the nonprofit’s special trainers and community educators. The ultimate goal, she said, is to improve service to clients.
“Without this grant, this training would not be possible,” Martyn said.
