TOP managers at machine engineering company PPS Group in Detva learned how to weld in late August. Company general director Pavol Šimkovič ordered his top management to try doing the work which makes up the core business of the company, i.e. welding steel sections in 30-degree heat.
“I said to myself that in a company ranking amongst the biggest welding shops in Europe it will be a duty of top managers to know sufficiently the conditions for manual welding of heavy steel structures,” Šimkovič explained, as quoted in the Hospodárske Noviny daily.
He himself did not avoid the training, and all eight of the company’s section heads and three other senior managers including one woman have also attended the course.
Now Šimkovič expects interest from middle management. Out of PPS Group’s 1,500 employees, 270 are welders.
Jaroslava Rezlerová, the head of personnel company Manpower in Slovakia, admitted that PPS’s move was a unique step.
“It is a little bit extreme, but may bring success,” said Rezlerová, explaining that while managers could become better acquainted with the work of employees they would be also able to estimate more easily whether someone is making excuses.
