Broadgate Homes builds a team ethos: Training makes employees more aware of their effect on others

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine how training programs are helping to combat skill shortages and promote a healthy corporate culture at two UK building companies.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper aims to focus on mentoring and apprenticeship programs at Broadgate Homes Limited, of Spalding, Lincolnshire, and William Davis, of Loughborough, Leicestershire, which won prizes in the UK National Training Awards.

Findings

The paper describes how Broadgate designed a bespoke program with input from senior managers, who assessed the skills of the workforce and produced a priority schedule of required training. William Davis, meanwhile, began an apprenticeship program immediately after the Second World War, and since then has employed trainees in bricklaying, carpentry/joinery, electrical, plumbing, scaffolding, plant mechanics, quantity surveying, buying, site engineering, design engineering and accounting.

Practical implications

The paper reveals that both firms report employee‐retention rates of more than 75 percent.

Originality/value

The paper highlights the impact of good training practice on employee morale and quality of work.

Citation

(2009), "Broadgate Homes builds a team ethos: Training makes employees more aware of their effect on others", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 27-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/09670730910963307