Labor acquisition and training -- finding qualified workers and educating them in construction technique, safety standards, customer service and sales, and the like -- is one of the most pressing challenges facing the construction industry today. This collection of articles from Hanley Wood publications offers best practices to help you find and train the workers you need now and into the future.

• Ground Control: Terra Infirma:K. Hovnanian's big land reset carries the hope that today's losses will be tomorrow's gains. (BUILDER, January 2007)
• Welcome to the Monkey House:Engage the whole family in your presentation and you increase the chances of getting the sale. (REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, January 2007)
• Close Questioning:Trial closing gives you control of the presentation.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, January 2007)
• Sites to See:A tour of home improvement industry Web sites shows plenty of innovation along with same old, same old. (REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, January 2007)
• A Price You Can't Refuse:Some potent arguments to use the next time you get low-balled.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, January 2007)
• Referrals 101:Not every referral is a great lead. (REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, January 2007)
• Hire Smart:Hiring is work, but here are some tips and techniques to make it more efficient, and to prevent bad hires. (REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, January 2007)
• Exit, Stage Left:What your departing salespeople tell you about your company, and your management, could be very valuable. (REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, January 2007)
• Think Young: (REMODELING, January 2007)
• Big 50 FaceOff:Should You Be Obligated To Provide Safety Instructions In Your Employees' Primary Language? (REMODELING, January 2007)
• The New Recruits:Laying out the welcome mat for the immigrant workforce.(REMODELING, January 2007)
• The Next Wave:Even if few of your customers today are Hispanics, that's going to change. (REMODELING, January 2007)
• Added Value:Benefit costs are skyrocketing, but they're becoming increasingly essential to retaining a loyal and productive workforce. In the first of a three-part series, REMODELING looks at how benefits affect the bottom line. (REMODELING, January 2007)
• Communicating Collections:Don't be afraid to run from a job that's not right for you. (REMODELING, January 2007)
• Sunk Costs:Don't be afraid to run from a job that's not right for you. (REMODELING, January 2007)
• Next Stop: Home:People want to live near transit. (MULTIFAMILY EXECUTIVE, January 2007)
• Controlling Flatwork Temperatures:Your profits may be at stake (CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, January 2007)
• Material Incompatibility: Identifying and preventing problems (CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, January 2007)
• Scheduling 101:Don't neglect this essential planning tool. (CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, January 2007)
• Concrete Triumphs:Eight projects that show how contractors have succeeded in placing concrete faster, taller, and with the highest quality despite difficult challenges. (CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, January 2007)
• Web Tune-Up:If your Web site looks like it did in 1996, you're losing sales leads. Give your site this 10-point service to revitalize and maximize your online time with home buyers. (BUILDER, January 2007)
• Build Them And They Will Come:In the go-go world of active adult communities, builders and developers who do their homework can find success. (BUILDER, January 2007)
• Finding Hot Properties:New GIS software gives Virginia builder an edge with land development. (BUILDER, January 2007)
• Window of Opportunity: The move among big builders to free up land may benefit smaller builders.(BUILDER, January 2007)
• Concrete Countertop Training: (CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, December 2006)
• Training for Decorative Concrete 2006: Plenty of options(CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, December 2006)
• Fight or Flight: We've entered the stressful and dangerous period in the boom-bust-boom cycle that defines the home building industry. Each builder will have to examine its business to decide the best action to take, as one size does not fit all.(BIG BUILDER, December 2006)
• Builders Continue Layoffs: As pink slips blanket the industry, remember there are right and wrong ways to resize your workforce.(BIG BUILDER, December 2006)
• Hills and Valleys:(BIG BUILDER, December 2006)
• Better Living: Kettler offers unique amenities to renters and owners of its multifamily properties.(BUILDER, December 2006)
• The X Factor: C.P. Morgan hit the ground running in Charlotte with procedures that smoothed the way for its trade partners.(BUILDER, December 2006)
• Under Control: Lifestyle Homes builds Reno's most-affordable homes with unexpected quality that stems from its relationship with installers, many of whom are its employees.(BUILDER, December 2006)
