WorkForge Blog

Swiss-Tech Slashes Onboarding Time and Boosts Productivity with WorkForge

Written by Alex Ball | Jul 17, 2025 9:22:08 PM

When you’re machining parts for medical, aerospace, and industrial markets, there’s no room for guesswork—and no time to waste getting new hires up to speed. 

For Swiss-Tech, a precision manufacturer based in Delavan, Wisconsin, the challenge was clear: their onboarding process was inconsistent, time-consuming, and costly. And as demand grew, the stakes got higher. 

The Challenge: A Costly Learning Curve 

Before WorkForge, Swiss-Tech’s legacy training approach depended heavily on who happened to be doing the training. That meant inconsistent methods, confused new hires, and wide variability in performance. 

The impact? 

  • Onboarding took up to 8 weeks 
  • New employees were slow to become productive 
  • Machine downtime and material waste was high 
  • Turnover was sky high 
  • Language barriers added complexity 

They needed a better learning and development program—one that would accelerate training, reduce variability, and prepare new hires (even with no machining experience) for the floor fast.    

The WorkForge Solution 

Swiss-Tech partnered with WorkForge to completely transform their training strategy. It started with a full audit of their current processes and ended with a modern, scalable training system that included: 

  • Access to WorkForge’s online skills training library 
  • Seamless integration of Swiss-Tech's existing shop-specific content on the WorkForge platform 
  • A single, unified LMS to deliver it all—complete with progress tracking, reporting, and record retention 
  • Multilingual training options to serve their diverse workforce
  • Ongoing support to optimize and scale the solution 

Scaling Smart: From One Path to Many 

After initial success, Swiss-Tech’s growth kicked into high gear. A major defense contract meant rapid expansion—and a 25% increase in headcount in just 9 months. 

To meet that challenge, they restructured onboarding into job-specific Learning Paths with check-ins on Days 1, 30, 60, and 90. These Learning Paths included: 

  • Comprehensive safety and onboarding (blending Swiss-Tech and WorkForge content) 
  • Role-specific skills development from WorkForge’s catalog 
  • On-site machine training tracked via digital checklists in the WorkForge LMS 
  • Automatically recorded competency reports based on course completion and demonstrated hands-on skills 

The result? Training was easier to digest, better retained, and much more engaging for the employees. 

Measurable Impact 

Swiss-Tech’s investment in structured, modern learning paid off quickly: 

  • Onboarding time was cut from 8 weeks to ~1 week 
  • Training cost per employee dropped from $4,800 to $600—a savings of $4,200 per hire 
  • New hires became fully productive in under 1 month, even without prior machining experience 
  • 54 new employees hired with a 65% retention rate 
  • Employees report higher satisfaction, better retention of material, and more engaging training 

In Their Words 

"The process didn’t take a lot of effort to make it work. WorkForge made it smooth and easy. They continue to follow up and help us constantly improve and build our program." 
— Rachel Repinski 

"WorkForge’s customer service helped me organize the Learning Paths the way I wanted them. They paired their best practices with our vision—and we ended up with an even better outcome.” 
— Becky Renz, HR Manager 

The Bottom Line 

Swiss-Tech turned an outdated, inconsistent onboarding process into a modern, efficient, and cost-effective system—one that’s scalable, multilingual, and designed for rapid ramp-up. 

They didn’t just train faster. They trained smarter.  Read the full case study here.