Defense Against Union Salting Campaigns While the recession has landed a solid jab on the nose of construction companies and merit shop workers, it has sent organized labor to the canvas. According to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economic barrage that has pummeled the construction and manufacturing industries has driven private-sector union membership down 10 percent in the last year, accelerating a 50-year downward spiral.

Unions are in trouble, and like a cornered tiger, they are desperate to find an escape. That means aggressive, often unethical, and sometimes illegal organizing tactics will be on the rise. Unions possess an arsenal of obvious yet effective tools to try to boost membership at the expense of project developers, taxpayers and open-shop company owners.

Among the most effective is the salting campaign, a strategy aimed at forcing a non-union company to sign a union contract, often regardless of the firm’s employees’ wishes. Failing to strong-arm the company, the union’s secondary goal is to bury the company under an avalanche of unfounded labor complaints, forcing it to expend time, money and other resources to defend itself rather than competing for and completing construction projects.

As noted, salting is a tried-and-true method of legal harassment, but with care and meticulous recordkeeping, you can avoid becoming entangled in the union’s unscrupulous attempts to bury you under legal and regulatory red tape.

If you find that you’ve hired a union salt or that the union has been successful in convincing a current employee act as a salt, he probably will actively and vocally recruit for union membership, making no secret of his purpose. At the same time, he likely will perform job functions poorly, exhibit bad work habits and/or violate company work or safety rules to the point of termination. The object, of course, is to claim the termination is the result of the unionizing activity and not the subpar job performance.
Protect yourself by ensuring your workplace rules are fair and non-discriminatory against union sympathizers. When disciplining or firing a salt, ensure and document that the punishment is justified, evenly applied regardless of union sentiment, and vetted by upper management and legal counsel. According to the Independent Electrical Contractors, companies cannot institute or enforce rules prohibiting solicitation and distribution if the rules were not established until the organizing began.

If a job applicant advertises his enthusiasm for unions and desire to organize the company’s workers, he may be fishing for grounds to file an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, according to Frederick M. Switzer III, attorney with the Clayton, MO firm Danna McKitrick . By announcing his intent, the would-be salt hopes to goad the employer “to drop its guard and commit an unfair labor practice, thus giving the union a basis for filing an unfair labor charge. If the employer is not prepared for this, the likely result will be a formal Board complaint, litigation, and an order of reinstatement, back-pay, etc.,” Switzer wrote. “If a union believes that it has a good opportunity to organize a company from within, the salt may remain under cover until after he is employed. Otherwise, the announcement will come at the application or interview stage.” Like asking his marital status, seeking information on his union leanings is a no-no. Assure the applicant that those sentiments will not be considered when you consider the application. Make sure your hiring practices and policies back up your statements.

Have a labor attorney review your company handbook, and ensure supervisors are well-versed in its contents and apply the procedures uniformly.
“The hiring policy should provide that all applicants complete the employment application, and take the necessary tests, before being considered for hire. References should be checked before an applicant is hired,” suggests Michael L. Fortney of the Ohio law firm Fortney and Klingshirn. “If a non-union employee is forgiven for a rule violation, and a union salt is disciplined for the same rule violation, the prospect of prevailing on an [unfair labor practice suit] suffers.”

Fortney notes that “Supervisors are the company's representatives on the front line. [W]hatever you say as a supervisor can bind the company and be held against the company just as though a top company official had made the same statements.”
He reminds management not to threaten employees for unionizing activity or if the union is successful in its organizing efforts. Don’t ask employees their opinion of the unionization effort or its organizers.

Still, if your company becomes the target of a salting campaign, you are not required to sit by and let the union spread false promises or accusations against your company and its management. Fortney notes that you can tell employees the union wants the company to sign the agreement regardless of employee sentiment or support. It is permissible to inform employees that if the effort is successful, they will be required to pay union dues, forfeit their rights to speak for themselves on wages, work hours, and other employment issues.

As with any labor issue, your best bet when facing a salting campaign – or better yet, before the issue arise – is to consult an experienced attorney.

