Trane Technologies: Multi-Site Success

Episode Summary:

On this episode, AGS Vice President of Client Delivery Jessi Guenther is joined by client Marc Cochran, Trane Technologies lead of HR operations to discuss how AGS partners closely with industrial companies to support their goals, evaluate their needs for best practices and partner in innovative solutions to provide results.  

Transcript:

Allegis Global Solutions (AGS) presents the Subject to Talent Podcast, a hub for global workforce leaders to unleash the power of human enterprise. Listen in as we explore the most innovative and transformational topics impacting businesses today.

Jessi Guenther: Hi. I'm Jessi Guenther, Vice President of Client Delivery here at Allegis Global Solutions, and I'm thrilled to welcome Marc Cochran, who leads HR operations at Trane Technologies. With more than 20 years of experience in HR operations and talent acquisition, Marc specializes in driving operational excellence and continuous improvements in HR processes. Marc oversees the Talent Acquisition Program for Trane Technologies and is an integral part of the AGS/Trane Technologies partnership, and I've had the pleasure of getting to know Marc over the last few years and I'm thrilled to welcome him. Welcome to the Subject to Talent Podcast, Marc.

Marc Cochran: Thank you. Happy to be here.  

Jessi Guenther: So, we tend to start these podcasts just by asking a little bit about your professional journey and what's led you to where you are today, so would love to hear a little bit more about that.

Marc Cochran: Yeah, thank you. It is great to be here. I'm excited to be able to share our path over the last couple of years. And I would say, just to answer your question, what got me to where I am today is probably not unlike many of us in recruiting if we fell into it. I was a journalism major in college, and clearly that translates well to recruiting or it doesn't. But I like to always joke with people like, "When we're recruiters, we get paid to ask people questions. And as a journalist, you might get paid a little bit, but always not really well," but it was a fun way to spend those four years and there are pieces that I take from it. I fell into staffing pretty early on because that was something that just was, at the time, accessible to someone with absolutely zero experience and was fortunate that a company took a stab on me, jumped in light industrial, administrative, clerical and worked for that. And that was Randstad for a while. And then went into more professional pharmacy staffing with another smaller company and then made the jump over to talent acquisition and the corporate side. So, I worked for Target for a number of years on the healthcare piece and then had stayed there for a while and then long story short, found my way here to Trane Technologies and I've been here about 10 years. And like you said, started in the talent acquisition space. Now on the HR solution side, which is our shared service organization here for North America, of which the contingent labor program sits. I've been having a whole lot of fun with our team and with the AGS team for now a couple of years since I've been in this role.

Jessi Guenther: Great. And we actually have more in common than I even thought, because I also majored in journalism. There was a time when I really thought I was going to be a reporter for the New York Times or whatever.

Marc Cochran: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jessi Guenther: And like you, figured out, well, when it comes to hours and dollars ...

Marc Cochran: It didn't pay well back then; it probably still doesn't pay well now.

Jessi Guenther: I don't think so.

Marc Cochran: But it's a great way to learn.

Jessi Guenther: That's right, absolutely. I know you're very proud of the journey, certainly at Trane, and we could talk a little bit about the partnership that AGS and Trane have had together, but I, would love you to highlight that journey since you joined Trane and some of the achievements, particularly in the light industrial space.

Marc Cochran: And I'll start with, just for the listeners, to share a little bit more about what our program actually is. So we are Trane Technologies. We make a lot of HVAC equipment both on the residential side and on the commercial side. Hopefully many of you have one of our units outside of your house right now or your buildings. And then we also make climate transport services as well. The typical things you might see on a large truck that keep the food cold, getting it to our restaurants and our grocery stores. And so we do that globally. And so, as you can imagine, a large part of our population and our program is in the light industrial space. And so that's where I'd say probably 80% of the time that we spend is in that group, optimizing that, understanding what our customers, our internal customers, so our HR teams and the local plants really need out of their programs. And to tie it back to where your question started is what have we seen from that the last couple of years is we really saw coming out of COVID the extreme challenges, that retention was getting folks back into the workplace consistently and just really that overall employee experience coming out of a very disruptive time in history that we can say that now maybe five years later. But really looking at what our employees need, both our employees and our contractors because really, they were in the same building, working the same lines and trying to harmonize that employee experience as much as we possibly could. But we also knew we had a real turnover challenge. If you remember, and we all do, the recruiting for everybody at that time was so hot, you could move around multiple times in the course of a week and a month and a few months. We really had to look at what's important for our teams to be able to retain that talent, retain the knowledge and the learning that we continually invest in. And so, we put a number of things in place with the partnership with AGS to really help us understand what I'd say, location by location, what was needed to meet those needs because what one of our plants might need or want to prioritize might've been different than one of the others. And so those programs still live on today. And I'm excited to say between our teams and the AGS team, we've really seen a lot of reduction in that turnover. The teams are happy. Doesn't mean we still have plenty of opportunities, we always do, but I think some of those systems in place that we have now to try to help make it more visible, have more accountability around that, both our side, the supplier side, it's really paid off for us in a lot of that.

