Working to Keep Craftsmanship Alive and Well

Gregg Scholtens, Executive Vice President for Nabholz Construction in Springfield, Missouri, says the construction industry as a whole lost many craftsmen during the 2008 recession. “I think we were very blessed through the recession, because not only did we retain those folks, we grew during that time,” says Scholtens. Nabholz had a number of projects that allowed them to keep their craftsmen employed. Scholtens says Nabholz realizes the importance of developing the next generation of craftsmen and has its own program to train them on the job.

This is sponsored content.

Duration: 1:34

Video Transcription:

- - As a company, we're roughly 1,200 employees strong, and roughly half of those are some sort of craftsmen in the field, and we're talking everything from your general laborers to carpenters. We have our own millwrights, electricians, you name it.

My name is Gregg Scholtens, I am the executive vice president for Nabholz Construction in Springfield, Missouri. I think we were very blessed through the recession, because not only did we retain those folks, we grew during that time.

We had some nice projects, and we said hey, we're gonna self-perform as much of that work as we possibly can, because, again, it keeps those craftsmen on board. I mean, they're the heart and soul of our business, to be quite honest with you. Without them, we're nobody.

Unfortunately, I think our industry as a whole has done a terrible job of developing our next group of resources. What the company figured out a number of years ago, was that it was important to pour back into their people. And so, we developed what we call Nabholz University, and it not only trains our project managers and estimators and folks like that, but it also trains our craftsmen in the field.

We want our folks to grow and develop, and so we wanna take an individual that starts with us as a laborer or as a carpenter, in their late teens, early 20s, and we wanna develop that individual into our next superintendent or our next project manager. And so we do that with our own trade school, if you will, to develop those folks.