Labels: Commercial, Construction Industry, Industrial

¶ 10:51 AM 0 comments

Expanding Into Unfamiliar Territory When you go on vacation with your family, where do you choose to eat dinner? Do you like to sample all of the popular local restaurants in the area, or do you opt for the familiar chain restaurants, where you know you can get something that you’re going to like? Change is scary to many, and we all know that a Happy Meal will taste the same whether we’re in Boston, Seattle, Miami or San Francisco.

As a business owner, you also may find change difficult to deal with. But with the industry floundering in the midst of the worst recession in a lifetime, construction companies increasingly are facing a daunting choice: try to ride out the storm by cutting staff, marketing budgets and profits to the bone or cast a wider net to land projects outside their comfort zones.

“[F]aced with the choice of retrenchment or expansion, it seems that a fair proportion of construction companies are choosing the latter. Almost four out of ten respondents say they’ve continued to develop regionally or globally, while only 12 percent have actually contracted their activity,” according to KPMG’s Navigating the storm Charting a path to recovery? Global Construction Survey 2009.

Horizontal integration – expanding to heretofore unexplored locales or taking on public works jobs when their experience and proficiency lies in negotiated private work – opens builders to risks that are only exacerbated by the current economic woes. Construction defect claims as contractors step outside their areas of expertise or are tempted to cut corners to make up for paper-thin profit margins, unforeseen difficulties stemming from working with unfamiliar owners and developers, new site conditions as companies move into new states or foreign countries, and unanticipated labor troubles all lie in the weeds ready to ambush unwary contractors seeking greener pastures, Jack Gibson, president of International Risk Management Institute told Business Insurance.com. Thankfully, contractors can take advantage of familiar resources to help them navigate the stormy seas when leaving the relatively safe harbor of their home territory.

Risk Management
Before you consider extending yourself beyond your comfort zone, take steps to mitigate as much risk as possible. You can do this by keeping as many variables as possible as constant as possible. Think about expanding into similar locales or market niches. For a contractor based in Ohio, a move into Pennsylvania probably won’t be as trying in terms of logistics and site analysis as seeking work in Florida or British Columbia. If you’ve built a dozen high schools in Texas, bidding on a school in Kansas may not be as much of a stretch as taking on an Indian casino in Arizona.

Insurer Rolf A. Neuschaefer writes that it may help to look at your potential integration in the same way a bonding agent might assess the risks:

• Assess your portfolio’s value and makeup.

• Explore financing options. “If the sewer contractor, for example, has to wait for the sale of bonds before he can receive a contract award, he may have a low bid outstanding for some time which ties-up his bonding line,” Newschaefer notes.

• Note the location risks, including the legal and political environment, local customs (especially in foreign countries), travel, office rental, the state of the infrastructure, etc.

Vendor relationships
Contractors can mitigate their risks by doing their homework when it comes to the people they do business with. Suppliers and subcontractors often are identified with their partners and therefore are as much the “face” of your company as your project manager and superintendent. Seek out vendors and partners whose business practices, acumen and customer service attitude are as impeccable as your own. You must trust your vendors to fulfill areas, be they labor supply, jobsite security, permitting, etc., that are not among your own core competencies, Rick Kuharik, director of risk services at Westfield Insurance, explained to Smart Business online. Frequent, open communication, visits to the vendor’s place of business and full documentation of expectations, remuneration, and all parties’ obligations will help create a strong, lasting partnership, Kuharik said.

Professional associations can be a contractor’s best friend when developing vendor relationships. The Associated Builders and Contractors and the Independent Electrical Contractors boast chapters nationwide. The members of both exhibit exemplary professionalism and chapter staff can provide recommendations based on your particular project. These associations are fonts of knowledge and insights into their local political and regulatory arenas. Rely on them to help you avoid pitfalls.

Labor Issues
Do you have qualified supervisory staff to oversee the job? Are they willing to relocate for the project’s duration? Are you willing to compensate them for that inconvenience? Is the local labor, subcontractor and material supply sufficient in number and competency to make the job run smoothly? The last thing you want when taking on a far-flung project is to lose money, and most of these disasters stem from inadequate estimates for the labor time required to complete the work or misjudging the productivity of the available work force, Kuharik said.

