Ep 4. What Changes Are Coming Across the Mining Industry? Jason Bubba w/ NORCAT

change is around us every day so how do you manage the changes that happen in mining year round welcome to another episode of change itself hosted by gus miner and eric demers this show is brought to you by sophie and technica mining and is produced by crownsman partners now here are your hosts gus and eric hello everyone and thanks for tuning in if you're coming back again thank you for being a repeat follower we're looking forward to bringing a new episode number four of change itself so you're here today with uh eric the merce and myself cass miner we've got a really interesting guest that we're going to be introducing shortly jason buba from norcat and today's theme is going to be you know discussing the evolution of solutions you know we uh we talk a lot about uh how things are not necessarily designed to be set in stone forever had lots of conversations uh eric welcome back episode four right on excited this is uh you know starting to get comfortable yourself yeah same i mean uh really pumped that uh you know the content we're putting out is being consumed and uh and we've got a you know pretty good pretty good group of followers that are starting to join in and tune in so i guess uh what we're talking about is showing value somewhere so pretty excited about that on i hope you know other people can learn from what we're talking about and from what we're learning so i certainly do want to rewatch them so that's been the funnest part is just re-watching our own episode and realizing that hey there's a lot of cool stuff we're talking about that you know ties into a lot of conversations we have on a weekly basis but we're actually learning from the stuff that we're putting out ourselves so it's uh it's been fascinating right on well i'd like to welcome our guests the uh newly minted c chief operating officer ceo i guess from norcat jason buba nice to see you jason hi eric nice to see you as well hi gus hi jason thanks for joining us today thanks for having me to discuss uh change in the evolution of solution changes all around us these days whether it's technology change or this uh pandemic we're going through that has forced a lot of change on people so plenty to talk about in terms of change and innovation yeah that's it's awesome wanna kick us off gus any thoughts any ideas i mean one of the things like you know since we last connected one of the things that's been coming up a lot uh across my way has been in y'all a lot of conversations about just because it's so today or was so for the past five years 10 years 20 years doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be what's so tomorrow or the years beyond and it's been fascinating to see you know what people are bringing up um as far as solutions or even what they're challenging you know what if what has come across your plates lately of things that are being challenged as uh especially like in the workplace as far as they i know we've always done it this way however today brings new complexity and new challenges so we got to take our solutions that we kind of minted and reforged them uh and so that we can keep the you know the momentum moving forward what's come across your way well there really are so many things um you know technology is changing so fast um and and you know that current generation that's entering the workforce has uh you know really grown up with technology this is the first generation that's literally grown up with technology um since they were you know essentially infants and toddlers so um you know kind of like you alluded uh when we're looking at the evolution of solutions sometimes we don't even know that we need a solution for something but some innovative person or an innovative company comes along and says hey we have been doing this for 5 10 15 years this way but do we still need to do it this way is there a better way to accomplish the same thing or accomplish more accomplish things even better so you know if we're looking in terms of uh evolution in business there's so many things around battery electric uh you know around a.i artificial intelligence around green technology and and all of these things uh really can be viewed in different lenses across various industries and how these various solutions might apply to different industries but not just that but how can these new innovative solutions apply across industries so that people can learn from each other we don't have to keep on reinventing the wheel we can make incremental adjustments to apply these things for solutions in various industries are you seeing any type of uh technologies think you talked about ai and that one you know seems to be a hot topic these days and different things that i'm reading and looking at and i guess hearing because i'm paying attention to it but those are there's going to be some evolution there we went from you know the you talk about kids growing up with the technology my kids know google and they talk to google they got a question sometimes they don't even ask me it's hey google um so any anything there anything that's you're seeing that's going from one one industry maybe could be applied to another industry yeah absolutely well you know if we if we look at something um that's you know a hot topic these days in terms of uh a uh electric vehicles but you know these electric vehicles have a ton of ai built into them they have a ton of autonomous technology built into them and of course you know uh companies like tesla blazing the way and are leaders in that area but now you're seeing uh pretty much all the auto manufacturers coming out with some incredible products that those price points coming down so that it's more affordable to the average person and the technology getting better um so when we look at something like that and then let's apply that to say the mining industry uh which myself and you eric are in you know that that's uh you know what we do day in and day out so how do the minds then apply that technology in the workplace well we're seeing today um new minds who are opening up and um their intent is that their entire fleets will be battery electric um a lot of them will also be uh tele-remote or autonomous vehicles so you know whether you're driving down the