In the tagline of Hill Electric, you’ll notice the word “partnership.” It could be easy to overlook that word, and the reality is that partnership is a fundamental part of everything we do in our business.
Recently, we had the opportunity to work alongside Anderson Districts I & II Career & Technology Center (ACTC), to lead a class for high-school seniors on Fall Prevention and Aerial Lift Safety. The class was taught by our own David Wolke, Director for Labor and Safety. The class included the practical side of lift safety, fall protection, and also gave students a taste of what contractors in the field experience every day.
As we look toward other opportunities to work within the community and again with ACTC, it’s important that we all understand that partnership and community efforts such as these are important for a number of reasons:
To Provide Real-Life Training and Mentorship
Using this class as an example of what we hope to do consistently throughout our community, it provides a way for students to get practical, real-life training of what a job in the industrial electrical industry might look like. We had an interactive lesson on the proper way to wear a fall arrest harness that is OSHA compliant on construction sites. We then went outside to give them a taste of operating a scissor lift which requires wearing a harness. But not only that—it also offered them an opportunity to connect with one of our executive team and learn directly from someone who knows all the ins and outs of working in a manufacturing facility. We are hopeful that this will be impactful to students who are considering this type of work, or something similar, for their own career.
To Engage the Next Generation
There’s always a lot of back-and-forth about generational differences, and a lot of the perceived differences melt away when you have a chance to personally connect. Similarly, our community efforts are a way for us to engage a new generation of workers—to encourage them in their progress and to teach them the tried-and-true methods and practices that we have also learned along the way. It is through this engagement that we believe we will be able to help raise up a new generation of leadership—not just for our own company, but for our community, state and beyond.
To Build Skilled Trades Workforce
South Carolina’s workforce is booming, and not going away any time soon. Exposing kids to our industry’s equipment is one way to spark excitement and get a hand-ons taste of the electrical world. Service providing companies and technologies like what we offer through Hill Electric are going to be needed for a very long time into the future.
It’s our job to help build that workforce to keep our manufacturing industries moving and growing. We see community opportunities like this one as a way for us to help grow the workforce by showing the next generation of students that this work is necessary, and can be a solid choice for their career.
While we at Hill Electric consider community impact and partnership to be a foundational part of who we are, we’d encourage any company out there to consider their own impact they may have on their community. It’s up to all of us to build the businesses and leaders of the future, and it’s a job that we take quite seriously.
If we can be of any help to your company in creating a plan for community outreach and impact, please let us know. We are happy to help share what we’ve learned along our own path.