If you find that you are struggling to build or maintain your revenues in your market, now is the time to get out of your comfort zone and explore the possibilities in other markets. And don’t forget to visit the local restaurants! ¶ 11:07 AM 0 comments

Re-evaluating Workers’ Compensation Premiums Construction firms may have been slow to adapt to the service mentality, but today’s contractors increasingly are incorporating into their own business models the philosophy to business they must solve customer problems and add value to their projects. Builders also are insisting the lawyers, bonding agents, temporary labor agencies and other business partners exhibit the same willingness to search for and implement the business solutions that will make them more efficient and profitable.

Workers’ compensation insurance companies have taken notice and are taking pains to meet those expectations.

We may consider workers’ comp a commodity – intrinsically interchangeable with price the only selling point – much as commercial contractors were perceived not so long ago. But according to Bill Mudge, chief executive officer for CompWest Insurance Company in California, a new marketing strategy is emerging in the insurance industry. It’s a value-added, customer-focused approach contractors would do well to take advantage of.
“The key to winning in workers' compensation today means better alignment with clients on their needs,” Mudge commented at an insurance industry convention in 2007, according to Insurance Journal.com. “To align selling strategies with the times, brokers need to really know what they're selling and position workers' compensation products in a way that's different than other producers making prospect calls, selling just on price,” Mudge said.

In the past, workers’ compensation was sold off-the-rack. Companies chose the package that came the closest to fitting their needs and budget, without much tailoring. Today, insurance agents bill themselves as resources that can relieve some of the headaches associated with running a construction company in 2010. The insurance industry’s new approach means your agent should be willing to go the extra mile to see that your workers’ comp plan company fits your company like Armani.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation notes that “Any agent should be able to …provide you with an assessment of your needs and insurance products to meet those needs. Also, any insurance agent should provide you with prompt, quality service in the case of a claim…You should expect more than a yearly renewal contact from the agent and work towards building a continuing relationship.”

I would add that if your agent doesn’t meet these minimum standards, it’s time to shop for a new agent. There’s plenty more you can do to get the custom plan and the right price for your workers’ comp insurance.

You can explore group insurance providers, often through construction industry associations such as the Associate Builders and Contractors and Associated General Contractors. The best of these plans offer no joint and several liability to keep your exposure low; group discounts of 10 percent or more over industry standards via the group’s shared risk, usually low administrative costs and selectivity in coverage, and the possibility of dividend revenue for individual and group performance. Many association-based programs also include safety inspections and other risk management benefits.

Reducing the number and severity of workplace accidents, of course, is the best way to lower rates, but carriers also offer discounts to construction companies who demonstrate concern for safety by sponsoring programs such as substance abuse prevention and treatment for employees. Companies with comprehensive and tailored safety programs and procedures also can reap premium discounts.

Still, the nature of construction contains inherent hazards, and accidents will happen, even to the most conscientious employees and on the most tightly run jobsites. Construction firms often manage their workers’ comp risk by liberal use of temporary employees. Interestingly, this strategy pays additional benefits such as creating a leaner, more flexible operation, cutting training costs and speeding up learning curves and mitigating fluctuations in manpower needs.

Generally, client companies using temporary employees pass the insurance risk to the worker “leasing company.”

“To the client company, the temporary workers or ‘temps’ are usually considered independent contractors. To the leasing company, they are actual employees. This demarcation is typically evidenced by the leasing company’s being the one to receive the temps’ time sheets and cut their paychecks,” explains The Journal of Workers Compensation.

Construction companies that have only a few positions that qualify as “dangerous work” writes Deborah J. Myers in Alaska Business Monthly, filling those slots with temporary workers might make fiscal sense, by moving them off the company’s workers’ compensation rolls.

“Temp agencies working with small companies may be able to obtain bigger savings on workers' compensation insurance because of volume. The temp agency may employ many more people and thereby get a price break on the insurance premiums,” Myers writes. Those economies of scale can extend even to larger companies. “[I]f your company is close to having enough employees to raise your workers' compensation insurance rates, by using a handful of temps, you can save on premiums.”

