Collaborative effort helps railcar shop grow

When Transco Railway Products in Oelwein was preparing for an expansion that would add 80 to 100 workers, it needed a training program that could bring new hires up to speed quickly.

Transco provides railcar repair services and specialty replacement parts to the owners of covered grain hopper cars, tank cars and other railcars used by the nation's railroads. The Oelwein plant, in Fayette County north of Cedar Rapids, is the largest facility owned by Chicago-based Transco.

'We had an employee retention rate of about 7 percent,” said Shane Galligan, its assistant division manager.

Galligan has his work cut out for him. So he reached out to executives at the Northeast Iowa Community College campus in Calmar, and to Oelwein City Manager Jamie Letzring, 'who was integral to making sure we were all sitting at the same table talking about the same topic.”

The collaboration - which included the college's Business and Community Solutions program manager Kyra Bellrichard and vice president Wendy Mihm-Herold - produced a two-track training program leading to a railcar technician certificate and railcar paint technical certificate.

In addition to specialized training, each student and potential Transco employee completes 62 hours of instructional time in Soft Skills for Workplace Success, Railcar 101 and Introduction to Manufacturing for Railcar Technicians.

The cost of the training is significantly offset by Transco's participation in a new jobs training program through the Iowa Economic Development Authority. NICC sells certificates for the amount of the anticipated tax revenue generated from the new Transco employee salaries.

'Kyra and I created the curriculum, although she did most of the legwork,” Galligan said. 'We took some of NICC's regular curriculum for certificate programs and added a classroom session and two labs specific to Transco. We did not need to add courses required for a two-year associate degree.”

Bellrichard said the 15 hours of soft skills training helps new employees with communication and working as a team.

'They may be working with someone that they don't see eye-to-eye with,” she said. 'They get to practice those skills before they're actually in the workplace. People initially wonder why they have to do that part of training, but our surveys typically come back with very positive comments.”

A total of 42 people have completed the mechanical program and 28 have completed the paint program since the NICC Railcar Technician Certificate program was launched in February.

Fifty-four students were working at Transco as of September and about 30 others will graduate from the programs this month.

'The NICC training gives us people who are ready to start and contribute on Day 1.” Galligan said. 'From an employee standpoint, they know what they're walking into. It's not completely foreign when they walk into our shop.

'That's a challenging part of combating turnover. If you've never worked in this industry and you walk into a shop with 20 railcars partially torn apart, and there's fire, smoke, loud noises and people yelling orders, it can be sensory overload.”

When someone is interested in a job at Transco, he or she is referred to the NICC Oelwein Regional Academy for Math and Science Center. Galligan said the center handles the application process, compiling a waiting list for the next class.

'The administrative support that they provide is incredibly helpful,” he said.

Galligan said Transco's employee retention rate has risen to more than 70 percent since the implementation of the NICC training programs. He said the company typically is drawing new employees from a 30- to 45-mile radius, primarily through word-of-mouth.

Employees start at $15.94 an hour and the company offers a full benefit package, Galligan said.

'We are at a point in terms of the work we can handle where we're turning away customers on a daily basis.” he said. 'If someone is willing to work, the sky's the limit in terms of opportunities.