American Regional Training reaches record numbers

The 2022 Winter Olympics are underway! Piedmont wishes all #TeamUSA participants good luck in their upcoming events. Here at Piedmont we take pride in making sure we #TrainLikeAnOlympian to provide team members the tools to grow their career. Find out how the American Regional Training team leads to Piedmont’s success below.

The American Regional Training team plays a critical role for both the Piedmont and Envoy Ground Handling teams, providing new hires with the fundamentals to becoming successful in their new career. Whether it’s sharing their passion for the industry, creating curriculum, teaching classes, or staying late to help students, the regional training team embodies Piedmont’s mission of caring and compliance. This is what led the team to train a record number of students in 2021 amid a pandemic. In 2021, the team trained 14,505 students almost doubling the number of students they trained in 2020.

When asking the regional training team how they successfully doubled the number of students trained, they credited their leadership team and the passion they had for the job. “Our management team keeps things running smoothly and as an instructor you have to personally care about the success of your students,” said Kimberly Slotterback, Regional Training Instructor.

Instructors for the regional training team teach classes that can include anything from ramp to gate to baggage service office (BSO). “Our job is to support the stations by creating real world scenarios where students have the chance to learn,” said John Stewart, Regional Training Instructor. “We also want students to be excited to come to class, but just like an Olympian you have to put in the training work to be successful.”

Not only did the training team welcome more students in 2021 due to increased staffing, but they had to do it while navigating the challenges of COVID. The team had to think outside the box to create ways to continue training classes. Implementing social distancing, monitoring masks, and making sure everyone in the class was healthy, all became the new normal of an instructor’s job. “Our department’s response to COVID was to learn how to teach some classes virtual,” said John. “We were able to figure out what classes work well virtual and which classes still need to be in person.”

The impact the regional training team has at Piedmont is felt heavily throughout the organization. “The American Regional Training team provides Piedmont Ground Handling with the tools to be successful,” said Tom Dombroski, Piedmont Ground Handling Director of Hubs. “Everything ground handling does starts with training and great training equals great results- therefore our performance is consistently great! We could not run a successful operation without the support of many teams, but especially the fundamentals provided by the regional training team.”

“Training is the foundation for everything and is critical for us to get people in the operation,” said Cheryl Smit, Piedmont Ground Handling West Division director. “They’re also some of the first faces new hires are introduced to, and the first to leave a great impression.”

Congratulations to the American Regional Training team on a record year in 2021!