Employee Skills Training Grant Award

Syn-Tech Systems Inc.

Tallahassee-based defense and commercial engineering design and manufacturing firm Syn-Tech Systems, Inc. utilized $20,533 of Employee Skills Training grant funds, complemented by its own investment of more than $44,000 in matching and leverage funds, to build the engineering capabilities of its new hires.

Syn-Tech is best known for its FuelMaster® fuel management system which was initially designed for worldwide use by the U.S. Air Force. FuelMaster® is now the specified fuel management system for the Department of Defense, and the military is Syn-Tech’s largest client, making up about half of its annual sales. This strong endorsement has led to increased business from commercial users including companies with truck and airplane fleets in the U.S. and around the world. Syn-Tech also has substantial sales with city, county and state governments for use in fueling their fleets.

To keep up with customer demands, Syn-Tech has added 40 employees just in the last year, bringing its total staff up to 172. Two of those hires are in-house trainers. “At the rate we are growing, we had to bring more trainers on board to assist the existing training director with new employees,” explains Human Resources Manager Carlotta Hanney.

Due to the technical nature of Syn-Tech’s products and services, even experienced engineers receive at least six months of training upon hire to meet the need for cross platform application development. In addition to taking classes, trainees are assigned a seasoned mentor to shadow and learn from on the job. Syn-Tech enlists the services of several types of engineers for its operations ranging from applications and test engineers to hardware and software engineers.

“A large part of each employee’s first year is spent learning all about the product,” Hanney states. “They must know the product inside and out – how it operates, how to maintain it and how to fix it. The training period also allows us to assess each employee’s skill level and ability to learn and adapt.”

Syn-Tech hosts weeklong training classes monthly for FuelMaster® customers. New employees sit in on the classes as well to gain product knowledge and insight into the minds of customers.

With clients around the world, Syn-Tech is generating the majority of its revenues from customers outside Northwest Florida and more growth is on the horizon. “We are constantly investing in internal research and development and customization of existing products and programs to continue to keep Syn-Tech growing and prosperous,” says Vice President David Oglesby.