road going to toronto on the 401 in your tesla or you're in the workplace operating a huge piece of equipment but not necessarily in the driver's seat perhaps there's nobody in the driver's seat and they're at a computer terminal controlling it or part of the duties of that machine are actually performed on its own utilizing a.i um it's a it's a good example of um you know how a consumer technology or technology utilized in a consumer sense um can be very very useful in the mining industry i actually think that's a little bit flipped because as you know eric in the mining industry we've been using autonomous equipment and teleremote for a long time and you almost see it sort of migrating to the consumer side uh but you know people don't necessarily uh always see that so like it's there in the mining and i like there's pockets where it's like it's actually came and gone and sort of coming back which is which is interesting to me like i got an interesting linkedin uh video from a gentleman that was operating teleremote scoop somewhere in zimbabwe and i was like wow that's awesome like i don't see very much of that happening in subreddit hearing like romney's a we're starting to come back and things are starting to happen but you know like the technology was there probably 20 years ago with some of the some of the you know ankle minds that were around it at the time with some of the remote projects and you're just starting to hear them come back and we were working with the another company here in town we're working at you know try to tell them remote in a drift to optimize you know time between shifts and that project just never came to fruition um but yeah we're starting to hear more and more of it but i'm surprised there's not more the other piece that's interesting and really like if we take the autonomous vehicles and the tesla example is they're collecting data like steadily collecting data they've got vehicles out there and that's all they're doing i and again it could be that i just don't know but i'm not seeing like we have tons and tons of pieces of equipment you know driving ramps driving all over the mines and are we collecting that data to start building some of these autonomous processes do we know the drifts are we taking lidars like do we understand the main intersections interactions with the equipment like i think there's an opportunity there to be you know sought out and i don't know jason if you're hearing of anything like that you guys are working with some pretty high-tech uh technology companies there anything coming down the pipe yeah you know absolutely and and i think um you know you have to uh sort of look at those early adopters versus those who are going to sit back and wait a little bit until the technology is proven so uh you know as we all know some of this teleremote or autonomous technology's been in the mining industry and like you said some companies have implemented and then pulled back um you know i again let's compare that to consumer versus industry where you know when tesla first launched the first model s and uh you know you had those early adopters uh buy into that uh right away well that was a small group it was a niche group a you you had to have the money uh because they certainly aren't inexpensive and b you have to take a bit of a leap of faith that infrastructure um wasn't there charging stations weren't across the country um were these batteries going to be reliable could you get to your destination without uh you know going dead on the side of the road and waiting for a uh a traditional vehicle to pick you up and drive you to where you go so you know we can also apply that again to industry where some of those early adopters perhaps some of them um you know became a little bit turned off there's also has to be that that shift um in in thinking in the workplace so if i'm buying a electric vehicle that's my personal choice i'm choosing to be an early adopter or you know these days you know i'm we're it's still early adoption because the market isn't saturated that's for sure but would be we'd be having that same conversation 10 years from now probably not you know probably not um so you know in the mining industry uh perhaps some of these companies had tried this 15-20 years ago very very new technology back then and perhaps they didn't see all of the benefits that they would if they had perhaps implemented uh you know similar technology but today you know at today's level today's complexities today's advancements but you know again sorry to the point i was making i'm choosing to buy an electric vehicle that's me in the workplace now you have a workforce so it's not just about hey we're going to do this as a company now we have to um accomplish these things with the workforce in mind how do we make that shift there will um you know as these things are new there's always that challenge of the workforce thinking well um you're going to replace me with a robot or you'll replace me with a piece of equipment that can work on its own um i i never like to look at it in terms of that technology is replacing a person but that technology is changing the way work is done there'll still be people you know and i don't know about 50 years from now uh you know elon musk is working on some pretty cool uh robots and such right now but you know today um technology can't do creative thinking like people can uh they they can't solve um certain uh complex problems in the workplace like people can can they solve mathematical problems much better than people absolutely so if we're looking at implementing these types of things in whether it's mining or industrial whatever it may be manufacturing um it's not a viewpoint of it's going to replace someone's job but perhaps make that job easier or help that person do their job better or create higher value jobs where you know people don't have to be in harm's way when they're performing their job in the workplace so there certainly is a difference when we're talking about uh technology change from a consumer standpoint where we're making the choice versus in industry where you know we have to make sure that our employees at the end of the day are our employees are our success uh they're the ones that uh you know uh make our company access success and we have to make sure