Labels: Commercial, Construction Industry, Industrial

¶ 5:53 AM 1 comments

The Merkley Amendment to Healthcare Senator Jeff Merkley’s amendment to the Obama administration’s healthcare package seems to have a sole purpose: To toss the drowning construction industry an anchor. Slick and treacherous as black ice, Oregon’s Merkley – a Democrat, in case you had any doubt – wants to “level the playing field” by discriminating against small construction companies. Merkley sneaked the provision into the Senate’s healthcare reform bill in the wee hours before its passage on Christmas Eve morning.

Ostensibly, the amendment would force contractors with five or more employees and a payroll of at least $250,000 to offer their employees health insurance benefits. In reality, it will force small contractors to downsize. Merkley’s amendment would snare a builder with, say, seven employees, forcing him to either offer potentially backbreaking health coverage or pay $5,250 in fines EVERY YEAR if its employees use the reform package’s public option. Forced into this corner, a plucky contractor may make a last-ditch effort to remain solvent by firing two employees, dropping the company below the threshold and gaining an exemption. A more cynical contractor might well decide the deck is stacked against him and shut his doors, adding seven people to the unemployment line and seven families to the Welfare rolls. Multiply those scenarios by tens of thousands of small contractors in the country. How’s that for an economic stimulus package?

That open shop contractors will be hardest hit by the Merkley amendment is hardly a coincidence. Union firms by definition pay health benefits through their collective bargaining agreements with organized labor. Merkely’s placing non-union firms in his amendment’s crosshairs is further supported by the fact that only construction-related industries are targeted. Companies in other industries are exempt unless they employ 50 or more. While many other sectors are seeing signs of recovery, the construction industry still is wallowing in recession. It simply makes no sense to unfairly single out an industry that is flirting with, and in far too many regions, exceeding 20 percent unemployment.

Open shop contractors – about 80 percent of the industry – base their employee compensation, including benefits such as insurance coverage, on market conditions, company size and other management evaluations. Most – about 95 percent of the strictly non-union Associated Builders and Contractors’ 25,000 members, according to Geoffrey Burr, ABC’s vice president of federal affairs – offer coverage. ABC surveys reveal the other 5 percent can't justify the expense partly because “their margins are so thin they can't afford to do so,” Burr said.

My guess is that many contractors have decided to forgo health benefits rather than laying off employees as the economy continues to circle the drain. Incredibly, Merkley is not uninformed on this count. His spokeswoman, Julie Edwards, knows that “in the industry, the vast majority of it is comprised of small firms.” Treating construction like every other industry, she said, would mean that “virtually the entire industry would have been exempt.”

So, instead of exempting an industry of small businesses – the backbone of our nation – Merkley has chosen, as John Killin, president of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of ABC and executive director of the Independent Electrical Contactors of Oregon said, to deliver “a giant lump of coal in the stockings of America’s most economically challenged employers. It’s like [Merkley] is saying ‘Things aren’t bad enough for you so I’m going to make them even worse.’ ”

“At a time when our industry is facing the worst construction economy in decades, the last things contractors need are vast new mandates from the federal government dictating to them how they will run their business. Excluding small construction firms from the small business exemptions in the healthcare bill is irresponsible and economically disastrous” said Kirk Pickerel, ABC president and CEO.

The amendment passed without debate or a vote, so opponents can only hope to remove the onerous provision in conference committee. This does offer some hope, as it appears the Democratic senators who approved that chamber’s version were unaware Merkley had covertly inserted it. Jerry Howard, chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders, told media representatives that “I think that a great many Democratic senators were taken as much by surprise at the inclusion of this provision as we were.”
That may indicate that Merkley feared opposition even from his own party. But it also gives the amendment’s opponents some hope. If Senate Democrats are queasy about a provision that is sure to place additional burden on their state’s unemployment benefits, they may be willing to jettison it when they meet to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the healthcare bill.

I urge you to contact your senators and congressmen to impress upon them not only the inherent unfairness of the Merkley provision, but how the amendment, if it remains in the final bill, will cost jobs, kill competition and kick away any foothold the economic recovery may have gained.

