Masonry Magazine June 1998 Page. 18
An interesting side note is the growing number of companies in other industries that offer remedial training to employees. Almost 20 percent of companies nationwide are offering remedial education in reading (40 percent), basic math (50 percent), English as a second language (51 percent) and writing (52 percent). The larger the company, the more likely it is to provide remedial training. This type of education could become more relevant to the construction industry as the number of workers from other cultures continues to increase. Providing basic language skills to workers in the field, and perhaps training in another language to their supervisors, will enhance communication, quality of work, and productivity on the job.
Training Budgets on the Rise
The need for training at the technical/craft and management levels is obvious, and, if addressed, can improve productivity and competitiveness within a company and across the industry. Many construction companies are recognizing this fact as overall training budgets have increased, and most plan to further increase what they are investing in their employees at both the technical and managerial levels. We measured increases in training budgets in three areas: Technical/Craft, Safety, and Management/Supervisory.
■50 percent of Technical/Craft training budgets increased, with 47 percent reporting that their budgets remained the same. Only 3 percent decreased their budgets. Sixty-seven percent of highway/street companies increased their training budgets in this area, followed by 60 percent of heavy/civil companies.
■69 percent increased their budgets for training in safety, with 30 percent remaining stable. Over 80 percent of industrial, construction managers, heavy/civil, and electrical and specialty companies reported an increase in money spent on safety training.
■62 percent of companies increased their training budgets for management/supervisory training; 37 percent of budgets remained the same. The biggest companies saw the greatest increase in training budgets at 83 percent. Heavy/civil construction was most likely to increase their budget.
■Heavy/civil construction firms made the greatest increase in overall training budgets when compared with other types of construction companies.
According to our respondents, planned future investment (for the next twelve months) in internal education for technical/craft programs will receive the least amount of funding. Sixty-three percent of companies surveyed said they intended to spend under $25,000. This was fairly consistent among all companies except the largest, of which 40 percent expected to spend $100,000 or more.
Future Investment in Training Technical/Craft Labor
While companies consistently identify the lack of skilled craft workers as a major challenge, they are investing the least amount of training dollars in this area. On the average, the majority (65 percent) of construction firms with revenues of $25-499 million reported that they plan to invest under $25,000 in internal education/training budgets in the next twelve months for technical and craft skills. Of the largest companies with revenues of $500 million or greater, 40 percent planned to spend $100,00 or more. $100.00
Future Investment in Training Management and Supervisors
For training of management and supervisory personnel, construction firms planned to invest more. The amount companies planned to invest varied according to revenue of the company.
Sixty-two percent of small firms ($25-49.9 million) planned to invest under $25,000.
■Of mid-range companies ($50-99.9 million), 47 percent planned to invest under $25,000 and 33 percent planned $25-49,999; 14 percent of $100+ million companies planned to invest $50-74,999.
Twenty-three percent of the largest firms planned to invest $100,000 or more.
Electrical and specialty firms were planning to make the greatest investment, with 38 percent intending to spend over $100,000 or more, closely followed by 33 percent of highway/street contractors spending the same amount.
Return on Training Investment
Survey respondents were asked their average percent return per dollar spent on training in three categories: technical/craft, safety, and management/supervisory.
The return on investment was consistently highest for safety training. Mid-size companies reported average returns of 20-49 percent. The largest firms reported a return of at least 70 percent.
The return on investment for management/supervisory personnel varied widely depending on company size, with returns varying from under 10 percent to 70 percent.
■There was more consistency in perceived return of investment for technical/craft training, though here, too, there is great variation in