What's Happening

Investing In People Yields Big Returns

March 8, 2010

While many of our competitors cut back on training and developing their talent during the economic downturn, WCC took a different approach and expanded our focus on building a stronger workforce and developing an extensive pipeline of leaders for the future.

Bob Walsh’s mission is to, “Build a sustainable leadership development process for WCC to grow leadership quality and depth such that the right (internal) talent is available at the right time for the right role(s). That said we’ll balance internal development with selective external recruitment when we need to.” To ensure that mission is met, Chet Klock was appointed Chief Development Officer in 2006. In this role Chet is responsible for facilitating each employee’s short and long term development plans, providing coaching, learning opportunities and job assignments that help each individual reach their career goals while ensuring WCC has talented and prepared employees to complete the task at hand.

In addition to growing careers and retaining our current workforce, a strong focus has been placed on ensuring there is enough of the right talent to bring into the organization so that we can maintain our current volume and grow with the needs of our clients and our markets. Studies show that with retirement of the baby boomer generation, there will not be enough talent to go around. With our improved, organized and well managed Internship Program, WCC is making sure we attract the best talent out of colleges and universities and provide each intern with a meaningful experience where they learn, grow and are able to evaluate if WCC is where they want to spend their careers. It also has the added benefit of providing us with a significant amount of time to evaluate if the intern is the right fit for WCC and our culture.

Despite the economic environment, WCC’s 2009 internship program had six participants in Oregon and Washington. Scheduled for 2010, we will have seven interns working in the Oregon and Washington regions representing Central Washington University, Oregon State University, Western Washington University and Washington State University. One of these interns is returning for a second year after spending a portion of 2009 at the University of Idaho Kibbie Dome project.

Another area of expansion within WCC’s learning function is the annual Training Conference. Started in 2008 specifically for operational staff, the annual conference brings together the Oregon and Washington regions and provides employees the opportunity to share lessons learned and best practices. Covering topics such as Safety, Quality Control, Risk Management, Business Development, Workplace Diversity and Communication, the conference gives employees a platform to share their knowledge and experiences. The 2008 endeavor was so successful, the 2009 WCC Training Conference was expanded to include all WCC staff.

Another major initiative in 2009 was undertaken by our Sustainability Manager Chuck Halling and the construction professionals that became LEED AP certified. On January 1, 2008, though we had constructed many LEED Certified and green projects, we had just five LEED APs on staff. Chuck developed a LEED AP training class delivered throughout 2008 and 2009 in eight-week and two-day study course formats. At the end of 2009 virtually all of our project management, estimating, project engineer and assistant superintendent staff had become LEED Accredited Professionals, bringing our total to 54. A recognized leader in green and sustainable building, WCC is committed to remaining at the forefront of sustainable construction and providing training and learning opportunities to our employees will keep us there.

As we look to the future of WCC’s learning functions there will be more emphasis on mentoring, best practices workshops, leadership skill development and communication. There will also be a greater use of technology for delivery of training utilizing online training and online on-boarding (orientation) programs. Investing in our people now and in the future is a long-term investment in the health and profitability of WCC.
 

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