• Change Agents: Innovation has altered the business models of four builders and one developer by raising their expectations about their performance and reconnecting them with their customers.(BUILDER, December 2006)
• Leader Time:(REMODELING, December 2006)
• Hiring Tips:(REMODELING, December 2006)
• Pre-Qualify for Best Hire:(REMODELING, December 2006)
• Power Networking:Put your contacts to work.(CUSTOM HOME, November 2006)
• A Tradition of Service:Pass on company values to new employees.(CUSTOM HOME, November 2006)
• Paper Foundation:A successful project starts with accurate paper work.(CUSTOM HOME, November 2006)
• People Problems:What kind of immigration policy makes sense for your company?(CUSTOM HOME, November 2006)
• Staying Power:Retaining key employees is often less about what they're paid and more about how they're recognized.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• En Español: Hiring Hispanic subs or employees? Here are few things to consider.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• Past and Future: Avoid bad hires by asking penetrating questions.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• No Worries: How one window contractor promotes a package of reassuring warranties.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• Deck Builder's Tool Kit: A deck builder's suggested list of must-haves.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• Persons of Influence:So-called third-party kills can be the most frustrating kind ofrescission.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• Habitual Offender: Are bad sales habits making you crazy? Hands-on management will help salesreps banish them.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• Canvass Kings: For this home improvement company, canvassing how-to has become a consulting business.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• Who Does the Books?: Do you outsource your company's bookkeeping or keep it in-house?(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• First Impressions: The way you handle warm calls has a big effect on the number of leads you set.(REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR, November 2006)
• Charles Tseckares of Childs Bertman Tseckares Shares His Advice: How to Set-Up and Grow a Successful Architecture Firm. (BIG BUILDER, November 2006)
• Think Tomorrow Today:Don't just shrink and retrench into a foxhole during the downturn. Use the slow time to reshape your strategy for the upturn. (BIG BUILDER, November 2006)
• Closer Look: Apartment companies use personality tests to see if applicants are worth hiring. (MULTIFAMILY EXECUTIVE, October 2006)
• Borrowed Ground: Land leases can work, if managed correctly. (MULTIFAMILY EXECUTIVE, October 2006)
• High Standards: Single-family builders produced record numbers of homes during the past year, and those homes were larger and contained more amenities than ever before. Furthermore, the American home buyer has become more and more demanding as time has gone by. And, as if things were not tough enough, builders faced persistent shortages of skilled labor as they sought to create quality homes for Americans. (BUILDER, May 2006)
• Special Skills: Production of single-family homes hit a record high in 2004 and started off 2005 with a bang. But construction of nonresidential structures was quite weak last year and remains far below the pre-recession highs in 2000. As a result, unemployment in the construction sector is running fairly high (11.8 percent in January), and the proportion of home builders reporting labor shortages is well below pre-recession highs despite surging housing production. (BUILDER, April 2005)
• Sole Reversal:A major cause of customer complaints: unmet expectations. For example, the salesperson promises a prospective home buyer one thing and the design center consultant tells him it's been discontinued. Or the customer gets dates for walkthroughs, and then those dates change three times because construction is lagging schedule. Fingers start pointing. Employees start grumbling. Why can't those other people do their jobs properly? Perhaps if everyone knew all it takes to get the job done from beginning to end, they'd be more understanding and would be able to convey more accurate information to the customer.(BIG BUILDER, March 2005)
• Strong Suit: As part of its efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of the construction process, Simpson Strong-Tie Co., in Dublin, Calif., recently earned National Housing Quality (NHQ) certification from the NAHB Research Center for its training materials on fasteners. Simpson, one of the largest suppliers of structural building products in the world, is the first building product manufacturer to achieve certification for training materials and to sponsor the NHQ program (BUILDER, February 2005)
• Frontline Education: Marc Bruffett had a lot of years of college to his credit when he went to work for Toll Brothers, but his undergraduate design degree and MBA from Cornell University were just the beginning of his education. For 16 months, he was immersed in the company's most intensive training program, its assistant project manager (APM) training, which he kicked off with a stint in the internal auditing department. (BIG BUILDER, January 2005)
