How important is training to your business? As an industry, it is one of the most important practices to keep market share and grow the use of tile. Manufacturers have highly invested into training facilities and training programs to ensure tile installers are installing products correctly. Tile contractors are also investing into training for themselves and their employees to ensure they are prepared to install products correctly. These manufacturers and installers will lead the industry into the future because of the investments and focus on training.
Tile manufacturers and material manufacturers have understood the need to train their staff, clients, and installers about the uses of their products. These trainings are in many ways proprietary to their products for very good reason: it is important that they are specified correctly and installed correctly to eliminate failures, which leads to more market share and sales for the manufacturers.
Training is so important to success that manufacturers have invested in building facilities to accommodate training programs and will cover many of the costs to attend these programs. As a tile contractor or tile installer it is important that you make the time and take advantage of these opportunities to ensure you and your staff are properly trained for the materials and tiles that you are installing. Not all materials and tiles are alike, so it is important that installers are aware of best practices and proper installation instructions as this will lead to successful installations and higher profits.
Implementing and improving your own training practices is a necessity to any tile installer’s future success. While most installation training comes from on the job (OJT) training, I encourage all tile contractors and installers to devote more into improving your training practices.
As mentioned before, manufacturers have developed training programs for installers to attend, so avail yourself of these programs. Attend and promote NTCA Workshops and NTCA Regional Trainings to your staff.
The NTCA will host more than 200 trainings in 2024, and are looking into adding new programs such as Showers and Shower systems by 2025.
Look into developing your own program for training since you have the most knowledge of where you and your business need to improve. There are many ways to develop your own program. To start, use the online resources that have been developed by the NTCA that can be found online at NTCA University at
www.ntcauniversity.com. As an NTCA member, you have access to the online training platform that can help any installer at any level to learn the fundamentals of proper installation methods. An Investment into education will equip you with the ability to grow, withstand the labor shortage, and produce higher profits.
Along with the rest of the industry, the NTCA has made even more investments into training: we recently added more trainers and are currently at the highest employment of trainers in the NTCA’s history. And training is the theme of this edition of TileLetter, another example of its importance in the industry.
The continued success of manufacturers and installers will be highly reliant on training, so don’t be left behind. Invest in training by making it a part of your business or improve on the training program that you may already have. Those who do will be the leaders of our industry in the future.
Best to your success,