By Cathy Tyler, NCCER
Investing in leadership training paid off in retention at Chamberlin Roofing and Waterproofing
When you face a workforce shortage, you likely focus your energy on recruitment. Contractors often treat the labor crisis purely as a hiring problem, spending immense resources to bring new talent into the company. However, if your new hires leave just as quickly as they arrive, your recruitment efforts fail to solve the core problem. To resolve your labor shortage, you must lower employee turnover.
In 2022, Chamberlin Roofing & Waterproofing — a premier commercial roofing and waterproofing subcontractor employing more than 800 professionals — was struggling with retention. On average, only one out of every four new hires remained with the company after 12 months. Chamberlin leadership decided to put intentional effort into fixing that.
They started with a comprehensive mentorship program to pair high-potential employees with seasoned veterans. The goal was to provide a transparent career path filled with more responsibility, better pay and clear advancement.
The mentor and mentee spend a year working closely together and setting structured goals. Additionally, the mentee participates in formal leadership training from the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER). After completing Mentoring for Craft Professionals and Fundamentals of Crew Leadership, mentees who show they have developed the skills to lead others move onto the Construction Foreman Certification Program.
Target Frontline Management Challenges with NCCER Curriculum
The Construction Foreman Certification Program is a rigorous, turnkey training solution designed specifically to develop the leadership, communication and planning skills new or emerging field leaders need to succeed on any jobsite.
The program consists of five modules:
- Leadership and Supervision: Explores the direct connection between field leadership and project success. Foremen learn concrete strategies for managing diverse team dynamics, resolving on-site conflicts, coaching workers and managing crew performance.
- Communication: Addresses the exact communication breakdowns that delay projects. This module delivers practical techniques to improve field interactions, from giving clear orders to coordinating effectively with project managers and other trades.
- Productivity: Focuses entirely on the logistics of a profitable project. Foremen dive deep into operational processes critical to efficiency, including crew scheduling, site planning, and the structured management of tools, materials and jobsite logistics.
- Quality: Teaches the financial and operational necessity of doing work right the first time. It provides foremen with strategies to communicate quality requirements clearly to their crews and eliminate costly rework.
- Safety, Health and Environment: Shifts safety from a checklist to a leadership priority. Participants learn hazard recognition, immediate remediation, safety education and the supervisor’s role in creating a zero-incident culture.
To earn NCCER’s Construction Foreman Certification, learners must prove their competency. The rigorous program-level assessment is designed to evaluate their knowledge and readiness.
Alongside the curriculum, Chamberlin’s Director of Training and Development, Bradley Rowan, reinforces the training with personalized biweekly one-on-ones, thorough progress reviews and practical role-playing exercises that mimic the daily pressures site leaders face.
This structure clearly works. Since launching this intentional leadership training in 2022, Chamberlin’s overall 12-month retention rate for new hires skyrocketed by nearly 50%, rising from a low of 26.67% to an impressive 73.30% in 2025.
And among the employees who have completed these leadership programs over the past two years, 91% remain with the company today.
Not only are they staying, but they are developing into leaders more quickly. The structured program allows Chamberlin to condense years of informal field trial-and-error into a targeted framework. “We’re able to upskill people in a year instead of what would normally take five,” Rowan says.
This accelerated timeline does not sacrifice quality. While the national average passing rate for the Foreman Certification assessment is 76.86%, Chamberlin’s personnel achieve an impressive 88.9% pass rate — demonstrating that these future leaders are mastering the material just as fast as they are moving through the ranks.
When craft professionals see an employer actively funding and mapping out their personal evolution from field worker to supervisor, loyalty follows naturally. Employees routinely praise the shift, noting that Chamberlin has successfully fostered an ecosystem where asking questions is celebrated and the “culture of wanting to grow” is deeply embedded.
Chamberlin’s success proves that addressing the labor shortage isn’t just about widening the recruitment funnel — it’s about plugging the holes at the bottom of it. By deploying a structured leadership path built on NCCER standards, subcontractors can simultaneously solve their operational leadership gaps and protect their most valuable assets: their people.
The blueprint is out there for implementation. If you want to keep your best people, you have to be willing to train them.
About the Author
Cathy Tyler is the Director of Workforce Development at NCCER and has supported the organization’s mission for 26 years. Throughout her career, she has led impactful partnerships with organizations such as FFA, COABE, and Hiring Our Heroes, while also serving in leadership roles with ACCE and TIVA to advance workforce development initiatives both locally and nationwide. She is passionate about building cross-sector partnerships, developing workforce solutions, and strengthening industry outcomes.
