But the question of IT training reared its awkward head late last year, when a survey by a DETR-backed research team found that a 鈥渓ack of skills and training鈥� was the single largest factor putting a brake on IT use in the industry.
A picture emerged of frontline staff using software to a fraction of its potential, while the boardroom decision-makers tried to steer into the IT age without a map.
So where exactly is the industry falling down on IT training, and what can it do to increase the IT IQ of its organisations? As always, the first stage in solving a problem is acknowledging that it exists. The good news is that most industry IT managers are aware that they have a lot of ground to make up. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a general assumption that by delivering technology to the desktop, everyone will be able to use it,鈥� says Steve Connor, IT director at contractor Carillion. 鈥淏ut here, we鈥檝e accepted that people have to take their driving test before they get the car.鈥�
Similarly, at Jarvis, IT director Mike Manisty concedes: 鈥淭raining is the Achilles鈥� heel of implementation. If someone wants a PC, it gets delivered. But making sure some training goes with it is a huge logistical challenge.鈥�
If training delivery is successful, there can be huge productivity improvements. For instance, everyone at Jarvis can self-teach themselves on Microsoft鈥檚 straightforward Outlook e-mail program. Yet Manisty knows that not everyone uses its shared diaries or out-of-office automatic replies 鈥� where the real benefits of e-mail lie.
Keith Aldis, director of training at the Construction Confederation, believes the main problem lies with smaller contractors where the lack of construction-specific, commercially-run courses is a serious handicap. The confederation is working on a new guide to give employers advice about the affordable resources available to improve IT training and awareness, which will be ready in April.
IT directors such as Connor and Manisty are starting to appreciate that exhortations to staff and directors to put more resources into training are not enough in themselves. They argue that those who want more training have to make a watertight case for it, those who deliver it have to devise cost-effective ways of doing so, and that more incentives are needed to link IT skills to an individual鈥檚 promotion prospects.
According to Bob Nicholl, director of IT and human resources at contractor Christiani & Nielsen, a rigorous cost-benefit analysis should be the first step in a company鈥檚 training policy: 鈥淯nless you can demonstrate a return on investment, you鈥檙e not likely to be understood in the boardroom.鈥� Here, the calculations need to include the cost of not doing training 鈥� such as software underused, and colleagues鈥� time wasted.
PC-based, on-line or intranet training is seen as the way forward by many industry employers. Typically, a self-assessment questionnaire would help each member of staff to establish what their weak points are. The program then suggests remedies, such as downloading a training module from the Internet, or buying a training manual or CD-ROM from an Internet bookshop, or it may advise staff to get in touch with the firm鈥檚 training department to book a traditional classroom course.
Christiani & Nielsen鈥檚 Nicholl, who is developing an in-house intranet system, points out that this form of training could be ideal for the mobile construction industry, where staff are often out of sight of head office, and gives them the flexibility to learn at their own pace. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to look at the return on investment and savings you can achieve compared with getting people into a classroom,鈥� he says.
At Carillion, where staff previously had to take the initiative to request training, a new system is being introduced that intertwines an analysis of what IT training is needed with annual staff appraisals. In the future, its junior QSs and engineers nearing chartered status will also have to pass in-house IT proficiency tests before their external qualifications are recognised. 鈥淲e want to raise IT awareness by an order of magnitude,鈥� says Connor.
A new initiative at Christiani & Nielsen involves appointing 15 IT champions, to whom other members of staff can turn for help or initial training requests. Meanwhile, a new IT steering group means training is now led by users rather than the IT department.
Where contractors are concerned, several IT managers, including Carillion鈥檚 Connor, raised the problem of Construction Industry Training Board grants not being available for IT-related training. The organisation鈥檚 senior training manager, Bill Temple, confirmed that the CITB鈥檚 policy of only funding construction skills was set to continue.
But the CITB is not ignoring the importance of IT, and is supporting a Construction Confederation-led and DETR-funded national seminar programme starting in April, which hopes to take IT novices and staff with more experience on to the next level, whether that is tendering by e-mail, or sophisticated document management.
As with pensions, hearing the same training message over and over may not be enough. But in at least some quarters of the industry, it looks as though there is some recognition that creative initiatives and high-tech training solutions can achieve what good intentions cannot.
Useful websites
www.bcs.org.uk For information on the Europe-wide IT 鈥渄riving licence鈥�, as used by Jarvis
www.click2learn.com Website of US-based training organisation
www.smartforce.com Personalised 鈥渆-learning鈥� website
