Lead Hands

With the challenging level of technical skills available to a repair and maintenance facility today it has become critically important to have a strong technical skill level working on the floor with the technicians. The Foreman job function has the primary responsibility to provide technical assistance as required, however, the rapid changes in design and automation of the equipment requires there be stronger and more current technical skills available. The function of the lead hand also is required to provide mentoring to more junior skill level technicians as well as assist in “on the job” training.

This comprehensive skills assessment covers all of the topics and subject matter required in the course of performing the job function of a lead hand. In assessing this job function we have taken the skills and knowledge requirements and created an assessment questionnaire. We have used as the foundation for this assessment the pretest and final assessment questions from all of the classes offered for the Service Department as well as the Technician Assessment for a Construction Industry Technician. We have taken all of these questions and boiled them down to ninety essential questions. Each question has an answer within a multiple-choice selection.

The results from the CSA, Comprehensive Skills Assessment, categorize the skills and knowledge of the individual being assessed, into one of our four levels of accomplishment: Developing, Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced.

These assessments can be used, in conjunction with background checks and interviews, to screen applicants before they are hired. They should also be used in the annual performance review with each employee. They can even be used as a foundation piece of information related to the wages and salaries paid to the employees. Finally, and this is the genesis of the creation of the comprehensive skills assessment, the assessment has been developed to be used to create a specific employee development program for each employee in the parts and service business teams.