On the Job Training

Our group company Snathe has built a reputation in the skills training and project management of construction workers across the Gulf countries. In 2019, it was awarded a consultancy contract by one of the largest construction companies in the Middle East namely the Arabian Construction Company or ‘ACC’. We were asked to advise and assist ACC in improving the skills of their construction Workforce on one of their most prestigious contracts in Abu Dhabi.

The first phase of the contract was to carry out a site audit and analysis to assess the performance of the workers. Once productivity bottlenecks were established, we were then tasked with designing strategies and training mechanisms that would lead to an overall increase in performance and productivity.

Our team composing of internally experienced managers assessed 2000 workers over a four-week period. We found that 60% of the workforce were unskilled and lacked the minimum skills and competencies required of their trade.

As part of the solution, we worked with ACC’s HR team to restructure their workforce into fixed gangs according to their skills. Gang members comprised of a mixture of workers ranging from low skilled to skilled so that that could be trained as a group and taught how to work effectively in harmony.

Over a 3-month period, our training managers trained gangs developing their core skills and teaching techniques that improved health and safety quality and productivity. Capturing performance data allowed us to identify weak gangs and root causes for poor performance and develop a plan to make immediate improvements. 

During the consultancy contract, our team simultaneously taught and coached ACC’s project team on man management skills and techniques along with technical, operational and logistical planning strategies that would reduce downtime from 6 hours per day to a maximum of 1-2 hours per day.

Overall, we trained and managed 1600 workers over a 4-month period. At the start of the project, ACC was losing approximately 200,000 hours per month due to a mixture of poor management, unskilled workforce and poor work techniques. By the end of our contract and handover the implementation of our strategies had significant reduced waste and lost non-productive hours.