Labels: Commercial, Construction Industry, Industrial

¶ 1:31 PM 0 comments

Notes from the PowerGen Conference A couple of months ago in this space, I proclaimed that wind, solar and other renewable energy projects, as well as federal mandates to reduce emissions from fossil fuel plants will allow this sector in 2010 to leverage the momentum it built up in 2009. While perhaps not in the same class as Nostradamus, the prediction was confirmed by many energy industry experts at a recent conference I attended in Las Vegas. The PowerGen International Conference focused – as you might expect – on renewable energy sources, the recent Copenhagen Climate Summit and the Waxman-Markey bill that seeks to limit the carbon and other greenhouse gases produced by automobiles, power plants and other industrial and household activities.

President Obama’s federal stimulus plan contains measures that make energy sector construction projects attractive to owners. But some measures being floated by the administration and Congress could make utilities and alternative energy providers loath to invest until and unless they receive acceptable answers to some pressing environmental questions. If those answers are not forthcoming, these issues could throw a monkey wrench into the President’s plans to stimulate the economy through aggressive construction projects.

Environmental engineer Robynn Andrascek said many of the Bush administration’s “logical and clear” Environmental Protection Agency rules on carbon emissions have been rescinded under Obama.“We need clear rules, even if they are strict,” she said. “Right now the industry is usurped by uncertainty.”

Michael Yackira, president and CEO of NV Energy, said because utilities don’t know what carbon limitations the government will impose, “the risks and uncertainties are simply too large” for his company to build more coal-fired generation plants during his tenure.

Still, many utilities still are looking ahead and taking advantage of federal and state incentives to develop renewable energy resources. NV Energy planners have identified likely regulation scenarios and the company’s best strategies for dealing with them. The utility will invest in transmission lines to connect northern Nevada’s vast geothermal resources with Las Vegas’ voracious appetite for power.

A seminar at Nuclear Power International, held in conjunction with PowerGen showed how contractors can tap into the energy construction market. Though focused on nuclear power plants, the seminar revealed important trends applicable to all building in the energy sector. A case in point is increased use of modules constructed off site.

Contractors who can bring this service to their projects present tangible value to owners and a competitive advantage for themselves. Different modules can be built concurrently and installed one after another, saving time over projects that require one system to be completed before the next can begin. This modular approach also reduces an owner’s risk by cutting down on construction duration, labor supply squeezes and exposure to weather-related delays, according to Keyes Niemer, a project manager working on a nuclear plant.

The re-emergence of nuclear power plants and the burgeoning interest in geothermal, solar, wind and other renewable energy sources are additional opportunities for construction’s first movers to gain advantage. Contractors who can adapt to new paradigms and standards, deliver superior safety and quality and find qualified suppliers and subcontractors will profit from this construction sector, noted Charles Hess, director of nuclear technology at Tetra Tech.

While the chance to explore the issues that will drive the energy industries in the future, the PowerGen seminars and discussions gave attendees tremendous opportunities to meet with leaders in the alternative energy industries. This contact is vital for contractors looking to enter this construction sector or expand their expertise or geography. The hints these important players dropped may well lead construction executives to explore avenues that will improve their businesses, open doors to new contracting frontiers and lead to new sources of revenue.

The frontiers of alternative energy and the construction of generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure highlights the changing face of construction as well. Owners increasingly are placing a premium on professionalism and added value over low bids and mere field competence. Confidence in their vendors, suppliers and contractors often is an owner’s deciding factor in hiring situations. Networking savvy, presentation skills, “elevator speeches” and personal relationships are more important than ever in business development. Contractors owe it to themselves to get as much “face time” as possible with the folks who will make contracting decisions – especially in emerging markets and growing sectors such as alternative energy. PowerGen and other conferences are ideal opportunities for builders to explore the possibilities. Another great resource to find alternative energy projects is through Industrial Info Resources. They do a terrific job of tracking these projects from planning through construction.

Labels: Commercial, Construction Industry, Industrial

¶ 10:44 AM 0 comments

Project Labor Agreements The National Labor Relations Act guarantees America’s construction employees the right to unionize. After considering what’s best for themselves and their families, more than 80 percent have decided not to exercise that option. Unfortunately, unions and the politicians their money puts into office have tailored project labor agreements – in overt disregard of these individual decisions – to impose union representation on open shop employees.

