Established bi-national training team in China I Customer Project

Establishment
of a binational team of trainers in China

“Train the trainer” of existing training staff in the cultural context.

Personnel development of a German-Chinese management team for a German automotive supplier in China and establishment of an internal training center.

Our customer

As part of an expanding global automotive supplier with more than 2,500 employees in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, one of the company’s most environmentally friendly factories was built in a very short time in eastern China. Less than a year passed between the groundbreaking ceremony and the first product rolling off the assembly line.

This speed, combined with the high demands placed on the newly hired employees and the plan to expand the workforce from 100 to 150 within a few months, created a challenging environment for the young German-Chinese management team.

In addition, the investment in this project was the largest in the company’s history. This added to the pressure to create an effective working environment that would be up and running as quickly as possible. At the same time, the company needed to create an internal training center with its own well-equipped classrooms.

Industry: Automotive supplier
Founded: 2015
Employees: 100

Goals

Due to the high demand for training in a short period of time, internal trainers needed to be enabled to deliver a large number of practical training sessions as quickly and competently as possible in a crash course. This included the design and customization of training series and the creation of year-round training plans.

In selecting a training provider for these needs, it was important for the client to have an experienced training provider with an understanding of international companies that want to operate with a largely local workforce.

A further challenge was that the shop floor staff were recruited directly from the local area and had no experience of dealing with international companies or the specific high quality and environmental standards required.

The company therefore approached us with the request to develop and implement a compact crash course for the existing training staff that would be effective in the long term.

Special attention had to be paid to balancing the training needs of the German plant management with the characteristics and skills of the local trainers and future participants.

Measures

Based on the goals and requirements, we combined two existing trainings, adapted cultural specifics and divided the training sessions into a multi-level program:

Preliminary questionnaire on the experience and competence of the trainer group to be trained, as well as to compare different expectations in different cultural contexts
One-day crash course to refresh training skills and raise awareness of intercultural challenges

A two-day advanced course to provide feedback on existing training implementation and to build skills for designing training series and year-round training plans.
Monitoring of participants’ development over the course of the program
Voluntary coaching sessions and training facilitation to follow up on the advanced course

Collaboration

The collaboration began in 2015 with a survey of participants and regular alignment loops with HR development. Because we were also used as a provider for leadership development, project management training, and onboarding processes, we were able to build a close relationship of trust within a short period of time.

The cooperation with the factory management and the entire management team was very professional, open, trusting and constructive. In this context, the experience gained from various trainings has been used in feedback loops to continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of the programs in subsequent years.

Chinese-German mix of participants

Combination of existing training adapted to the cultural context

Conducted in own training rooms in Shanghai with professional Neuland equipment

Chinese-German mix of participants

Combination of existing training adapted to the cultural context

Conducted in own training rooms in Shanghai with professional Neuland equipment

Result

The multi-level training, especially with its feedback loops on the actual training sessions, contributed significantly to the fact that a large number of professional training sessions could be carried out independently by the company’s own staff within a short period of time.

In addition, the participants were able to build up intercultural competencies and transfer them to other aspects of their cooperation. Furthermore, CONTUR’s training environment in Shanghai has inspired the client’s training rooms: from structural changes to training materials.

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