At Walters & Wolf, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about training. There are two main categories of training in our industry. One is the training you receive when you first come to work at our company. This type of training is completely the responsibility of the company you work for. The other type of training is what you receive after your introduction to the company. This type of training is more self-guided and helps you grow.
For the first category, we decided to create a process that we could do over and over and continually improve. We took a simple project that we had previously completed and then built our training program around it. So, for a new project manager, you would do the following:
- If the person is brand new to our industry, we will use the Gana Estimating course to give them an introduction to our industry. We use this book as a supplement to the training since it can be a bit dry. It has lots of good information but you need to take it a little at a time.
- We begin with doing a takeoff and an estimate for the project. This teaches you how we do our estimates, where we put our data and where to find information. It helps you understand what the standards are and as a project manager, gives you all the information you will need to find the information your estimator will create.
- Now that you’ve estimated the project, we do a mock kick-off meeting. You see what to expect from this meeting, what questions you should be asking and what to look for in the documents when you get a new project.
- The next step is to create a schedule for the project. One of the first things we do on a project is build our plan. This is the best way to know what you need to do and when you need to do it. It is also one of the main communication tools we use with our customer. We use Microsoft Project at our office. We go through a training program on the program, then we have you build a schedule from scratch then at the end you build a schedule using our templates. We then use some mock scenarios to show you how to adjust your schedule if you can’t get to the customer’s start date and how to do your weekly updates.
- The next step is to build a cost projection for the job. This gives you the schedule of values information, gives you a tracking method for the project costs and gives you a way to communicate your margin goals and how you are doing against each cost code.
- We then go through Transmittals, Submittals, Change Order Quotes and Information Approval Logs. These are our method of communicating with the customer. We have standard methods for all these processes and we need to give our new employee a chance to learn and practice these skills.
- We then review shop work orders, purchase requisitions, labor monitors and the other processes we follow to get our work coordinated with the other departments.
As you can see, the process starts with creating standard work. One of the best tools for creating a great training program is making standard processes for each of your steps. We have similar programs for drafting, purchasing and takeoff. These steps help you get up and running faster and give you an introduction to all the tools we use. Each step of the training is conducted by a different senior PM. So, by the end of the training, not only do you have a good introduction to our process, but you’ve met and worked with almost everyone in the department. If you have a question on schedules, you have someone to ask. If you can’t remember something about the purchasing process, you know who to go to. We work as a team and your other PM’s are your best resource. We want you to ask a lot of questions and share what you are working on and not be afraid to ask for help and the training helps you build that network right away.
This initial training is a great starting point. But as you progress in your career, it becomes necessary to keep learning. An on-going training program is required. Here is what we do at our company;
- Monthly vendor training. Every month, we have a different vendor come in and give us a class on their product, their company or their industry. These are typically lunch sessions that go from 12:00 – 1:30. It’s a great way to learn about a new vendor, a section of the industry you are unfamiliar with or new products that are being introduced. These are available to everyone.
- Skills training. These classes are typically devoted to a specific skill that would be good for our employees to master. Classes in Autocad, Revit, Inventor, Sketch-up, On Screen Takeoff, Microsoft Excel, Word or Access, our Takeoff program, etc… We hold these types of classes about 3 times per year. You would have one class per week for 3 – 4 weeks.
- Lean training. Since this is the main company focus, you will be placed in a lean class. Classes meet each week for one hour. You learn about lean and with your class will participate in a 5S and a group improvement process. You will also learn to create your own individual videos and how to upload them to the company’s youtube site.
- Group projects. This was another form of training that we created. We set up a list of projects that we would like to tackle. We then gave the list to the team and you could sign up for something that interested you. We had a group that built their own 3d Printer and learned how to use it. We had a group that explored mobile technologies and how to apply them., another group was exploring the different BIM software and how we might use that. Another group had a book club to read one of the latest business books. Each group then reported back to the whole team and explained what they learned to help everyone in the group know more about the subject.
- Outside training and conferences. These would include outside classes at the local colleges. There is a great night program at Stanford that a number of people regularly attend. The Autodesk University conference is a great way to grow your engineering team. There are outside classes in Revit, Inventor and other Autodesk software that last a few days if you need a more intense approach. Leed training is another topic we do externally. For our more technical people there are developer conferences in jquery, DNN and ADN. We have people in advanced lean training that learn by going to other companies and doing kaizen events and even touring factories in Japan. These types of classes are typically requested by the employee and reviewed on an individual basis.
People are the only appreciating asset in your business. Helping them grow and become the very best they can be should be the goal of every company. Experience will come from their day-to-day work but training will help them grow much faster. A great training program will help you retain great employees and reap the benefits of their new knowledge.
