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Workforce Development Ideas - Digineer

Some great ideas from Digineer about how they develop their workforce using more than monetary perks. Digineer is a IT consulting firm but the ideas are very applicable to what contractors could do to enhance both the loyalty and skills of their workforce.

InformationWeek ran a short article called How to Keep Employees Around about Digineer's HR strategy.

What they had in the print version but not online was a sidebar disicussing the four categories of their employee training. Each of these has a direct translation to construction and could be effective for developing your team.

101 - The Basics: When a new employee gets hired at your company do you have a structured way to teach them how you specifically do business? Who does what in your business? How you treat your customers? How they can succeed in your business? In construction we tend to assume that people should just know - this is an incorrect assumption. Spending a little time creating a '101' course for your business will help you clarify your thoughts and will also get everyone on the same page.

Coffee Talks: These are informal and could easily be done with coffee and donuts on the jobsite or at the office. They should be hosted by an 'expert' and focus on one topic such as daily job logs or doing 3-week schedules. The informal nature lowers people's barriers and helps build the team.

Deep Dives: Bring in an expert every month on a specific subject such as grounding, earthquaking, SWPP, etc. Go very deep on the subject and stimulate everyone's brain.

User Groups: Get people to form outside groups and focus on developing new skills. After our apprenticeship programs there isn't much out there. What about all the PM's, Estimators and Foremen getting together over pizza one night every few weeks to kick around pre-planning ideas?

Posted by David Brown on December 3, 2006 08:42 AM|Permalink

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