that implement implementation of technology in the workplace is a benefit to them and that those individuals want to see this happen and and that boils down to um communication right uh communicating with the workforce on you know how and why these things uh will happen and how it'll be a benefit to the workforce not a detriment well and that's where and that's where the evolution comes in right because some of the workforce will have to explain why and some of the workforce they're going to be like because you know they're going to say like it's the opposite where we don't need to know why it's a requirement right so when you look at you know when we talk about the generation now that's been born with technology in their hands from from infancy they've had remotes in their hands their whole life you know i mean that's just no that's how they know how to operate anything is that there is some type of a remote right whereas like if i think about how i grew up there was a lever for this a lever for that um i would put my brakes on with this like you know like it's a very it was a very manual process to do anything whether it was go-karting whether it was you know it didn't matter everything was lever based so now that it's all digital and and everything is over over remote this is the workforce that's being injected so when you look at the evolution of the solution is that the solution has to match the talent that's coming in they they have no clue how to operate a machine with all these levers they've never been exposed to them right so so it's a it's kind of like a very uh opportunistic timing when you think about it that this is the technology that's being introduced but it's also that's that's the skill set that's coming in to use these things uh whereas the previous skill set that may think that they're being replaced they're actually in some sense being replaced as far as generational uh transitions are happening but we're enhancing the workforce of the future is what we're doing with these things and and we have the same conversation when it comes to using cell phones and tablets in the field same thing like this is just how people communicate today and if you've never known communication through a post-it note you don't you don't even know where to go look for it to for a post to know to purchase much less use one and pass it on right so so it is interesting you know and one of the things that i noticed uh just on the weekend so i was uh you know i recently started boating and things like that and then i was at a lake and there was a fishing derby and i watched boats being launched and and you know back and forth and it was just so hectic and then this guy comes in all by himself right so he's all by himself with his boat his trailer and his truck how do you launch all this and how do you do all this by yourself well he had a mapping i guess on his remote for his little minn kota trolling motor so he launched his boat set the mapping out the boat took off took off on its own went around the went around the bay he went and parked his vehicle did everything else put his trailer away came back the boat came right back to the dock he got on and then off he went i was like and i just i was sitting there at the beach going did that just really happen was that was that just real life like did the boat really just take off do a fig like a tick off it did a figure eight came right back and and that was it you know it's quite astonishing so when you look at those technologies and how they cross they're gonna cross pollinate uh everything from you know social activities to in the workplace to all over it it's it's quite amazing and and you know when you when you mention you know he jumps out and he's got an app and his boat is first of all i want a boat like that i got to figure that out but but you know these these little things we call a phone i don't even know why they call them a phone these days that's about the last thing you do is put it to your ear but i you know i guess the definition has stood the test of time but you know when you look at something like that the simple cell phone these days you know how many industries has that appended and turned on its head so you know nobody runs around with a camera anymore you know nobody buys a a camera nobody prints photos you know uh you know we all remember the days we had photo albums well you know this is your photo album nobody prints them anymore so you have cameras you have uh you know uh uh photographic paper those places where you you know actually take it to and get your 12 photos developed they don't exist anymore you know that doesn't exist if you can do that yeah no yeah i think there's one store in the city you can still do that at downtown um you know what about the the movie rental places around the world i know this didn't do that all to it but kids these days you know when we were younger tvs got bigger and bigger bigger we always wanted the bigger tvs kids are happy watching a movie on their cell phone these days you know um kids consume you know i say kids i i'm in my 40s so i'm you know those who grew up with it um you know uh they're consuming media different than they ever have before so you even look at traditional media outlets who aren't seeing the ratings aren't seeing the viewership whether it's entertainment or news because they're consuming things in a different way because of the phone if we look back even as short as you know just a few years back uh phones were very um discouraged in the workplace and now we have technology on the phones that are helping people do their jobs better or helping them you know eliminate paper or move data around the workplace faster so now we're seeing that as a benefit every worker deserves to go home safely at the end of the day book a demo with sophie to discover how their groundbreaking ehs management software empowers workers to proactively avoid hazards and how organizations like yours can cultivate a stronger work culture visit them at sophie.com technica mining is a premier underground mining and construction contractor they stand for delivering quality project work on time and on budget through innovative thinking their excellent safety record experienced workforce and large equipment fleet will guarantee the timely