Training for furloughed employees

With the UK currently under lockdown restrictions, and no indication of when these will be lifted, keeping furloughed staff motivated can be a major issue for employers. While many construction projects are continuing in a Covid-safe manner, there are also many staff across the country furloughed through the Government’s Job Retention Scheme.

When staff are on furlough, they cannot take part in any activity that makes money or provides services for their employer or any organisation linked or associated with it. They can, however, take part in training – as long as this does not generate revenue for the company.

In fact, official Government guidance states that furloughed employees should be encouraged to undertake training.

GIRI offers three custom-designed training schemes for the construction sector that directly target the underlying root causes of error. The training is divided into three streams:

• Leadership Training (strategies to eliminate error for leaders of construction projects and organisations)
• Training Across Interfaces (avoiding construction errors at interfaces)
• Supervisory & Management Skills (reducing errors on construction sites)

This short video provides a good introduction to GIRI’s training courses or you can download our training brochure. Courses are discounted for GIRI members.

All courses can be delivered remotely to comply with Covid restrictions. Last year, GIRI Training & Consultancy held a series of online workshops for more than 180 staff from the international offices of engineering practice schlaich bergermann partner.

It is important to note, however, that if a company requires employees to participate in training while furloughed, they must be paid ‘at least their appropriate national minimum wage’ for time spent training during their furloughed hours. Usually, this amount will be covered by the 80% of the wages paid by the Government under the furlough scheme, but any time spent training over and above this must be paid by the employer.

Whether a company chooses to enrol employees in a formal GIRI training course or not, GIRI has plenty of free resources on our website and Youtube channel to help staff develop their skills and learn strategies for identifying the root causes of error and how to eliminate them.