Jessi Guenther: And I think I remember you talking when we were preparing to meet today, you were talking about something that I believe you called, correct me if I'm wrong, A3 methodology?

Marc Cochran: Yes.

Jessi Guenther: Can you talk a little bit about that? I think it transcends certainly the light industrial space into something that certainly from a client’s perspective would be interesting.

Marc Cochran: Yeah, and I'll probably butcher this, so I'm going to say this is how Marc as an HR person has viewed HR methodology, but it really is a problem-solving methodology, if you will. It comes from a lot of the lean and Toyota type history of how they approached problems in a standard way with a mindset to learn. Not just to how many problems can we solve and how fast can we solve it, but to really put the onus on the problem solver to be a learner through that experience. And so, it starts with really understanding what your problem is, how do you know it's a problem? So what is the current state? And that could be things like data, it could be a process map, just something that shows you how what's happening now is happening. And then you look at, well, what do we want different to happen? What does better look like? And so, as you're working through those steps of the process, you're also getting alignment, which I think is one of the more impactful pieces that a problem solver goes through is really that collaborative approach, to putting in real terms, how do we work with our plant to align on what better looks like? What our team thinks looks better, what the AGS team thinks looks better, might not be anywhere near what the plant team thinks. So, you're really bringing this whole group together to kind of work through that future vision. Then you look at, well, what's in between our current state and our future state? That's the gap. What do we have to close? How do we go close that? What solutions do we have? And then how do we know that's working? Is kind of tying it all together to say based on our original hypothesis of we want to reduce, let's say turnover by 20%, how do we see that flowing through with our solutions? And so, it's not complicated. The A3 refers to a single size of paper, so just an A3 size of a piece of paper. And so, you’re kind of working on your problem visually, again, visual to help drive alignment between you and your stakeholders. And then I mean in a lot of ways using a pencil to erase what's not working, start over and try it again, erase that again and just keep kind of iterating until you go. We've latched onto it as a company for many, many years because the operational excellence kind of process and lean as a company are very important to our core values. And so, while it is probably easily transferable inside of plant walls, in HR we've really tried to adapt it to how do we think? How do we build processes? And that could be a technology process, it could be an onboarding process, anything like that. And so, it helps give us a framework to be able to continuously improve all of those things.

Jessi Guenther: What I love about it, and we talked a lot about the fact that Trane is challenged, quite frankly, with that multi-site location. And I think a lot of companies certainly in the light industrial space, absolutely manufacturing, are challenged with, I think probably more than most is that you said this, this is not my words, "It wasn't a one-size-fits-all challenge that you were working to solve." So, to take that into each location to identify the problem, set a goal, and I'd love to hear a little bit more about that multi-site location strategy that you employ.

Marc Cochran: Yeah. I would say we weren't creating customized solutions. Customized. We're a shared service. It kind of goes against how do we standardize as much as we can? But what we were trying to do was to take what are the unique challenges that each site faces? Because of all of the different locations, our site, some are more rural, less rural, some are a little bit urban or urban adjacent if you will, to look at that. And so, we really recognized that. That very early on presented challenges in ways that what was easier to recruit for in Nashville or outside Nashville in Clarksville might've been a bigger challenge to try to do at our plant in Tyler, Texas. They're just very different markets. And so, while recruiting is recruiting some of the strategies and the ways that we partner with different suppliers would be reflected in that plant's approach.  And one of the key examples when we looked at some of these conversations and where some of the solutions came from was historically when we did score-carding on a supplier, it was really that one supplier across all their locations. And it was really hard to see where the opportunity locations were when it was integrated into one number or just a few numbers across the whole program across the country. So we immediately broke that out to look at least for light industrial, the score-carding site by site and having the site help us determine what was their priority, what were going to be their key metrics that they wanted reflected there. And I'd say for the most part, 75-80% were pretty standard across all sites, but usually there was at least one or two that was very important to them or needed more emphasis to call out. And that was able to create really their scorecard that they felt more ownership of, that we were listening to them. Again, every month we have a scorecard, we have a meeting between the plant, us, AGS and the supplier walking through those results. And we put into place, I'm not going to say three strikes throughout, but kind of like a system to where say it was very transparent. If we're not meeting the metrics that we expect to meet as set up with the plant, then we will look to explore other options. And we have many suppliers that they get the feedback, they're great, they react and they work to improve. And then certainly there have been situations where we have had to replace a few on there. But again, it is more created a co-ownership of that process and that's become the system under which we run this part of our program that's been very effective.

Jessi Guenther: We've seen some really great results from that shift for sure, both from an attrition standpoint as well as quality of talent. And in the end, and I think the most important thing is the satisfaction of the Trane hiring leaders, right?

Marc Cochran: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that's been helpful in their feedback. And again, it is the best as we know now, and we will continuously look to try to improve that over time. But it's been a great start and I hesitate to say start now, but it's been a great journey to get up to that point and it's allowed us also to start to focus on some other things as well.

Jessi Guenther: Yeah, fantastic. Shifting gears a little bit from a technology automation AI for the light industrial space, can you talk a little bit about where you are in Trane as an organization is on that journey?

