Leadership Training that Enhances & Retains the Workforce

Western Trailers main manufacturing and sales facilities are located in Boise, Idaho, with service and parts locations throughout Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. With over 450 dedicated employees, Western Trailers is guided by a group of managers and supervisors with an average tenure of service of over 18 years. From flatbeds to curtain-sides to self-unloaders, all of their trailers offer the versatility, strength and durability to do any job you want to tackle. Importantly, these trailers maintain the best resale value of any trailer on the road today.

Western Trailers has experienced strong sales growth over the last few years and their biggest challenge has been hiring and retaining qualified production staff to meet production rates. Leadership development training was needed to focus on enhancing key employees' leadership skills. In recent years the Idaho Treasure Valley has seen significant population growth, and many new companies have been seeking the same talent in their facilities so the competition was intense. This human resource acquisition struggle, coupled with increased lead times for some critical parts, led to increases in Customer order to ship time. Western Trailers reached out to TechHelp, part of the MEP National Network™, to provide this leadership training.

TechHelp provided Western Trailers with tailored lean-based first line supervisor and lead leadership training to focus on leader standard work, leadership development, and communication techniques. This training helped employees learn to coach and nurture “respect for people” in a manufacturing culture as a means of getting results. It gave leaders the tools and interpersonal skills to assist in employee retention since hiring and keeping people was the number one issue Western Trailers was experiencing. This content and curriculum was just what the company needed. In addition to improving individual skills, the training helped to enrich the company’s talent pool, generating cost-savings and supporting employee retention and ultimately new employee acquisition.