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Servicing customer and dealer needs with employee upskilling


Cape Town, 27 Mar 2017
Powell Tronics' Andre Joubert trains Siyabonga Mbeleka on the ATOM suite of products.
Powell Tronics' Andre Joubert trains Siyabonga Mbeleka on the ATOM suite of products.

Along with providing reputable customised access control and time and attendance (T&A) solutions, Powell Tronics believes that service delivery remains a primary focus of its offering. One of the foundations of this customer-centric philosophy is the company's employees. Ensuring that employees are equipped with the appropriate skills and that constant advancement is instilled in their work ethos, has resulted in the development of long-standing productive relationships with dealers and end users.

John Powell, CEO at Powell Tronics, says that when employing new staff members, careful consideration is given to the inherent skills and potential of each person. "Technology in the fields of biometric access control and T&A is constantly evolving so in order to remain ahead of the game, our employees need to be invested in not only refining their current skills, but furthermore in developing and honing new skills. Excellence and flexibility remain the hallmarks of our entire employee base."

Powell explains that while employees may initially be recruited to undertake a specific job function, this does not limit their growth potential into other skills sets within the company. He cites Frazer Matchett and Charles Madala, both of whom were employed as technical support engineers. "We identified their ability to interact with customers and as a result, both men have subsequently been trained to perform a technical sales function. Matchett is now a special projects sales manager and Madala is a sales consultant. Marrying their technical know-how with their personable natures has worked to the benefit of all stakeholders, including our dealers and customers."

Powell adds that technical support people typically also find the lateral movement to product development relatively effortless. An example of this is the deployment of technical support engineer Francois de Wit to a key role as a senior developer. De Wit's technical acumen made the transition to software development seamless and he has since been instrumental in ongoing development of the ATOM suite of T&A products.

On the other side of the coin, Bonginhlanhla Ndlovu has received extensive training with his already-extensive call centre support acumen, to equip him for his role as a technical support engineer. The company is currently looking at expanding its technical department to further add to its existing service delivery capacity.

Identifying promising new talent is another focal point for Powell Tronics. Siyabonga Mbeleka joined the Powell Tronics team in Port Elizabeth in mid-2016 with no formal background in software or system commissioning. This, however, was viewed as an opportunity to carefully mould his skills in a manner that would benefit the Port Elizabeth region. Regular Skype training sessions and visits to the company's head office Cape Town to undergo one-on-one technical training with the technical department, have honed Mbeleka's skills. In addition, certified technical training at supplier Impro adds the final stamp of approval.

"We will continue to identify areas of opportunity for upskilling and empowering our current employees as well as actively searching for potential future employees who can add value to our operations. Ultimately, we aim to provide our dealers and end users with access to a highly qualified support system comprising out-of-the-box thinkers," says Powell.

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