The Building BITE

Please tune in to this episode of The Building BITE Podcast, as we hear from industry experts about key topics to help you be successful. The Building BITE host Mike Diercksen, CRIS, welcomes Nick Demonte, Cement Mason Coordinator, and Tim Nelson, Plastering Coordinator at ITF OPCMIA. We begin the episode by discussing Nick and Tim’s professional career, which eventually lead them both to an educational role. Nick and Tim share the new technology they are bringing to the industry and demonstrate the need to incorporate these new strategies due to the labor workforce continuing to shrink. Nick and Tim leave provide excellent insight into the labor force at large, and ultimately leave us with three key takeaways. 1. Recruit: As an industry, we are losing more workers than we are bringing on and we need to find ways to recruit diverse talent. Using tools such as the VR Simulator is just one way that we are looking to engage with both our existing prospect pools and to expand into new groups that may not have otherwise looked at the trades. 2. Train: It is not enough to simply get more people to join the labor work force, but we need to train these new workers to be able to hit the ground running and shorten their learning curve. Using these technologies enables the industry to do exactly that, while offering opportunities to existing laborers to renew certifications and enhance their own experience. 3. Retain: As it stands, industry data shows that in the coming years we will be losing four workers for every one that enters the labor workforce. Investing in technology and demonstrating to new workers the career opportunities available to them will be instrumental to retention rates and the long-term success of our industry. To learn more about how you can better prepare your firm for the opportunities ahead, listen to our full podcast episode with Nick and Tim on “Virtual Training, Enhancing On The Job Learning.” Please like, share, and subscribe to this podcast!