completion of all your project needs trusted by the world's leading mining companies technical mining has over 20 years of experience in mine construction development and production contact technica mining to take your next mining project to the next level visit them at technicamining.com change itself is produced by crownsman the voice of industry check out more including the crownsman show mining now crownsman energy and crownsman egg crownsman.com i've had uh i had an interesting one this morning maybe less or not this morning but this week less on the technology side and more in like the workplace and like the evolution of like a company or work itself and how we're doing it so i was getting ready to prepare an annual review for an employee and i'm going through it and i'm reviewing some of the old older ones that have been done and i really start to question like what are we evaluating against and so i start you know going down a deep dive and i end up in a rabbit hole and i find this person's role description and i start reading the rule description it was from 2013 so that's you know it's eight years old it's quite old i'm going to say irrelevant and as i'm reading it i'm like this is what we're evaluating this person's performance against something that was put out in 2013 and that that at that point like the solutions we had was like we had training that was in a file filing cabinet in an office and then a copy of that went to site and it accompanied the person the person held that document and brought it with them to the next site they went to and like that was the person's role we're certainly not doing that anymore we've you know added hr uh softwares we've got uh you know health and safety software's in the workplace the workers have a tablet with all that information on it they just carry it so it's really interesting to see how it's evolved and then some of it was like also like the design of the work where i'm going back and going like hmm like that was interesting information and i was like insightful if i go on back to that are we following that model if things change like are you guys seeing any of that yeah well you know it's a very good point in terms of especially those employees who have perhaps been with the company for 5 10 15 years right do we go back from an hr perspective and actually look at that initial contract or that uh you know an initial role profile for that individual and like you said eric by now it's probably changed in some way or another and are we reflecting that um a in their day-to-day duties and expectations and be in in their evaluations like you said uh you know so i think it's uh you know uh hr uh certainly has a role in reviewing um you know employees roles within the organization and making sure that that they are up to date um and again that goes for uh you know brand new employees or uh employees that have been around for a long time and um you know i think that an important thing when looking at change in the workplace a lot of it is a mindset you know whether whether you're young or old it really doesn't matter how open are you to the change and i'll give you a good example of this our manager of our simulation training department who trains new and existing workers utilizing the state of the art mining simulation technology virtual reality technology augmented reality technology all of the latest things that we build he's in his later 60s and he has you know 40 years of experience in industry and this individual craves change he craves new innovation and the reason why he does is because he wants the latest tools he's not scared that innovation will replace him he just wants the latest tools so that he can do a better job doing his job and and in that is training workers to be more effective at what they do and ultimately safer of what they do and utilizing technology we can really do a lot around especially the safety component high hazard situations that we can't even do in real life we couldn't have done that in the past we can't do it now in real life because they're high hazard situations we don't want to put those individuals in but utilizing technology we can so and at the same time perhaps you have a a younger employee in who doesn't maybe they're a little bit uh more adverse to change and so you have more challenges so you know we we keep on talking about the younger generation who's grown up with it in their hands but you know don't dismiss uh that uh that generation who's on the brink of retirement because to me it's a mindset uh and if you're open for change for the benefit of all um it really doesn't matter what age you are yeah and i've always been a true believer that as long as you've communicated the definition of success because people want to be successful every day yeah right and then talk about this a few times but as long as you've updated the definition of success so whether it's from a role description a new an updated contract or whatever the case may be and they know what they're being measured against and they understand that this is now the definition of success the change is usually absorbed pretty well because they're like okay cool i'm going to crush it with these new tools to to accomplish this new version of success but if you keep the version of success the same as it was five years ago and you can choose all these new things well how do i accomplish that level of success with all this disruption and it doesn't make sense to me anymore right so i think that part you know to you both of you guys point is as we evolve and as we bring things forward and we re-establish the new target and we know that there's work to be done to create the next level of work right because any change requires work uh but if we say hey you know we understand we're about to disrupt you however this is what we see as being successful well now they're moving towards that target and they're not concerned anymore about achieving the old target right and i think that's that's disruptive right i uh throw a question to you guys so and as we're talking about this really coming to me but are we are we conscious of some of this change sometimes or is it just like happening to us and around us and like we don't even recognize that it's happening what are you what do you guys see there in