Talent Development Takes Center Stage at IndustryWeek Operations Leadership Summit in Downtown Indy
The IndustryWeek Operations Leadership Summit, held at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown, provided a platform for industry leaders to discuss key topics in continuous improvement and technology implementation. The event, which took place June 26-28, featured plant tours and presentations aimed at enhancing workforce engagement and development.
Amanda Rubadue, Vice President of Economic Development at Aspire, attended because of the summit's focus and its impact on Aspire’s work. “The IndustryWeek Operations Leadership Summit was focused on two tracks, Continuous Improvement and Technology Implementation,” she said.
Talent and workforce development form a core part of Aspire’s Economic Development Strategic Plan which is key to Aspire’s mission.
“I learned that both of these are a constantly moving target and can be challenging for your workforce. It's important to get buy-in from the employees and empower them to find and implement ways to improve processes.”
Attendees had the opportunity to tour companies like Endress+Hauser, Allison Transmission, and Subaru of Indiana. Nicole Otte, Director of Workforce Development at Endress+Hauser, emphasized the importance of building a diverse talent pipeline.
“Nick Rhorer (Apprenticeship Program Trainer at Endress + Hauser) and I presented on Endress+Hauser’s strategies for growing our own talent, in addition to sharing our story and path to our current state of engaging with education and early career workforce,” she said.
“We placed a heavy emphasis on our Apprenticeship program, and Nick did a phenomenal job of covering his experience as a former CCEF attendee, former apprentice, and now Apprentice Technical Program Trainer.”
The summit also offered a platform for networking and sharing insights on leadership and workforce initiatives.
“It was good to hear from Toyota Material Handling President, Brett Wood, speak about their various initiatives around leadership, learning, and insights for workforce. The summit was a great opportunity to network and connect with others diving into talent initiatives,” said Otte.
Katie Van Hoosen, from the Marketing and Communications team at Endress+Hauser, described the plant tour experience.
“We had about 20 people attend the plant tour from companies across the country. We had a custom tour, focusing on showing our Endress+Hauser Flow USA production facility on campus that has about 200 employees and over 173K square feet of manufacturing space,” said Van Hoosen.
“We touched on the topics of Continuous Improvement that we’ve put into place at our facilities. It was a great discussion, and we were very happy to be included as a plant tour,” she added.
The summit put a spotlight on the importance of continuous improvement and the long-term commitment required for talent development, as demonstrated by the insights and experiences of industry leaders.