Marc Cochran: Early. I'd say separating out the automation and then the AI. I think we've been now automating other internal processes where we can from really, I'd say the last five or six years and just simple automations to help create capacity within teams to where they can absorb more and do more to continue to standardize some work. And so, I'd say we've done more than dip our toe in the automation space. The AI part is, we're still learning. There's still a lot that we're trying to figure out as to how that fits within our overall approach. And I use it, I think, a lot. We have an internal AI tool that helps, I'd say more supplement the work that we're doing and help us write things when we want to have a head start. It helps brainstorm things, but it's been more individual than I'd say scaled at this point to kind of scale into a solution or integrate into a bigger technology to where it's having an embedded role in your day-to-day. Like we're just not there yet. But I think certainly there's a lot of interest, there's a lot of opportunity and there's a lot of learning we still have to go do and pilot and try to figure that out. But I think the potential is really huge. With that said, I think we being a more light industrial heavy organization, we realize there's going to be certain, while I might be excited about it, getting it actually to be felt in a very plant-type environment where they're not sitting at a desk or a screen or a device, how do you do that? Those kind of things I think is more like maybe the roles around them of how do we help create better experiences when they do have a chance to view a screen? Then really we get just as much value by someone walking around introducing themselves every day. I say that as kind of a simple thing, but that goes a long way, as much as some of these other fancier experiences do too, just to feel welcome and to feel a part of the team for that.

Jessi Guenther: Absolutely.

Marc Cochran: I think they both can live on.

Jessi Guenther: Yeah, I think so. And I don't think Trane's alone in that early stages, a little bit of, "Let's see."

Marc Cochran: We like to let a lot of other companies can make those early mistakes and figure that out, and then we'll come back along later and hopefully not too much later, but just after all that kind wave has died off and build on the mistakes that others have made to be able to go from there.

Jessi Guenther: That too is strategy.

Marc Cochran: Yes.

Jessi Guenther: Absolutely. So based on your experience, what tips or recommendations, advice would you have for other HR leaders who are considering or launching not only a full scale managed services partnership, but going on a journey and through the lens of that multi-site light industrial, what advice would you give leaders early on in a journey like that?

Marc Cochran: I would say one of the first, the relationship matters. How much you can understand each other, how much you both can go understand your internal stakeholders. Again, in our case, the plants, on their end. And that's not to say our professional part of our business and the administrative project management, all those very important on there too. But relationships with your key business stakeholder groups to go see what they see is there's nothing that replaces that human component. And then being able to continue to build on those relationships. So invest the time to go do that. Go see the plants, go walk the floor, go talk to this local supplier that's on site there, see what they have to deal with. Sometimes you just don't always get that feedback. And we need that feedback too, just as much as the line leaders and how they receive some of the attempts when they get them there. Maybe they help the supplier, maybe they get the information, maybe they're not in the right meetings. And so really don't overlook that relationship to you and just think that that's transactional. That's as important of the three-legged stool as anything else is on there too. And then the other part, what I would say, I've gotten so much in my career of learning from non-HR fields to be able to have more breadth in my role, to be able to look at things from maybe an IT side or look at things from a procurement lens. And so really being able to pull project management in and just have that help you create, which really is just a diverse role anyway, but you've got your hands in so many different things that you just can't look at things from one perspective. You need to be able to see, well, how does the vendor management side do this? How do we look at productivity and cost savings? How does that weigh heavier in times? It might be volatile we might be in right now. And then how does that also maybe focus more on quality when times are better for that? And that helps you also communicate to different leaders that you're looking at or that look at the program from just a line on a spreadsheet to be able to explain a lot of that and to be able to meet them where they are at versus just maybe looking at the other groups. So I'd say those two are easy tips, maybe easy in theory, but hard to apply sometimes.

Jessi Guenther: Yeah, absolutely. And just on behalf of certainly the Allegis team and the team that supports Trane and from our leadership team, we have appreciated that relationship. You've invested in as much as we have. And I think that locking arms, as we've gone and met the plant leaders and the various locations and the suppliers, there's very much a synergy there. And just on behalf of the team, I certainly appreciate that. So thank you.

Marc Cochran: My pleasure. Very excited. Thank you. Yeah.

Jessi Guenther: Absolutely. If our listeners wanted to learn more about you or about Trane Technologies, where should they go?

Marc Cochran: Well, I'm on LinkedIn, so that's an easy one to be able to find me there. And then Trane Technologies, please feel free to check out our website TraneTechnologies.com. Again, we hope we're in many households and businesses today. You might not even know us in a building. But our goal is to continue to do a great job there, continue to build on our environmental promises and things like that. And so we're just excited that we have the chance to do that every day.

Jessi Guenther: As are we. And you're in my household, and I appreciate it very much you, especially as it's heating up warm here in Maryland. Thanks, Marc, really appreciate you joining us today.

Marc Cochran: My pleasure.

Jessi Guenther: Thanks for your partnership.

Marc Cochran: Appreciate the opportunity.

Jessi Guenther: Absolutely.

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