There’s no denying the flooring industry is in dire need of new installers. The fact is there is not a lot of new talent to draw upon, and whatever talent that is available is heavily sought after by every trade and employer needing labor.
What is sometimes overlooked is the importance of training and re-training existing installers. As Don Roberts, proprietor of Central Alabama Flooring, explained, “95% of installers today have had no professional training. They learned on the job and from the person they worked with.”
To keep the current crop of aging installers on top of their game, several dealers are offering training opportunities—in many cases at their own expense.
Central Alabama Flooring
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
The retailer has held training sessions in two Alabama cities—a pair of two-day classes and a single one-day class—all focused on carpet. “In our industry the two biggest challenges are the ones that take the highest skill sets, which is carpet and ceramic tile,” explained Don Roberts, president/CEO. “You can’t teach everybody how to power stretch carpet or [find someone] who can deal with Axminsters and Wiltons, which is a lot of what we are installing these days. The problem is many don’t have the skill set to do the high-end stuff—even the experienced installers don’t.”
Central Alabama Flooring welcomed 24 installers to a recent training. Many were installers from Roberts’ company, but there were also installers from South Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi. Another Alabama-based flooring dealer sent people as well. “This is to benefit all installers,” Roberts said. “These were all experienced crews that had installed carpet in the past but perhaps did not have the skill set for the higher-end goods. If we can get the current teams more training, they can be 20% more efficient.”
Carpeting by Mike
Somerset, Wis.
Carpeting by Mike is a strong supporter of the Floor Covering Education Foundation (FCEF) and has been actively attending Build My Future events looking for recruitment opportunities of young installers.
“I have focused on being vocal in my community, sharing FCEF posts, Build My Future, offering sponsorships from my store for new installers or the kids of my installers who want to learn the industry,” said Typhannie Harker, owner. “I also have worked on cultivating an environment where installers want to come to work. We make it as easy as possible at the store level for the installer to come in, pick up their product and worksheet and do what they do best.”
Harker said simple gestures like saying “thank you” can go a long way. “Word is getting around that my store is a good store to install, and quality installers are coming my way, which allows for me to talk more about recruitment opportunities and educate them all.”
Budget Carpet & Flooring
Columbus, Ohio
At Budget Carpet & Flooring, the hard surface installers are all full-time employees—not subs—who are paid by the hour and offered full benefits. But here’s the twist: At the end of each month, Sheldon Yoder, the store’s owner, calculates what the paid employees would have made if they were 1099 employees (subcontractors). If the employee installers would have made more as a sub that month, Yoder pays the difference to his six crew members.
Interestingly, his two carpet installers are subs. Yoder said he has been unable to change the mindset of the carpet installers who, he says, guard their independence.
On the hard surface side, Yoder has no problem finding installers. “I know my model is so unique and different, but I don’t know if it is scalable,” Yoder said. “Either I am crazy or a genius.”
While Yoder is giving up profit by paying the differential to his employee installers, he says it’s the right thing to do. “If you want quality, responsible people working for you, then you must pay them enough for them to support their families. If you can’t do that you will get irresponsible people.”
Jacobi Carpet One Floor & Home
Hastings, Neb.
Knowing the challenges of recruiting installers in central Nebraska, Tim Jacobi, the store’s owner, has tried to be creative—initially by cultivating a relationship with Hastings Community College in hopes of establishing an installation curriculum. That effort met with minimal success.
Undaunted, Jacobi decided to do all the training in-house and at his expense. “For the last five years we have been recruiting young men who have a desire to learn the trade,” he said. “We start them on an hourly basis, place each candidate with a veteran installer who is willing to take on an apprentice. The apprentice will usually start in our warehouse, then gradually go out to work with veteran installers on the jobsites. Typically, they start on commercial projects, working on floor preparation, learning cove base installation and eventually on actual flooring and carpet installation.”
Jacobi said they follow a published Apprentice Training Program provided by Carpet One University and the Department of Labor. “When we have the opportunity to send an apprentice to an actual CFI training event, we do; however, it is very difficult to get them out to a formal training.”
DeGraaf Interiors
Grand Rapids, Mich.
When FCEF was looking to set up six training sites, it asked flooring retailers for help. DeGraaf Interiors stepped up immediately by agreeing to host a five-week course in Grand Rapids, Mich. Deb DeGraaf, co-owner, visited local high schools along with Dave Garden, director of education for CFI, to identify interested students. Four of the high school recruits signed up. DeGraaf said she would hire the graduates, provided they work for her company for at least one year. So far, it has been a home run.
“Every one of our recruits is still working with install crews and the impact on our productivity has continued to increase the more time they have spent in the field since graduating,” she said. “Back in November, I met with our contractor who assisted us with the building of the modules for our five-week class to permanently install modules in our new warehouse that has space dedicated for future trainings. We are excited that we will have a space available year-round to host our own trainings for future generation installers.”