PLAs require labor unions to serve as the only bargaining entity for the duration of a construction project in exchange for certain union guarantees of dubious worth. Despite the fact that PLAs trample workers’ rights to determine their own financial strategy, force non-union construction firms to abide by rules they have no say in establishing and drive up construction costs, local, state and federal agencies continue to bow to union pressure. They often not only allow, but in many cases mandate the use of PLAs on public works projects. This approach runs contrary to the public interest in many ways:

PLAs overrule individuals’ rights to self determination

The Associated Builders and Contractors’ blog, www.thetruthaboutplas.com, notes that PLAs can be negotiated before the contractor hires any workers or employees vote on union representation. The National Labor Relations Act generally prohibits these pre-hire agreements because they strip workers of the opportunity decide whether to choose union affiliation through a federally supervised private-ballot election or a card check process. This ban on pre-hire arrangements applies to all industries except construction – another testament to the labor unions’ influence on lawmakers.

Because public works projects governed by PLAs require contractors to agree to these provisions in order to bid on the jobs, employers, rather than their employees, make the decision to accept union representation.

While PLAs don’t allow unions to discriminate against non-union workers, many jurisdictions require all employees be hired through the union hall and mandate these hires adhere to certain union rules that limit workers’ earning potential. That is, the non-union job seeker may be allowed to “classify” herself only as a specific tradesperson. This could mean that once the classification of work for which the employee has been slotted is complete, the employee’s work – and paycheck – ends, even if she is skilled in many different tasks and job duties for which work remains. Indeed, this “multiskilling” is a hallmark of merit shop training.

PLAs force contractors to surrender negotiating power

Contractors – whether union or non-union - who successfully bid on a public work project governed by a PLA must abide by rules they have no ability to craft. In fact, with PLAs the role the contractor’s management team normally would play in negotiations opposite the owner is now played by the union. The fact that the union’s interests are at best segregated from and at worst diametrically opposed to management’s interests points to one of the PLA arrangement’s greatest flaws. Of course this isn’t fair, but contractors who refuse to compete on this unlevel playing field are relegated to the outside looking in when public projects come up for bid.

PLAs impose unwanted and unwarranted expenses on employees

Though employees working on PLA projects may choose not to join the union, in some states they still will be required to pay a portion of union dues. At the same time, PLA rules in some jurisdictions force the non-union employer to pay into the union’s pension plans. This is required even though the non-union firms most likely have established perfectly acceptable retirement and benefit plans for their workers. These merit shop companies continue to fund their own plans while being forced to pay again into the union plans. The companies’ employees, as non-union members, of course will never benefit from these employer contributions.

PLAs punish loyal employees

When project labor agreements require merit shop companies to use union members as all or a portion of the workforce on a public works project, they are forced to exclude their own loyal, hardworking employees. These workers are displaced by unfamiliar workers with skills (or at lease union rules) that limit their usefulness. Unlike the longtime firm employee, the union worker is likely to be unwilling to go the extra mile for the non-union employer. Even when the rules allow open shop companies to use some of their own workers, those employees must be assigned through the union hall clearinghouse.

PLAs work against taxpayers’ interest

There is plenty of evidence that project labor agreements often result in higher construction costs. Politicians continue to insist on PLA’s despite their fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers. Inefficient union rules and the imposition of requirements that shut out many quality bidders and workers limit competition and lead to higher costs. The unconscionable part is that this exclusion of open shop contractors from competing for public works projects often is not merely an unfortunate side effect of PLAs, but their raison d’être.

As 2009 ABC National Chairman Jerry Gorski, noted, “When the federal government sets aside work for a favored few, the result is that hardworking taxpayers pay the price.”

A Beacon Hill Institute study titled “Project Labor Agreements on Federal Construction Projects: A Costly Solution in Search of a Problem,” found that PLAs not only drove federal construction projects alarmingly higher, but that from 2001-2008 – when President George W. Bush prohibited government-mandated PLAs on federal construction projects – there were no instances in which labor disruptions occurred that resulted in significant project delays or increased costs. Clearly, PLAs don’t even offer the few dubious benefits their adherents claim.

