Along with prioritizing safety and treating employees as family, UG2’s founding principles included a commitment to creating the best training and professional development programs in the facility services industry.
Launching a state-of-the-art Training and Innovation Lab three years ago moved us lightyears ahead of the competition in that endeavor—and our foresight positioned us to keep our teams and customers trained, up to the moment, on rapidly-changing COVID-19 knowledge and practices when the pandemic struck.
Today, we are taking a moment to express our congratulations to all who have contributed to the thriving center of knowledge that our training and innovation lab has become.
We are proud and grateful that:
- Our robust virtual offerings allow us to deliver training to our employees across the country, and also helps tap the best talent to deliver those trainings, wherever they are located.
- When COVID-19 interfered with in-person training—even as it made training more crucial than ever—we had the systems in place to take every training virtual and to continuously update our offerings with new protocols.
- Our team leaders and subject matter experts relish opportunities to mentor, teach and train others in longstanding best practices and the newest innovations. In fact, several new additions to our professional team expressed their desire to join UG2 specifically because of our unmatched reputation for training and professional development.
- The lab helps us fulfill our foundational promise to avoid the typical “one and done” training approach. Our ongoing trainings aren’t just refreshers—rigorous continuous education is at the core of our delivery model.
- We continuously learn from our customers, integrate their industry’s best practices and preferences into our trainings, then continue to build on and share that evolving knowledge.
- The lab and our overarching reputation as the premier facility services organization when it comes to developing our employees has allowed us to expand our workforce with top talent all along the pipeline even as competition for talent is at an all-time high.
- We drive efficiencies, innovation, and knowledge with an ever-expanding curriculum, with topics as broad as Chilled Beam Technology, HVAC Basics, Variable Frequency Drives and Tenant Condenser Water Systems.
- Our employees continue to impress with their hunger for deeper training and new industry knowledge. They report that our approach to training, professional development and promoting from within are a key factor in our high retention.
- Complementing our best-in-class training is our UG2 Development Toolkit and workshops geared at helping team members to both “take the reins” when it came to their own development and to assist managers in supporting their team.
- We learn from others too, and research and promote ongoing additional opportunities for team members to train on topics such as Delivering Effective Feedback, Managing Conflict and Leadership Presence.
The Training & Innovation Lab allows experienced workers to transfer knowledge to those new in the trade and enables less experienced employees to advance their careers with new skills and certifications. It is an integral part of our multi-faceted approach to developing those we call PHDs: passionate, hardworking, and dedicated—and we are grateful for every one of them.