Building critical energy infrastructure requires people who know their craft, keep learning and help the next person on the team get better. At Blattner, training and development are core parts of our culture, investing in the people who power our company forward.
Building Your Foundation
On any construction team, experience is a powerful teacher. Some of the best lessons happen right on the jobsite when team members gain a new responsibility, shadow a leader who takes time to teach or have a conversation with someone who has been there before.
Josh Watson, Site Manager, believes strong careers start with learning the craft and understanding how your work connects to the people around you.
“It takes starting at the bottom and learning the hard things first,” he said, along with “understanding how to go about your daily activities and how to make all the people around you better.”
Blattner backs that experience with training and development customized for different roles and career stages. That includes technical and safety training, leadership development, mentoring and hands-on learning.
“Some employees are looking to grow their leadership skills. Others are exploring future career paths or expanding their technical knowledge,” said Mitchell Johnson, Senior Manager of Organizational Learning & Development. “Blattner's role is to provide opportunities that help employees move in the direction they want their careers to go.”
Learning to Lead
Developing leaders like Josh is a critical part of doing our work well.
As team members take on more responsibility, our Foremen and Superintendent Summits give field leaders a place to talk face-to-face about the job, sharpen their skills and learn from one another through peer discussions and focused training. Since the summits began, more than 400 Foremen and nearly 200 Superintendents have participated.
According to Jim Lee, Manager II, Career & Leadership Development, some of the most valuable learning he’s seen happens when these field leaders get together and talk honestly about the work.
“This is a chance to pick up new skills, hear about those skills in a different way or help teach others,” he said. “We want to make this a chance for them to learn something new wherever they’re at in their Blattner journey.”
Josh emphasized that strong leadership starts with setting an example.
"A good leader, to me, has the ability to train people around them and bring morale up so that people enjoy coming to work. People are excited to be here and they know what to expect," he said.
Helping Others Grow
Leadership also includes helping the next person build their skills and confidence.
New field leaders receive onboarding focused on their roles and Blattner’s expectations.
"Mentors are a critical part of this process," said Jim. "They’re the ones to take new employees under their wing, teach them how Blattner operates and demonstrate our fundamentals and culture."
The idea is simple: prepare people for what the work demands next, with experienced mentors to lean on.
For Josh Watson, one of the best parts of his Blattner career has been watching people he once worked beside grow into new roles and responsibilities across the company.
“Guys that I used to work side by side with are now Foremen and Superintendents and Site Managers and Project Managers,” he said. “Just seeing the growth and having a relationship with those people is very rewarding.”
Never Stop Learning
As America’s need for energy grows, Blattner needs people ready to grow with it. That means continuing to learn, taking on challenges and preparing others to do the same.
Mulugeta Astbaha, Vice President of Wind, believes that mindset will help shape future success for Blattner’s teams.
“The best leaders are lifelong learners,” he said. “We want to help our people become more than they thought possible. The future of Blattner will not be defined by the projects we build; it will be defined by the people we develop and the culture we create here."
That mindset is echoed across the company. As Jeremy Wacker, Chief Operating Officer, said, "Our greatest competitive advantage is our people."
Learn how Blattner invests in employee growth and development.