COVID-19 DISRUPTION & RESPONSE


AGC Transition to Online Training Meets Members Where They Are


By Carol Eaton


was conducted or how education and training was typically delivered in California, AGC of California was already planning ways it would evolve and shift its education and training services. Te strategy: gradually migrate more content to online with WebEds and virtual training sessions to meet more companies and individuals where they were at, while still delivering relevant, in-demand content. It’s safe to say the pandemic sped


W


that process up a bit. Kim Hudson, AGC of California


Director, Industry Advancement, was in the middle of helping reboot and rebrand AGC’s education and training approach when COVID-19 became a factor and shelter-in- place orders took effect this March.


Kim Hudson


It quickly became clear that a hard


pivot to online-only training, immedi- ately, was the necessary choice. “We knew we needed to take


advantage of this opportunity to really meet our members at the table so to speak – or at their office, or at their couch,” Hudson said. “We really stood up as quickly as we could to find and collect our subject matter experts from all over the state to help deliver infor- mation that was solid and timely.” Since then, AGC has been


16 July/August 2020 California Constructor


ell before COVID-19 disrupted and upended the “usual” way that business


successful in re-engaging membership and showing them that “AGC of California is the place to go for training,” Hudson said. “We’re excited to say that we’ve had close to 500 to 600 individual engagements live in the


"My experience has been absolutely positive. This new (Zoom) platform, this new venue makes training available to so many more people since they don’t have to travel, so it’s that much easier from a logistical standpoint.” Donovan Seeber, ACCO Engineered Systems


last six weeks (as of mid-May 2020), among all of the WebEds and virtual trainings that we’ve put on.” And at least one silver lining of


the shift online? AGC members in every region of the state now have access to the same information and training simultaneously, in contrast to in-person training sessions that were usually scheduled at different times on a regional basis. Matt Seals, President of Fresno-


based Seals Construction, said that immediacy and the easy access for his company’s employees to receive timely information and training right on their home computers or tablets has been a major advantage of participating in AGC’s new online training offerings. Te pivot to online training allowed his employees to quickly understand and adapt to rapidly changing COVID- 19-related work conditions across the various counties in which they do business, Seals added. “Te timing was almost perfect


because I think people needed real-time information,” he said. “Te AGC folks were basically doing webinars based on the information they were gathering from the night before.” Another benefit, according to


Seals? Time and productivity savings, since employees don’t need to spend time traveling to a physical training location. “It is nice to be able to work all the way up to the minute, then click


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