Inclusivity, customer relationships matter

Today’s Medical Developments (TMD): How did your personal experience of living on a Native American reservation inspire your need to help others from similar backgrounds?

Andy Wells (AW): Growing up in a poverty community in a remote area, you learn a lot of lessons that tend to serve you for your entire life. I learned how to be very appreciative of other people because we worked together. People tended to rely on each other, and the community was a cohesive team effort to survive.

At a very early age, I could see the concept that when you just thought about yourself and worked for yourself, you would survive. However, if you tried to be part of a bigger group and help others, you could thrive and go beyond your normal achievements working as a group.

My dad would often help other people just because they needed help. There was no money exchanged. It was just a thank you or a smile, and that was enough. I learned how important it is to be nice to people. It just pays dividends.

TMD: What do students learn in the training program?

AW: We don’t call them students, they’re apprentices, and we pay them. They’re learning modern skills on modern equipment. At the end of their first six months, they come to our main factory and work full-time on more advanced training, equipment, and events. It’s a gradual integration project.

We start bringing them in once a week.

The apprentices have a mentor to look after them, and to help with any issues. We have a pretty good success rate. During the first six months, apprentice success is about 60%, but in the following six months of their one-year job training, their success increases to about 90%.

TMD: What’s one of your favorite memories while working with apprentices?

AW: One lady who had been with us a year and a half said she was so afraid her children were watching her come home with welfare checks. She didn’t want them to model after her and do the same thing. Pay the apprentices every week, and they bring home things they make here to show their young people. Later, the young people come here and see what mom does, and they begin to build this model that the way to be a responsible adult is to be employed and trained.

TMD: Why is it important for Native Americans/Indigenous people to have access to this training program?

AW: At work, it’s very important we walk the talk, that we do what we say. The way we speak and the way we show respect to people, we try to live that. Our employees begin to model after that, and then they take it home and they begin to do that. Even the words and language the apprentices use improves when they get here.

I tell them I can’t change your past, but I can help you change your future, and if you work with me, we do that together.

Because my son and daughters and their husbands are involved, we expect to carry this on even after my days are over here. They expect to keep this going into the future, so we have sustainability for the next generation of people who need help.

TMD: How do you think this training program can inspire similar ones to become more inclusive?

AW: Most businesses have a shortage of employees. They’re hiring for achievement, but I think you must look beyond that. Start hiring for desire and potential, not just achievement.

As businesspeople we invest millions in facilities, but let’s invest in future employees, and not just the ones who have been to universities. Let’s invest in the lower portion that have been left behind. When I say lower, I mean only in terms of formal education. They’re not lower in intelligence, they’ve been raised in an environment where they haven’t developed the interest, or the insight, into getting a higher education.

I believe everybody has some skills. I encourage employers to try and bring those out of people, invest in the people, and don’t expect public schools to do all of it. We in business must start getting more involved in helping our young people with education and job training.

Wells Technology
https://www.wellstech.com