TRAINING: Can it modernize the flooring industry?

 Either new workers already have experience, or will get it by simply working on the job.

Another approach, the more contemporary, is that an active approach to trainingis necessary to survive in modern business.

In fact, Carl French, partner and manager at Speers Road Broadloom in Oakville, Ont., believes some flooring businesses maywell “go the way of the do-do bird” if they don’t change some of their attitudes toward training. French says, “For so many reasons, investing in training helps everyone down the line, frommanufacturing to sales. It shouldn’t be seen as a burden. Instead, it should be seen as an opportunity.”Asked if he’s worried that the time and money spent ontraining can be wasted on employees that leave and work elsewhere,French has a simple answer: “So what?” He goes on to say, “That’s a problem that I want to see happening in our industry. Iwant to go up against someone who knows what they’re doing.It’s the untrained competitors who engage in senseless undercuttingwho make life diffi cult for my business and the industry.”

Jo-Anne Teed, who sits on the board of directors for the National Floor Covering Association, andis co-owner of Universal Flooring in Calgary, Alta.,has a similar view of the role training should playin Canada’s floor covering industry. She says, “I think — and youcan write this down — that training and professionalism acrossthe board need to be taken to a new level. We need to raise thebasic standard of training that’s out there right now.”Although Teed’s comments are about the industry in general,her focus is on apprenticeship, which is a topic that shouldnot be new to readers of Coverings magazine. Teed and othercolumnists have been writing for years about the failure of theindustry to take advantage of the numerous programs availableat all levels of government, and at relatively little cost, to upgradeand modernize the flooring labour workforce.

Asked why more flooring businesses don’t take advantage of these apprenticeship programs, Teed’s frustration becomesnoticeable. She says, “Although this may not be the case in all the provinces, which all have their own challenges, in Alberta,and elsewhere, there’s complacency in the retail shops. They’redoing well, so they don’t think they need to invest in apprenticeshipprograms. But fi ve years from now, there won’t be any installationmechanics out there. The numbers clearly show that.”The numbers Teed refers to are those that indicate, accordingto her, that over 50 percent of people in flooring areover the age of 50. In a nutshell, young people are not cominginto the profession, which Teed believes should catch the attentionof more people in floor covering. She says, “For many reasons,flooring just isn’t sexy to young people looking for a career.This is an educational challenge that we need to address for thehealth and survival of the industry.”

Retail manager French agrees with Teed that resources are available from the government, theassociations, and other organizations to help trainpeople, including his sales force. However, Frenchbelieves that the professionalization and modernization neededfor the industry to survive can only occur if the manufacturers,especially in Canada, get more involved. According to Teed, “The manufacturers spend so much money getting the consumersinto the store, only to have them disappointed once they comein. There’s a gap there that I don’t think the manufacturers fullyunderstand right now.”

French continues, “So, what we have is a situation where the consumer has so much knowledge about the product fromthe internet and social media. What they’re not getting is thatsame knowledge from retail sales staff s. The manufacturers haveto help us out here. Frankly, they have to show us how to sellin this new media market, how to compare products, and howto sell theirs in this environment. If consumers don’t get this informationfrom us, they’ll go to Home Depot on vacation. They won’t buy from us.”

French uses two examples to demonstrate the directionhe’d like some manufacturers to take inrelation to supporting their dealers. First, he’d liketo see in Canada schools like Mohawk Universityand Shaw Learning Academy that exist south of the border. Accordingto French, “I think they do a great job in training peoplein general, and not just dealers.” Second, French would like to seemore manufacturers make the jobs of retail sales staff that mucheasier.