Emerson Network Power manufactures cooling equipment for data centers. The Liebert Services, North America, business provides precision cooling technicians to service these products according to manufacturers’ specifications throughout the equipment’s life cycle and provides solutions for optimized data center performance.
Emerson Network Power sought to identify the job task and duties of its current Liebert Services Cooling Customer Engineers (CEs). The technical CE staff has been growing, and we wanted to develop accurate job descriptions for each of the five levels. We also recognized the need to develop a job progression process so the CEs could advance to higher levels. Once we complete the job description and progression process, the next step will be to create a training plan for the CEs.
Emerson Network Power’s Liebert Services technical staff has been growing with primarily level 2 and 3 technicians. The company recognizes that to meet our customers’ expectations, we need to have skilled technicians in all job levels. In addition, new equipment and technology changes have caused us to re-evaluate our job progression plan and training requirements.
Methods
The precision cooling training team partnered with Dr. Robert E. Norton, DACUM International Training Program director, and others at the Center on Education and Training for Employment at The Ohio State University (CETE/OSU) on the use of Developing A CurriculUM (DACUM), an approach to job analysis that determines which tasks must be performed by a given occupational area.
Six Cooling CE experts formed a panel, and with the guidance of a qualified DACUM facilitator, described the occupation precisely in terms of the duties and tasks that must be performed. This process produced a DACUM Research Chart—a graphic profile of all tasks required of a Liebert Services Cooling CE. After task verification and analysis, the information gathered from the CEs serves as the foundation for developing a new and updated training program.
The Liebert CEs identified the fundamental tasks required for all levels of CEs. The CEs and CETE/OSU facilitators identified eight areas of competency and precisely defined the tasks the CEs should complete and at what level CEs should complete them.
Now that the tasks have been identified, the Liebert Services cooling training team has determined what to include in the training curriculum. The next step is to determine the best strategy to deliver the training. In the past, all training was delivered through instructor-led classroom settings. Today’s technology allows us to present training in a blended learning format, which could include online, virtual, synchronous, and asynchronous methods. These new methods of presentation styles provide training for our CEs without incurring extensive traveling costs. The training team is working with its in-house course design team to develop these new learning strategies.
Results
The DACUM process revealed that the CE job descriptions and training programs will require additional development. The detailed task analysis provided the training team with the content needed to cover all the tasks associated with the job. The existing course materials will be evaluated and redesigned, along with adding new content to the courses. The team will utilize self-paced online computer training and other blended learning techniques to train all of the CEs across the country. This new style of training will be a benefit to the company’s objective to reduce cost while still keeping all CEs up to date with training.
DACUM also identified a need for a new job progression program. The new program will be developed to incorporate job experience and new skill-level testing.
The DACUM process benefited both the training team and the CEs on the panel. The CEs were able to come together, learn from each other, and improve their understanding of the job.
Steve Wagner is Educational Services manager, Liebert Precision Cooling Training, Emerson Network Power, which manufactures cooling equipment for data centers. The Liebert Services, North America, business provides precision cooling technicians to service these products according to manufacturers’ specifications throughout the equipment’s life cycle and provides solutions for optimized data center performance.