there i think the answer to that is yes and yes so sometimes uh the technology evolves around us that it's it's slow but steady enough that you can see the changes within a year or two three years again how do some of these industries get so disruptive that have been around for so long and you don't mind because you have the convenience of the new technology that that's okay if that you know whatever else was disrupted and goes away because we have a better way and i think people let those types of things happen around us uh but you know there are things that happen perhaps closer to home or closer to your personal life that are more of an immediate change again if your role in in the job you do every day is all of a sudden going to change because something new is being implemented um then that's something that you know you're you're you're less willing to sit back and let it happen and evolve versus wow um i need to do something different day to day uh in my job to be successful am i going to and so um i'm going to jump back here for a second when we talk about changes coming to the organization or to that worker's role what we don't want to do is say change is coming to you this is how your job is going to change what we want to do is include that employee in that process we want to include that employee so that we can say hey listen we're looking at doing this how can we do it well how do we implement this um with with you know keeping your role your duties uh in mind so that um when it comes to implementation and you are using this technology in the field how is that going to make your job more effective how is it gonna you know uh and and when people have that um you know input when they're part of a process then you've more of a chance you're going to get that buy-in you're going to have less resistance versus this is what we're going to do it's brand new you have to get on board because this is your new job that you know even for someone who's uh welcoming change it's not a good way to implement it and you know you get your guard up pretty quick versus hey i'm part of this process i'm part of making things better i'm part of innovation now that makes me feel like i have something to aim for and when it's a success i was part of that success and i feel good about that you said something really interesting there jason where you talked about the if it's like convenient i'm okay with it i don't even need like i don't have a choice in the matter but if it's convenient i'm gonna choose to like disregard it or not disregard but like embrace it and not make it a fuss but there are some things there that like like you said it's like almost like abrasive it's like imposed upon you're like whoa whoa no thanks i wonder what the what's what's there what's in that difference gus you got any any thoughts well you know there's also i mean it's interesting when we start thinking about uh the in position versus the open door uh approach like you know jason touch on it about making sure everybody's involved making sure we touch base with the right stakeholders right the workforce but there's also a lot to be said with the leadership as well is that a lot of times in different organizations leadership has done a lot of work and put in a lot of blood sweat and tears to make sure that the processes and systems and everything is defined well and not only do we have the definition of success for the workforce but we also know how to measure it because we have the systems in place to do it and then somebody comes in and says okay i know you've been working on this for the past five years however or maybe 10 years uh or beyond and then but here's a new way of doing things and it'll kind of shake it up a little bit but man we'll be able to track the success much better that creates a lot of defense as well it's like hold on like i put a lot of energy into put into putting this in place and then now you're shaking it all up right so so that's why when we evolve on on certain solutions it it's also taken in consideration and having empathy on the people that have really done a lot of work on setting that groundwork in the first place right charles said something in our last conversation last episode and it was like around perspective we're talking about transformation and change it was like for the person building the thing you know it seems to be slow but for other people it just happens like i wonder if it's kind of that same like perspective thing like if it's open like and again back to what jason was saying in the beginning it was like if i'm an early adopter yes i'm wanting it and i'm embracing it there's a point where that technology is just there and it's proven and we just jump on board and we like with it like i wonder if it's like that perspective perspective is we don't even notice it because we're actually getting on board sometimes later in that innovation cycle where it's it's just there right there it's proven smooth it just works i i think that it has to also do in terms of your your level of choice um or perception of choice so if we take it back to the consumer market you know when when netflix first launched and these other streaming services you had a choice right you can either buy into these streaming services or uh perhaps you still go down to the local movie rental place and get what you want and then you know it started becoming more and more convenient well geez more and more people are just watching these movies at home um and i don't want to be charged for returning a uh remember guys the vhs type you have to rewind before please be kind rewind rewind it um so so you know you you had choices in that and in the day-to-day impact to you and your family was pretty minimal but here we are you know um as time progresses and a lot of that industry has evolved so much that that's just gone away and everybody just you know rents from home and you get instant access to whatever you want versus um it's more sensitive in the workplace where now that choice is affecting me personally but because it's also affecting me personally in my work it's also affecting my family right if this is impacting my work is it impacting my paycheck what options do i have i either go along with it whether i like it or not and continue my employment and being