• Assembly Required: A quiet revolution is taking place in the home building industry. Impelled by the drive for better quality products, greater efficiency, and more productivity, large builders are changing the way they build their homes.(BIG BUILDER, November 2004)
• Training Day: Everybody's telling the same story: "I can get help. I just can't get good help." This alarm has been ringing nationwide in the construction industry for more than a decade. Tom Holdsworth hears it loud and clear. As director of communications at SkillsUSA, a non-profit educational organization that trains students entering the building trades, Holdsworth tracks what he calls a "decline in the numbers of students enrolling in construction trades programs." (TOOLS OF THE TRADE, November 2004)
• Training Day: Everybody's telling the same story: "I can get help. I just can't get good help." This alarm has been ringing nationwide in the construction industry for more than a decade.(TOOLS OF THE TRADE, November 2004)
• Continuing Education: When KB Home employee Paul Anderson walks into his office in the morning and logs onto his computer, he is automatically taken to KB University. He typically glances at KB's stock quote and then takes in information on an interest rate swing, a government ruling, or a message from chairman and CEO Bruce Karatz. (BIG BUILDER, October 2004)
• Vertical Leap: When Pulte Homes plowed an estimated $42 million into a joint-venture partnership with Phoenix-based framing and foundation contractor Pratte Construction in January, the agreement revived a long-standing debate on the pitfalls and potential benefits of vertical integration.(BIG BUILDER, September 2004)
• Get Smart:The home building industry has enjoyed an impressive run recently, and the picture continues to look rosy for at least the next 10 years. But there is a looming problem: labor, or the lack of it. Just how bad is the problem? On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the most important, I would rate the labor shortage as an eight or nine, says Bobby Rayburn, NAHB president and a builder in Jackson, Miss. (BUILDER, August 2004)
• Under Control: The NAHB recently conducted a nationwide survey of about 300 single-family builders to track changes in callback experience and builder perspectives on the construction labor market. We found that the nation's home builders were able to maintain high standards of quality control and customer service during the past year while producing a record number of single-family units. This performance reflected improvements in the availability of skilled labor and in steps taken by builders to reduce and deal with customer callbacks. (BUILDER, August 2004)
• Pinch Hitters: When Mark Fischer has more work than his subs and staff can handle, he knows whom to call: HOMExperts, a company that provides specialized home services to builders and consumers. (BUILDER, April 2004)
• Culture Club:It's not unusual for big builders to hunt for talent on their own turf, particularly when looking for a new division president; there's no substitute for the skill and experience seasoned building professionals can offer. However, along with their experience, transplanted managers invariably bring work habits and preconceived notions from their previous employers that can, and often do, clash with their new corporate colleagues. Add to that the fact that few builders provide the orientation and training needed to help new managers adapt to the company culture and it's easy to see why many veteran builders are having a tough time living up to expectations as they move from one builder to another.(BIG BUILDER, March 2003)
• Solving the Labor Problem: Due to the softening economy, many remodelers say they're receiving more unsolicited employment inquiries. But experts say that situation is temporary. "We're in a lull with the economy right now," says Dan Bennett, president of the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) in Gainesville, Fla. "But when the economy turns around we'll have huge shortfalls in every craft out there."(Remodeling, January 2003)
• Lights, Camera, Training!: Training is important, but sometimes, the last thing new-home sales professionals want to do is leave the office to go to a seminar. Plus, by the time they get back, they've forgotten much of what was covered. (Remodeling, January 2003)
• Inside Look: Mystery shopping, once used to instill fear and to weed out the suspected bad apple, has morphed from an exercise in espionage into an irreplaceable sales training tool. It's no longer just the results that count but also the process. How is the company's philosophy being conveyed to prospects? How is the brand being represented? How can salespeople do better? (BIG BUILDER, May 2002)
• Face Off:Should I train my sales staff on the job or use a professional sales training program? (Remodeling, April 2002)
• Break a Sweat: Getting fit is never easy, but it's a must for out-of-shape salespeople used to a fatter and happier time. Some builders beat the downturn to the punch with a new training regimen that began as long ago as last spring. Strong sales in the second half of 2001 were the payoff. (BUILDER, March 2002)