Recognizing the Value of the Skilled Trades

People value skilled trades for the everyday necessities they bring to life. From plumbing to electrical, machinists, and construction, trades play a vital role worldwide. They make the world happen.

Unfortunately, there is a growing gap in the skilled trades workforce, despite high wages, employer-funded training, readily available positions, and the opportunity to apply those skills to many entrepreneurial opportunities. By and large, young people are staying in the trades. That is something that needs to change.

Straight Outta Crumpton took a recent look at the situation and wanted to spotlight the value of the people in skilled trades. Hosts Tyler Kern and Greg Crumpton spoke with Adam Hoots, Lean Construction Shepherd at Construction ACHE Solutions, on ways the skilled trades industry can transform itself in the twenty-first century.

“We all have to start treating our people better,” Hoots said. “This is as simple as just talking to people in the field. I’m not even broaching the subject of payment or insurance or benefits; I’m talking about treating people like human beings and empowering them to teach something or being part of the big picture of what’s going on.”

Kern, Crumpton, and Hoots discuss several areas surrounding skilled trades, including…

● Utilizing lean principles in the trades industry

● The importance of companies recognizing the value of skilled trades workers

they employ

● Strategies and tactics for getting youth interested in skilled trades

“We go to the career technical centers,” Hoots said. “There’s four or five of them around Greenville (South Carolina.) We’re able to speak to the kids, tell them what it’s like, how much money their earning potential is, what it’s like in the day in the life, and how you can get to owning your own business, whether you go to college or go to the trades. You still go to executive management, so you ultimately end up in the same place. We’re forever getting in front of the young folks out there.”

Adam Hoots solves the construction industry’s aches and pains through productive learning and lean construction coaching services. Hoots brings more than twenty years of architectural and construction experience to the commercial construction industry and holds a CM-Lean certification with the Associated General Contractors of America.