able to make a living for my family to pay for my kids to go to school or my mortgage whatever it is it's expensive to live these days or i don't go along with it and risk all of those things and essentially put my family at risk so i think that it's a more sensitive topic in terms of your level of choice and how it impacts you on a day-to-day basis because whatever is impacting you at the workplace it really is impacting your family and you know rightfully so people get pretty defensive pretty quick if if we think that our livelihood may or may not be challenged by a new technology that's being implemented in the field so i do see that sensitivity uh from you know a a choice from a consumer technology adaptation versus something in the workplace that's going to happen in the workplace where like we're like coming in with some change that actually has no bearing on the person's like like opportunity to earn a livelihood like maybe it's the way we do instant investigation like we're going through a change we've changed the thresholds and the parameters and that like sometimes seems to like ooh like there's some uncertainty there like can we really do that should we do that like no no i'm not comfortable doing that and like it doesn't affect anybody's livelihood yet we're like sometimes so hesitant to like try one of these things on or like question why it's done that way in the first place so like i find it interesting because like yeah there are some points where we're talking about like technology like automated vehicles that kind of stuff i could see that kind of piece in the conversation but sometimes it's just in how we how we do something and it's actually how we do something that doesn't affect most people but there's still a huge reluctance there and and there'll always be that difference between early adopters who are hey bring it give me the latest that you have let me test it first and let me test it break it and give you uh some advice on how to improve on it and then there's gonna be those folks who are yeah okay well prove it works well and then i'm happy to use it uh once it's proven and then there's gonna be those folks who are always gonna be a little bit of a pushback on hey listen we've done this like this for a long time it works why are you trying to fix something in their mind that's not broken so you'll always kind of have those three categories to work within and challenge um and you know we we just have to challenge ourselves and challenge our employees to uh you know rise to the occasion and again communication is the key in all this let's let's talk it out um there aren't many things uh that we can't solve if we just sat down and had that conversation how uh maybe uh you can shout out some light as well as far as you know things that are going on in norcal like norcat has moved along quite a bit in the past uh 20 years you know how's that evolution been taking place at uh with yourselves and that's a great question um so you know we have our own operating mind and we train new miners to enter the mining industry and they are being trained with practical skills right we still need them in that underground environment these are things you can't do on the surface above ground and you can't accomplish all with technology so we still train people every single day in the operating mine in that traditional equipment to get the fundamental skills but what we also do is implement a ton of technology in the learning process we use augmented reality in terms of uh putting people bringing the virtual world to the real world and having workers interact with that um we also use virtual reality on uh to train workers on pre-operational checks and other situations on equipment so if i'm training a new worker how to do a pre-operational check in the field i'm probably standing in front of a piece of equipment that's in fairly good working order because it should be in fairly good working order so i can train someone to do a pre-op check in the field and they can do it in front of me the challenge there is can they really catch those fault conditions which is difficult to train in the field because again that equipment should be in good working order so in virtual reality we put them in front of that exact same piece of equipment and once they're they're competent in performing a pre-operational check uh on that piece of equipment in good working order now we have over you know 200 fault conditions that we can trigger for that worker get them back in the virtual reality world and say okay let's do that pre-op check again and let's see if you find any things that are wrong with this piece of equipment this time and it you know the technology has advanced so far that it looks like the real piece of equipment in a real operating mind and those workers are immersed in that environment and because these are new workers you know we all know that the mining environment can be a little bit intimidating for a new worker so uh you know all of a sudden they're in a a dark wet loud uh place that's you know surrounded by rock with heavy equipment moving around and you know there can be a sense of nervousness for these new workers who are doing something they've never experienced before as these new workers uh we're doing a research project right now on this the effectiveness of learning technology in the workplace as these new workers are working through these digital exercises and getting what we call that virtual experiential training the early feedback that we're already getting for them is that it helps them stay calm they're you know there's no threat around them uh they're not going to be harmed by the equipment they're not going to injure themselves they're not going to injure a co-worker by doing something wrong with the equipment so there's an instant sense of calm with what they're doing in the training because they're calmer because they're not nervous now they're just paying attention to the learnings that's going on you know they they can just laser focus on what's being taught so quite often with companies they'll they'll ask me how fast can you get someone trained can you get them trained faster we don't like measuring on speed we want to measure so that that person is competent and proficient in their tasks but if you do want