At Robinson, training isn’t an afterthought; it’s a competitive advantage.
That’s the mindset behind the Robinson Training Academy (RTA), a hands-on, structured program designed to set employee-owners up for long-term success from day one.
This article, originally published by Insight on Manufacturing, features Jeff Engelbrecht, a retired 29-year veteran of the Green Bay Police Department who now leads the RTA with a focus on mentorship, structure, and growth. His journey from public service to manufacturing leadership is one more example of how Robinson is investing in people, not just to fill roles, but to build careers.
Read on to see how RTA is already shaping the future of our workforce.
YOU’RE A COP, AREN’T YOU?
Jeff Engelbrecht remembers the breakroom conversation on his third day at work. A 29-year veteran of the Green Bay Police Department, Engelbrecht was hired last fall by De Pere-based metal fabricator Robinson, Inc. to parlay his extensive experience training police officers into the creation of a full-fledged training academy for another group: manufacturers.
“Some of the guys were going, why are we hiring a cop,” Engelbrecht says the employee told him. But the employee, who had friends in law enforcement, knew the answer: “I told them [law enforcement is] squared away with structure and procedure, and that’s exactly what we need in our training.”
Lynn Jones, Robinson’s marketing manager, agrees. As it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, Robinson has been growing fast. She says it was hard for production managers, who had traditionally been responsible for the lion’s share of frontline worker training, to juggle responsibilities and ensure a comprehensive training experience for new hires.
“We felt that we needed to step up our game a little bit more in that area,” Jones says. “Like every other business, we [had] this training program but it [moved] fast and furious — and then they were out on the shop floor.”
When Robinson had the opportunity to hire Engelbrecht in September 2024, the company jumped at the chance. In May, the Robinson Training Academy accepted its first class of 12 new hires. They will graduate in August and move into specific departments, including assembly, welding and electrical. Some bring skilled trades training to Robinson, and others are getting their full shop floor education through RTA.
Before, “the new employee would come in, they would have an HR orientation, which lasted a few hours in the morning, and then later on that afternoon they would have an afternoon of safety orientation. And then on day two, they would hit the floor,” Engelbrecht says.
Now the complete training program lasts about three months — starting with one to three weeks, depending on the employee’s specific job duties, of live simulations and classroom training.
“They’re in RTA for between one to three weeks, and then they spend the remainder of that time — up to 12 weeks — on the floor in what we call the floor training program,” Engelbrecht says.
Before launching RTA, Engelbrecht took a crash course in Robinson’s work, conducting interviews and identifying training tasks for each department. (In assembly, for example, there are 44.) Engelbrecht’s team of four trainers ensures RTA students have achieved a certain comfort level with each task before moving on to the next step, with training customized to each person and offering mentorship along the way.
So far, Jones says, employee response to the program has been overwhelmingly positive.
Anthony Chang completed the welding program at Lakeshore Technical College; a friend at a previous job encouraged him to apply at Robinson. As an experienced welder, he says he welcomed having defined standards within RTA.
“The mentoring here is hands-on, and they can help you improve your weld immediately,” Chang says. “It makes the quality of the work better because they could see right away what was wrong and how to fix it.”
Engelbrecht and Jones both say workers, especially Gen Z workers, are increasingly looking for mentorship and professional development as part of their work experience, and RTA will help the company move the needle on key metrics such as talent attraction, productivity and, perhaps most importantly, talent retention, which has been a focus since Robinson established its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in 2023, according to President Sam Thomas.
The goal is to set employees up not just for jobs, but to help them invest in careers at Robinson.
“Once they graduate, so to speak, from this academy, we’re not just cutting them loose,” Engelbrecht says. “There are still touchpoints along the way.”
One seemingly small change has made a big difference, Engelbrecht says: RTA employees now wear maroon shirts during their first 12 weeks of employment, instead of the standard‑issue Robinson navy — not to haze anybody, he clarifies, but to help others understand who is asking a question or expressing a need, and for what reasons. It also creates a more welcoming work environment, he adds.
“I make an extra effort to get myself and team members over to greet them, say hi and see what their needs and challenges are, what their objectives are,” Engelbrecht says.
Engelbrecht says that, if you would have asked him five years ago if he thought he would be a training and development manager for a manufacturing company, he likely would have balked.
“But I am completely happy with this,” he says, adding that challenges he saw in public sector training are not unlike those in manufacturing. Whether it’s police or manufacturers, quality training has common threads.
“When you’re talking about training, it’s being passionate about the product, passionate about coaching and mentoring and caring about people as well,” he says. “[It’s] making them feel, in the end, like they’ve got an advocate … and this is a career they have, not just a job.”
And yes, Engelbrecht says he sometimes fields questions about his previous life.
“I tell them that this isn’t going to be stories about coffee and donuts and cops and guns and things like that,” he says. “But there’ll be stories that are directly related to leadership and communication skills. And I’ve never heard anything negative about my previous life, just a lot of positives. We really share, I think, two worlds that come together and just have a lot of commonality between them.
“I consider myself lucky.”
