ROCKVILLE, MD. — The Mechanical Contractors Association of America has added a four-hour course on The Profitability of Safety to the curriculum of Job Operations Seminars offered through its National Education Initiative. Geared toward company owners, safety managers and operations managers, the course is designed to educate participants about the cost savings that can be realized from a good safety program and the management of incidents. Items to be discussed include: the hidden costs of accidents; what your Experience Modification Rate, or Emod, means and how you can manage it; how much a high Emod really costs you; why it is important to create and maintain a relationship with medical care providers; the importance of a light-duty program; and why your firm needs a written safety program.
The other Job Operations Seminars are designed to help participants run more profitable, less problem-prone projects in which all participants are better partners.
Lead men, foremen and superintendents are the primary candidates for the General Conditions of the Contract seminar, a four-hour course.
"In my travels around the country and during my involvement with the Institute for Project Management, I have found that most field personnel are not given proper instruction and information by their employers as to the rights and obligations they have in regards to the General Conditions contained in contract documents," said presenter Kathryn Crosby, who is a past member of the MCAA Board of Directors, former chair of MCAA's Project Management Education Committee, former vice president/CFO of Harding Mechanical and now the president of C2 Consulting in Salt Lake City.
As the contractor's primary field representative, the foreman must understand how the company is obligated to perform as a condition of the contract, she said. In this session, foremen will become familiar with specific terms and conditions that will assist them in doing their jobs in regards to standard contract conditions.
This course is designed to educate these personnel by exploring such program topics as: what the contract documents are; how companies get jobs; what information the specifications and contract contain; and what the "rules of the road" are.
Business owners, project managers and financial personnel are the primary candidates for the four-hour Knowing the Score seminar. A significant number of contractors do not understand the negative implications of failing to monitor and forecast projects monthly, Crosby said. Companies that do not produce project status reports and work-in-progress reports could be receiving erroneous financial information and making ill-advised business decisions based on that information.
This course can provide an understanding of the importance of better financial planning, as well as some practical methods for accomplishing this objective so that project staffs can maintain and run more profitable, less problem-prone projects.
For more information about these courses, contact Crosby at 801/937-8981, fax 801/208-2431 or e-mail [email protected].
Information is available from MCAA's Beth Miller at 800/556-3653 or at [email protected]. More information about other courses offered under MCAA's National Education Initiative is at www.mcaa.org/education/mcaa/nei