August

Anniversaries

RITALKA, INC.

Melanie Vigil, 13 years

Tana Ulrich, 1 year

SpecSys, Inc.

Tad Tanhoff, 13 years Dave Trost, 10 years Sean Daly, 6 years Andy Robinson, 5 years Javier Ibarra, 5 years Todd Aaker, 5 years Doug Schrader, 4 years Dustin Johnson, 2 years Randi Marquardt, 2 years Mark Lange, 2 years Chris Paulson, 1 year

RVI, Inc.

Cheryl Reynolds, 7 years Erick Broberg, 7 years Nick Towery, 3 years Dean Maertens, 3 years Catherine Burnett, 2 years

Henry Larson

Paint/Assembly

Lead, New Ulm

“Henry has gone the extra mile this month to get machines pushed through and drive

positive culture in the shop. He is one to stand tall when the walls are falling down.”

Congratulations Henry!

Keep up the great work.

Dane Kjer (2) Montevideo Engineering

Amanda Smith

Montevideo

Scott Sorenson RWF RVI

Gail Jaeger (2) Watertown RVI

John Wieland

Prentice

Andy Robinson New Ulm

Randi Marquardt

New Ulm

Also Nominated:

Time at SpecSys:

2 years

Hobbies:

Camping and fishing with my family, working on

cars and riding my harley.

Favorite Part

of the Job:

The challenge that each day brings and the feeling

of accomplishment seeing my departments

succeed in what they do.

Employee of the

Month - July

I joined SpecSys in September 2011 by filling the Administrative As-sistant position in our Granite Falls facility. I quickly picked up additional work in the purchasing department and was promoted to a Buyer in Janu-ary 2012. I enjoyed this role and the team culture that was developing. In January 2015 I was offered a position as a Project Manager. I have to ad-mit, I had doubts about this, after all, I didn’t pretend to know the first thing about Welding or the intricacies of Machining. How would I manage a project and communicate with our people if I did not possess this knowledge? After careful consideration and a little reassurance from a couple of wise people, including the advice to “Just go do it,” I accepted the offer and am so very glad I did.

This new role opened a new world to me in which I could grow professionally and gain many new skills. I was fortunate to have a knowledgeable leader and colleagues to guide me as I worked through my first projects. I quickly realized the tremendous impact a Project Manager lends to the project. There are many roles a Project Manager plays throughout the lifecycle of a project. In the beginning as you gather drawings and plan a timeline to completion, you feel a bit like a detective, looking for any hidden or missing pieces of the puzzle. Once the project is up and running, your time is spent pursuing answers for critical ques-tions on dimensions, missing information from clients and assisting purchasing with challenging vendors. When the project draws to a close, time is spent to update part routings and drawings, prepare client documentation, review the finished unit and generate shipping paperwork. Communication with our clients is a significant part of a Project Manager’s role. The very first meeting with your contact can set the stage for the entire project. The client desires to feel that they are our number one priority and that we will do everything in our power to make their pro-ject successful. Project Managers rely heavily on receiving vital feedback from all internal groups. Not only to judge if we will complete our project on time, but also to enable us to best support their needs. It is no small feat to fit everything together to deliver the project on time and to satisfy the client’s expectations. Project Managers are regularly tasked with balancing multiple projects simultaneously, and often travel to other locations, within and outside our company. I enjoy my role as a Project Manager for SpecSys and look forward to future opportunities and doing all I can to support our growing business.

An

gela H

ansen

—V

olum

es Project M

anag

er

Click on the 2017 RITALKA University Training Schedule

New Employees SpecSys, Inc. Brad Sandberg, Watertown Plant Manager Travis Eisner, Prentice Weld Frank Biffar, Prentice Machining Steven Hlavacek—Prentice Machining

RITALKA University Anyone is welcome to attend the RITALKA University classes offered throughout the year. You just need to read the book that goes along with each training. Contact your lead person or the HR dept at ext. 110 or 361. They will make sure you get a book. To see the full class schedule for 2017 on the employee portal: Go to

www.ritalka.com Log in with password:

GoRitalka Click on the Ritalka

Training Tab

Find RITALKA, INC. on

Facebook and LinkedIn Network with other

professionals. “Like” us on Facebook and

“Connect” with us on LinkedIn to start

building your Professional relationships

today!

Employees in the Prentice

facility enjoyed their summer

outing on August 4th with a

cookout, door prizes and

bean bag tournament.

1st Place - Al Loewe & Bill Mabie

2nd Place - Tallen Wald & Hobie Klimpke 3rd Place - Calvin Probst & Tatum Evans

IT TALK - Don’t forget to set an “Out of Office” message to automatically reply to any emails sent to your inbox while you are out of the office. Be sure to set the

correct time and date, give readers a backup contact and be professional.

Here’s how:

RITALKA, Inc. Flexible Spending Plan All full time employees (regularly scheduled thirty or more hours per week) are eligible to

participate in RITALKA’s Flexible Spending Plan after thirty days of full-time employment. This benefit enables employees to pay for qualified medical care expenses and daycare expenses with pre-tax Flex-

ible Dollars. For more details check out all the info on our website. Log in with the “GoRitalka” pass-word, select RITALKA Benefits and click on the Flexible Spending Plan tab. If you still have additional questions about the plan or other RITALKA benefits, please contact HR and they can give you all the

information you need.

Congratulations

Erick and Kristine Brob-erg welcome a baby boy

Rorrick Broberg 7 lbs 7 oz

21 inches long