How Workforce Development Can Help Your Roofing Business

By Amanda Fields, Roofing Contractors Association of Washington. 

Support your roofing contracting business by creating pathways for your current and new employees. 

The roofing industry is still facing problems with our current workforce. Washington roofers are seeing the negative effects of having an unskilled and aging workforce, but there are solutions to this problem. One way we can improve the health of this industry is by adopting the perspective of workforce development wherein we focus on training our current and future roofers. 

Workforce development can successfully support your business and start a pathway for new and future employees. Although workforce development looks different for every company, the design is the same — education and growth! Investing in every single employee’s roofing education is vital to your bottom line. When your employee knows exactly what job they are doing, they will do it in a positive and efficient way, saving you money in the end. 

Workforce development helps train staff with the necessary skills for a specific position with the potential for growth within your company. Research shows that when you invest in your employees and they feel valued, educated, and have the chance to climb up the career ladder, they are less likely to leave. Retention saves money and creates growth. 

Workforce development is also volunteering, networking and partnering at local schools’ Career and Technical Education (CTE) classrooms, career days, etc. and engaging with students interested in the roofing field. Numerous local schools from elementary, middle schools and college are looking for professionals like you to provide field trips and come to their classrooms positively sharing with students a pathway to being involved in our industry. If we do provide or show a confident corridor to our industry, we will maintain future owners of roofing companies, roofers, estimators, drone technology professionals, etc. If not, we will diminish the skilled labor needed to be successful in the future. 

In the end, education and growth is the key for each individual person on your crew, in the field and in your office to provide growth for your business. Show support, education and encouragement to every employee because the cost up-front will land you a bigger bottom line in the end. 

If you’re looking for education for your employees, please let me know. If you’re interested in helping to navigate a way to help educate our youth this fall, please get in touch with me. I’d like to hear from you. Let’s keep the workforce engaged, trained and coming to your business. 

Original article source: RCAW