Our Approach to Associate Training


<< Back to Blog

Contact Us

Ongoing professional training is an integral part of Buckman’s culture. We understand that to be a trusted advisor to our clients, we have to be able to look at a situation and provide state-of-the-art strategic counsel to solve the problems their processes face. This is why we arm our associates with an uncommonly extensive range of knowledge and expertise. Our sales professionals go through rigorous and varied training programs so they can be as smart as possible on your industry and its challenges.

A Three-Tiered Approach to Associate Training

Our associate training program starts with the end goal in mind—producing industry experts who can be assets to our customers. We’re not just teaching them about the chemistries and how to apply them, we’re looking at every aspect of the entire process that can improve sustainability efforts, identify efficiencies and boost ROI.

Tier 1: Field Work

After initial onboarding, the first phase of the training involves spending between 30 and 90 days in the field working with experienced team members. There’s no substitute for hands-on experience. We sometimes compare it to cooking—you can watch someone cook a meal as many times as you want, but when you get in the kitchen and try to cook it yourself, that’s when you find out what you don’t know.

Tier 2: Advanced Classroom Training

After the field work, the second phase involves classroom time that builds on that experience and adds skills to their toolkit. It’s literally hundreds of hours of instructor-led training, ranging from a four-day class on nonmicrobiological deposit control to 28 hours of training on our water-treatment applications. These classes, which vary based on area of specialty, provide the additional chemical, application and technical knowledge that rounds out their industry knowledge.

Tier 3: Mentorship Program

At this point our associates are at a level where they can be continually mentored in the field and contribute to our customers’ success. We believe that being mentored is the best way to learn in a complex environment. It builds knowledge, it builds capability, it builds confidence—and all those things are translatable to a customer.  But mentoring is not something that just happens naturally.  Associates choose a knowledge progression path specific to their area of deployment: Tissue, Packaging or Pulp, for example. The associate is assigned a mentor whose responsibility is to oversee the associates’ learning and progress.  The mentoring paths progress the associate through the apprentice, technician and expert level designations.  Part of successfully becoming a expert in your field at Buckman is having mentored other associates to the level of technical expert.  This requirement ensures a steady stream of willing of mentors and continuity of organizational knowledge across the company.

Training Is Not Just for New Associates

It’s not just new hires who take part in our training programs. In order for us to continue to provide world-class products and services to our customers, it’s important for us to maintain continuity and transfer of knowledge from those who have it within the company to those who need it. This is why we’ve developed a structured process to ensure that even our experienced people are involved in our training programs where feedback, new ideas and challenges to our preconceptions are captured and incorporated.

Decades of Experience and Data to Pull From

The benefit of being a global supplier with decades of experience is that we can support customers with insights into best practices and solutions for almost any opportunity or problem. Our expert audits quickly identify equipment and process settings as well as chemical approaches that our customers have in place so that when our associates identify these situations, they flag them and start asking questions—all the while keeping your proprietary data and processes confidential.

A Counter to Industry Brain Drain

It’s a known fact in the pulp and paper industry that in recent years there has been an exodus of experienced, talented people, which has led to knowledge gaps. This means younger people are coming into the industry with less experience. And with many companies cutting their R&D centers or training budgets, they turn to companies like Buckman that have deep industry expertise to help fill those gaps.

We partner with OEMs, equipment suppliers and other industry specialists to generate training programs not just for our own associates, but for our customers as well. Not only do we teach them how to use the products and equipment they’re purchasing from us, but we provide knowledge about the industry itself and the roles that they play in it.

A Strategic Partnership

When you make the decision to become a Buckman customer, you are entering into a partnership with our entire organization, from sales, to R&D, to technical services and everywhere in between. Whether it’s a seasonal or ongoing issue, a new and complex problem or a specific question, you can be confident that our highly trained team can keep your proprietary data secure, provide the right solution fast, and if needed, supply the employee training required to keep your processes running smoothly.

Learn more about how we work on our website and additional details about our training programs in this infographic.