Worker Retention Key Component to Workforce Development

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With the tower industry in need of thousands of new workers, the wireless infrastructure industry has been working collectively on workforce development, providing apprenticeships, recruiting, and training curricula, as well as obtaining federal funding, according to an Inside Towers Pro Panels webinar on Workforce Development moderated yesterday by John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor.

The panel featured Cesar Ruiz, President & CEO, Learning Alliance Corporation; Todd Schlekeway, President & CEO; NATE, Heather Gastelum, Sr. Manager, National Site Safety, T-Mobile; and Jonathan Eastman, President, VIKOR.

 “Trades are lacking in resources across all of construction so this is not necessarily surprising to see, there’s never enough,” said Gastelum. “We have a ton of work available out there, and we don’t have enough resources to do it.”

Schlekeway highlighted two pending bipartisan bills that will assist the tower industry with its workforce development.

The first one is the Improving Minorities, Participants and Careers and Telecom (IMPACT) Act, which would fund the development of telecom specific training programs at historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and minority serving institutions and organizations. The Telecommunications Skilled Workforce Act, if passed, would streamline collaboration between the federal government and state workforce boards, higher education and industry to support training and upskilling the workforce needed to build out and maintain the wireless networks.

Both of those bills were recently included in a more comprehensive package, which is called the United States Innovation and Competition Act, which is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Sources have told Schlekeway that President Biden’s budget may have up to $100 million allocated for apprenticeships. “It would be NATE’s hope, and the others in the industry, that some of that money would hopefully flow to that industry-specific apprenticeship programs such as TIRAP [Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program], which is a joint venture between the Department of Labor and the Wireless Infrastructure Association.”

Training curriculum and recruiting are critical components to the Learning Alliance Corporation, which offers more than 235 online courses, every grant that it supports.

“The first part is helping employers get the skilled workforce,” Ruiz said. “This involves focusing on the marketing, ensuring that at-risk youth, anyone that’s transitioning out of the military, and others are aware of these careers and opportunities.”

On the backend, Ruiz said it is important to give workers the skills, the certifications, the competencies and the related technical instruction to ensure that there’s a growth path forward at their companies. 

“Telecom employers deal with losing technicians because another competitor is offering one dollar more,” he said. “I believe that if an employer set a series of competencies that, if mastered, the technician would receive an increase in pay, they would retain more employees. So, the employer gets a better trained workforce, and they can potentially make more money.”

Eastman said providing a pathway forward for his company’s employees at VIKOR is critical from a retention standpoint. “One of our employees popped into my office the other day and he was excited because he can now see his long-term path at our company. People need to understand what steps are coming next, what qualifications are required,” he said.

The apprenticeships that TIRAP uses to train new workers to specific occupations, from a tower technician to overhead and underground utilities, are crucial, according to Gastelum.

“They have to have that on-the-job training,” she said. “You can’t just call somebody competent and capable of conducting a Class Four rigging without ensuring that they fully understand all of the requirements for a Class Four rigging setup, and execution of that type of work.”

A path forward, according to Gastelum, means letting employees know that they are always working toward a goal, whether it is becoming a crew leader or becoming a foreman.

 “If an employee understands that their company cares about training them in safe work practices they tend to stick around,” Gastelum said. 

If you missed this Pro Panel, you can watch a replay, available here.

By Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor

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