By Andrew Hunt
Successful home builders recognize that training and development programs should never be a secondary consideration, especially in a highly competitive market. By proactively keeping their teams abreast of the latest construction, design and selling techniques, companies can increase their customer satisfaction scores, reduce call backs and see an improved bottom line.
Once you commit to training, knowing where to turn to find the right answers to fit your training needs can be a challenge. Traditional classroom-based training has long been the standard for improving worker skills, but the one-day seminar format may not satisfy the needs of a continual-improvement cycle builders are looking for. A single speaker session might not cover all the topics that your employees need help with, and once the session is over, how do you know the information will be retained and implemented?
Taking the time to find the right program, scheduling time away from the jobsite for employees, and then maintaining a focus on the information provided can seem like more trouble than it is worth. However, thanks to the Internet and a growing cottage industry that caters to residential construction needs, builders today can look for training solutions in not-so-obvious places; it all depends on being open to alternative resources.
Ask your team to read
While slightly out of fashion in today’s multi-media world, reading remains a powerful training tool. Non-profit organizations such as the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the Energy and Environmental Building Association (EEBA) maintain their own online bookstores that cater exclusively to the residential construction market. Latest releases cover topics such as climate-specific builder guides, mold remediation and clean-up, improving indoor air quality and green building, as well as business practices for sales, estimating and other critical functions of a construction company.
The benefits of having printed material in hand is that employees can take the information with them directly to the job site and share it with new hires, sub-contractors, and even customers. The written word helps ensure that information sharing is consistent and won’t disappear after a weekend seminar.
Go to school online
A new approach to improving building skills is online training. As bandwidth increases and technology evolves, the interactivity of online training courses continues to expand and often can provide builders with exactly the right information to help their companies improve.
BuildIQ has been offering construction-related courses for the past six years and has a curriculum that covers all aspects of residential construction from the basics of construction to improving customer satisfaction. Each course can be taken independently from any computer with access to the Internet and comes with an assessment to gauge knowledge retention. Individuals can purchase one or several courses online from the BuildIQ website, or organizations can purchase an entire managed training program for their company.
Finding local resources
Sometimes overlooked yet often rich in resources for builders are their own local Home Builder Associations (HBAs) and trade associations. Local HBAs help builders with many issues in their community, including local building codes, zoning and political issues, but they also provide resources for marketing, communications and training as well. Likewise, NAHB offers many resources for builders, including training materials and programs to help initiate new employees into the construction industry. To find your local HBA, check out the National Association of Home Builders search website.
National trade association, such as the North American Insulations Manufacturers Association (NAIMA), provide training resources and information for their members, but builders can also take advantage of the information on their websites to find training and development resources.
With training, it is important to understand that one size doesn’t fit all. While some people respond well to classroom training, others are more engaged by visual presentations. Some thrive in group learning settings, but others prefer to learn independently. Before investing in any training program, builders should take the time to understand what format is best for their own teams.
Andrew Hunt is a freelance writer who specializes in residential construction topics. He formerly worked for BuildIQ.
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