to look at it in terms of time well the learning technology is always there when you're looking at equipment in the field it's not always there it's being used most of the time and it's it's a big challenge to get that equipment to be used dedicated to training so learning technology is always available 24 7 7 days a week and it allows you to train those workers on situations that may take them two three four years to actually experience in the field well you may have forgot that by time you get to experience it in the field but with the learning technology we can build some of that muscle memory so that when an incident does happen in the field they have the skills the knowledge the memory to be able to respond to that so once they graduate from the virtual reality training then they go into the mining equipment simulator training where they're actually at the physical controls and you guys have seen this at our place they're the actual physical controls but a screen around them in a virtual mining environment so now we want to get those individuals to um to be competent but also to a certain level of proficiency in this and then we train them again brake failures engine fires all of these things that we you know they can encounter in the workplace these are real hazards that do occur and impossible to train otherwise if we weren't using learning technology so those workers who then migrate to the workplace this goes to when we were talking earlier about employees thinking well this will replace my job it doesn't replace their job whatsoever what i call this is the trainer's toolbox let's give trainers all the tools we possibly can so that they can do their jobs more effectively utilizing technology so once these workers then go into the field and they start interacting with the actual equipment in the actual environment we've seen already that they're they're much calmer and they have that uh virtual experiential training where they're actually able to do that pre-operational check on that piece of equipment that's standing right in front of them without any further guidance without any further instruction so we're proving that you can actually teach these practical skills with learning technology not just theoretical skills so we're doing a lot around that we're working on some research projects as well around this to help prove that out because there aren't a lot of independent white papers um that uh are dedicated to learning technology in the workplace um and and we're always innovating always moving forward and uh doing some real fun stuff in uh the simulation vr ar space jason are you guys seeing a shift i know we've had this conversation you know before we've actually trialled some of it but are you seeing a shift also in like the need for just giving somebody trained to like let's build some proficiency and some skills are we seeing that shift yet yes um people are still eager though to get you know that worker in the field as soon as possible um i i think that you're seeing a little bit of a different shift in that thinking right now because we all know that right now whether it's in industries like construction the skilled trades or the mining industry there's a big human capital gap there we don't we literally just don't have enough people entering these industries for the demand of jobs right now so if you're looking for that highly skilled worker who's highly proficient at these tasks let's say they have five to ten years worth of experience tremendously difficult to get right now because they're working and if they're in mining and construction here in ontario specifically they're making a good living so you know these these are individuals who are difficult to attract so if if we look back now and companies need to hire because you know the industries are doing well right now and they need people badly now people are looking at a little bit more differently okay we will take that entry level worker we're more open to that now and guess what we need that entry level worker to be a little bit more skilled because we even have a shortage of these experienced trainers in the field who can get these folks to that level of competence so in that eric what we've actually seen and again it goes back to that blend of practical and learning technology what we've actually been doing a lot of is to augment that entry-level training is on-site training with workers so now they're in that workplace they're brand new workers brand new on pieces of equipment but now we're in their actual workplace helping them along and it's not just training but it's also mentoring right we we want the right people to be helping these folks to gain the knowledge and skills and apply those now in the actual workplace um to get them to that level of proficiency now you know the thing is with proficiency is um you know nothing helps more than time and experience right yeah you have to be there you have to do the task and just like anything we do in life the more you do it the better you get well that's excellent and uh you know we've always uh reserved some spots uh sometime at the end of our interviews so we can cover new technologies and i thought that was a great way to introduce new technology uh you know from the sense of learning learning technology so so thanks for sharing that with us uh thanks a lot for joining us i mean we want to make sure that we are sensitive to the time that we have allocated for ourselves and for the audience i'm sure we can keep the conversation going on for for many hours yet uh but uh yeah thanks for joining us today uh jason very valuable insights eric here we are wrapping up episode number four right on thanks a lot thanks for joining us yes thank you guys thank you eric right on for everybody watching if you're interested in what we're where we're presenting on a monthly basis uh go ahead on your youtube channel and ring that bell follow us like us all the cool stuff that you're doing these days to stay in tune with the content and we're looking forward to your feedback and we'll catch you next month with our next next episode

Channel: Crownsmen Partners

Views: 10,238

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: afTlTttpNYE

Length: 45min 53sec (2753 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021