Tom Biller - Labor Shortage and the Importance of Training

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Retaining your current workforce is more important than ever. Learn why investing in them through training can help you develop long-term employees.

In Season 3, Episode 42 of Roofing Road Trips, Heidi J. Ellsworth visits with Tom Biller of Tremco Roofing about how the labor shortage is tied to employee and contractor retention. In this podcast, they discuss the importance of strong onboarding training for new employees. Tom will also talk about the ongoing training that Tremco provides for contractors, sales representatives, the design community and more with regards to roofing products, systems and installation.   

Tom is the training manager for Tremco Roofing’s building maintenance division. He has been with Tremco since he graduated college 28 years ago. Throughout his time at Tremco he ran a fire testing lab, managed a couple product lines and even worked on the code compliance side of roofing. 

“I’ve worn a lot of different hats in my career with Tremco, [but] I really found my place here in the training department,” said Tom.  

Tremco’s training programs are as extensive as their services. Impressively, every employee that walks through Tremco’s doors is trained on all aspects of the roofing industry. This is just one of the many ways Tremco invests in and supports their employees. 

"We train our internal employees. We'll train our field representatives. I'm sure you're aware we have a very large service organization, so we'll train them on basic roofing as well as Tremco's technical roofing solutions,” said Tom. “We train our sales and field representatives, as well as contractors, the design community, anyone who's involved in roofing, waterproofing and building maintenance has an opportunity to come through one of our training classes.” 

Tremco’s headquarters are in Beachwood, Ohio, but their training center is in Medina, Ohio. When an employee is hired, they first go through Tremco’s roofing 101 classes, where they are introduced to basic roofing concepts and Tremco roofing solutions. For contractors, Tremco can provide hands-on trainings for their products, which can be conducted for entire crews. Tremco can even join contractors in the field and provide direct trainings while on the roof. 

“They're called our contractor support specialists,” said Tom. “So they'll do trainings on a local basis as well as on the job site to kind of complete the loop from training of the owners in what we have, training of the crews on how to install it and then field support to make sure that it's all being done properly." 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about Tremco’s training programs and why training new workers is essential for retaining them.