Busch

What was the situation like before AG5?

Twice a year, I used to put a call out to managers saying, “Let me have your skills matrices” so I can cross-check and look for skills gaps. I’d be lucky if I got four or five back. So many skills gaps were invisible to me.

We needed to automate this process. AG5 came up on a Google search, and we jumped on a call. Busch operates as a multinational, but every country has its own autonomy so I was able to implement AG5 in the UK.

We have a very diverse portfolio of vacuum solutions, and our field service engineers need to know every one of those products to a level that they’re able to go on-site and service them or recommend they come to the workshop for overhaul. That’s why some of our skills matrices are huge.

How have things changed with AG5?

For ISO accreditation, we get qualification audits. For example, when the East Kilbride site gets audited, the operations manager knows now that he can go into AG5 and say look, here’s my certificate. Look, here’s the competencies and this is how the skills gaps are going to be closed. So it’s helping us to maintain certification.

It has also caused a culture change. Now, when employees do any kind of training that requires them to be up-skilled or even down-skilled, they go to AG5 and do it there, and then I’ll be in there consistently looking for variation and gaps, basically pushing them to do it. Everyone has said this is so much better than what we had before, I’ve not come across any negativity, not even one person. Everyone is like: this is good.

It’s more efficient because of the ease of access and ease of use. One click, two clicks, it’s done. That’s why it has gone down very, very well.

Our new skills matrices have led to a cultural shift, with everyone saying it’s so much better than we had before.

What do you like the most about AG5?

I personally like the fact that we can set a minimum competency requirement. And when I see that someone still needs to meet that minimum competency in AG5, I just go to that manager and get it sorted. Whereas in an Excel document, there’s no visibility, so there’s no drive to close that gap.

AG5 has got buy-in at the manager level, and it’s got buy-in at the general manager level. Because of the fact that the GM can see the gaps too, he’s supporting me in driving that change.

Everyone now has access, and they can put in results. So we’re making them accountable for their own teams’ learning and development and the evidence in that.

Every manager who’s now got a live matrix, I’ve sat down with them, showed them how to use the system, explained expiry notifications, and reinforced them to use this because I’ll be watching you. So it’s not just easy to use, but skills gaps are also very visible.