Improving our Small and Diverse Business Partners Odds with Swinerton’s Prep for Success Program
As we continue to strive towards being best in class in all we do, Swinerton recently completed the beta launch of our new Swinerton-centric training program, aptly named “Prep for Success”. The program was designed with the intent of better preparing our small, minority, women, veteran, LGBTQ+ and differently-abled business partners to successfully position, bid and execute work with Swinerton. The program is also centered around relationship building and gaining a high-level understanding of what to expect when partnering with Swinerton on a project.
The pilot program engaged eight California-based small and diverse business partners, in weekly two-hour sessions, over a three-week period. The session information was delivered by Swinerton subject-matter experts and covered the following topics: Prequalification, Master Subcontracting Agreement, Bidding & Estimating, Safety, Quality, Scheduling, Workforce, BIM/VD&C, Insurance, Accounting, Compliance, Change Management and Close-out. Regional leadership kicked off each session to let the participants know the interest in their success is a sincere top-down desire to increase and support our pool of business partners. There was time built into each session for participants to have candid conversation and discussion around the subject material. Having topic experts deliver the material allowed for better subject-matter dialogue and helped our business partners make the human connection around the topic and material deliverables involved. The relatively small size of the group allowed for a more personal connection and supported the relationship building.
The Prep for Success program was not developed with the intention of teaching our small and diverse business partners general business skills. Rather, our aim was to show them what they can anticipate as standard business requirements when working on a Swinerton project and what resources are in place. For example, we did not tell our partners how to bid a job; rather, we discussed estimating best practices for bidding Swinerton work. The program was designed so that each region can tailor and deliver the material based on any area specific requirements or needs while maintaining Swinerton Standards. As a result, the program can be rolled out across all Swinerton offices.
In the end, we received feedback that confirmed this program was considered helpful, assisted our new partners with understanding what can be expected on our projects and assured them of Swinerton’s genuine desire to see them personally succeed. We hope our business partners will consider these same thoughts when future opportunities to bid and work with Swinerton arise.