Labels: Commercial, Construction Industry, Industrial

¶ 1:23 PM 0 comments

Worforce Training & Development In these dire economic times, it’s an easy decision for construction executives to rein in any spending they deem “discretionary.” But I would argue that workforce development, like business development, is an investment and should not fall victim to the budgetary ax. Consistent, comprehensive and challenging apprenticeship programs – with effective field and classroom training –breed desirable but intangible traits such a strong work ethic and professional pride. But they also instill employee loyalty, safer jobsites and technical proficiency – all of which produce the very tangible effect of expanding the construction firm’s profit margin.

A rapidly aging construction workforce, the dearth of qualified recruits to replenish the labor pool and the fact that many states require apprentices on public works projects have combined to create an even greater need for quality, certified apprenticeship training. With so much riding on your employees’ proficiency, it makes sense to invest some time to ensure your training program and partners measure up. Organized labor was the pioneer in developing the apprenticeship system. But union training programs in many ways are outdated (much of the union system is based on formulae developed before World War II). Fortunately, there are many efficient alternatives open to non-union shops that can provide education and on-the-job training that can be just as effective: career and technical high schools, community colleges, construction trade associations such as the Associated Builders and Contractors and the Independent Electrical Contractors and dedicated, private training schools such as the Building Trades Institute.

Federal apprenticeship rules, the newest revisions in place for about a year, offer employers a flexible, modernized system – including the option to offer three different routes to proper training. This flexibility allows construction companies to fit not only their needs but the needs of their individual workers. Because one size does not fit all, employers can choose a traditional “time-based” approach, in which the apprentice completes a predetermined number of on-the-job training hours and related technical instruction. Or the contractor may choose a “competency-based” approach, in which the apprentice to must demonstrate competency in a specific subject area after completing OJT and RTI. Or the company may institute a combination of these approaches.

Whichever path employers take to ensure their apprentices achieve the necessary abilities through training and classroom learning, it is imperative to choose training partners to help them achieve their goals.

I have developed a checklist of features and benefits construction companies should look for when qualifying potential partners for their apprenticeship training:

• Compliance Assurance – Your apprenticeship training partner must institute the specific training programs your company needs, including measurement techniques and minimum proficiency requirements. It also must ensure these standards meet or exceed state and federal thresholds.

• Customized Training – The partner should not only teach the basic skills your workers will need to succeed, but also tailor its more advanced training to meet the specific challenges they will meet on the types of jobs your company typically performs.

• Worker-level Assessments – Your training partner should quantitatively and qualitatively determine each worker’s skill level to determine where your training dollars will be best spent.

• Effective Management – The partner should compile, track, interpret and regularly report to you the training program’s effectiveness, including such rubrics as return on investment, completion rate, turnover reduction.

• Workforce Recruitment – Your training investment should perform double duty, not only making workers more productive but also serving as a tool to increase quality employees. The partner must market your program and sell it as an additional benefit of working for your company.

• Grantor Acceptance – While apprenticeship and other worker training is not an area to be scrimped on, there is no need for right-thinking construction companies not to take advantage of government assistance in this area. To fully benefit from the myriad training grants, tax benefits and federal stimulus money available, ensure your training partner is among the approved vendors for these programs.

Speaking of government help in paying for construction worker training, several avenues are available. The U.S. Department of Labor offers grants throughout the year. In 2009, DOL offered grants for training workers in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries and for attracting minorities, women, veterans and young people to the industry. In addition, some states use contractor’s board-imposed fines to fund construction education provided by its partners. These funds often are available to established trainers such as industry employer associations to implement or expand programs and defray employers’ training costs.

Workforce Investment Boards of many states have devised programs that not only teach construction jobsite skills, but also employability skills including time management, negotiation and meeting etiquette. These programs often target the fringes of the labor pool such as non-violent criminal offenders and the longtime unemployed. Many WIB programs offer dollar-for-dollar matching for employers’ training investments.

States and the federal government offer tax breaks for companies that train existing workers or hire and train traditionally underserved demographics.

Again, I highly recommend utilizing a Training Consultant to tap into these workforce development funds. Eric Rader and his Team at Building Trades Institute is one of the best in the business.

Labels: Commercial, Construction Industry

¶ 1:14 PM 0 comments