Panel Discussion: Budding Contractors Talk Technology, Workforce and the Rewards of Working in Construction
There’s no question that bolstering the workforce is and will continue to be a major priority for the underground construction industry. But that doesn’t mean the “young guns” aren’t making their mark.
In March at NUCA’s annual convention in Palm Springs, California, Utility Contractor organized a live panel discussion of young professionals – all contractors under the age of 40 – who are playing important roles in their companies, some in leadership positions already. The panel was moderated by Ryan Kinning, vice president of Penro Construction Co. and NUCA past chairman. The panel featured:
- Tyler Fehringer, Vice President, Hawkins Construction – Omaha, Nebraska
- Sawyer Barnard, VP of Operations and Estimating, Arrow Contracting & Utilities – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Madison Stanford, Estimator, Young Construction Company – Wake Forest, North Carolina
- Mat McKay, VP of Operations, Burgess Civil – Tampa, Florida
- Nick Privitera, Project Manager, Mark One Electric – Kansas City, Missouri
The conversation covered several topics including the impact of software and technology on fleet management and field operations, as well as workforce development and training. The panel also spoke in-depth about the opportunities and rewards that come with working in the construction field, and the impact NUCA has had on their careers. Here’s everything they had to say.
How has fleet management evolved during your time in the industry? What impact is fleet/equipment management software having on construction operations? Where is it headed?
Tyler Fehringer, Hawkins Construction: I’ve been in the industry just under 15 years, but things like telematics, real-time technology and geofencing have become more prevalent over the last decade, especially tracking devices for both equipment and operations. At Hawkins, we developed an in-house software that’s on an app that all employees have. We can track personnel, requests, project data and more, and it really helps with overall efficiency and productivity. But with new technology comes a cost. So, companies may need to start small. To implement something like that companywide on multiple devices can be expensive, so the cost probably needs to come down before a lot of companies can maximize it.
Sawyer Barnard, Arrow Contracting & Utilities: This is probably the hardest question for me because we’ve only been in business for about four years. We initially didn’t have any kind of fleet management at all. We’ve since started exploring some different apps and programs. One thing that we’re looking for is language tools. We have a lot of employees in which English is not their first language. They can speak it a little, but they can’t necessarily read it very well. I’d like to see see a program where our guys can start logging things in the field and have it seamlessly translated to back to English.
Madison Stanford, Young Construction Co.: When I first started in the business about 10 years ago, we were tallying up service equipment hours and vehicle miles on notepads. Eventually we upgraded to an Excel sheet! Over the years we’ve gotten larger, and when our fleet was up to 30 excavators and 45 service trucks, there’s just no way you can track that on paper. We turned to Verizon Connect for our equipment tracking and we still use the same software. The biggest impact for us is in maintenance/repair, fuel consumption, reducing idling time and theft prevention. I think for contractors, the more integrated software becomes in your equipment, the more you will see cost savings in preventative maintenance.
Mat McKay, Burgess Civil: Years ago, we routinely had arguments with our superintendents and project managers as far as which equipment was needed when and where. As it turns out, we were not tracking it and we also rented a lot of equipment that would just sit. We ended up implementing a full suite of telemetry devices on all of our equipment that is all fed into one singular platform. Now we won’t even rent a piece of equipment if it doesn’t have telemetry capabilities, because at the end of the day, what gets measured gets managed. As far as the evolution, I would say data and telemetry is the biggest thing. Geofencing capabilities are also tremendous to be able to look at every piece of equipment you have on every jobsite and correlate it to your estimation team and bid statistics.
Nick Privitera, Mark One Electric: We’ve come a long way in our fleet management in the past few years. We used to have a full-time, in-house staff mechanic and we used to take care of all our own machines. Now, we sub everything out and we use telematics with our equipment dealers to help schedule serving. We integrated Apex software that allows foremen to make changes from the field regarding the location of equipment, where it needs to go and when, repairs that needs to be done, hours on the machine, and condition of the vehicle or piece of equipment. We have a long way to go, but I think we’re making some progress.
Tell us about how you first got involved in the industry. What are your thoughts on workforce development in utility construction? Is the pathway for young professionals to enter the industry easier or more difficult?
Barnard: I worked for a general contractor before this, and we always had trouble getting utility subs. Then one day a colleague asked if I wanted a job in his new utility business, and four years later, here we are. I don’t feel like the construction industry is a hard thing to get into. But I don’t think we should always encourage young people to enter a career sitting in front of a computer. I have a 4-year-old son and when I get home every day, all he wants to do is play outside in the dirt. I went to college, and I don’t want to say that’s a bad thing. But I think we can do a better job of getting young people to understand that there are opportunities and money in this.
Stanford: My father was a jack-and-bore contractor in North Carolina and later started a manufacturing business. My older brother also worked in the business, learned the trade and eventually branched off and started Young Construction Company. My sister also worked for my father’s business and that’s where I started, but I later switched over to the contractor side and now I’ve worked almost every position at Young Construction over the last 10 years, now in estimating.
I don’t think we’re engaging young people enough, and not as much knowledge is coming into the industry to replace the knowledge that’s retiring. I don’t think it’s easier or more difficult. If you’re willing to show up, learn and bust your ass, that’s half the battle. Construction is diverse with men, women, people with degrees and people without them. But no matter what, if you’re willing to put in the work, you’re going to be successful.
McKay: I got involved in the construction industry because I’m too gritty for engineering work and I wasn’t “PC” enough for it. As far as workforce, I think the pathway for young professionals is getting easier to climb the ranks, but it’s probably more difficult for companies to source them and find them. I think the construction at the end of the day is a very sexy industry, and the industry as a whole has done a very piss-poor job of marketing that, and we continuously shoot ourselves in the foot. I think opportunities are there for young people, we just have to know where to look for them.
Privitera: I’ve been in the industry for about five years, but I’ve worked for a family business my whole life, so I’ve been fortunate to have this in my blood. These days, I feel like young folks are not aware of the opportunities they might have. Whether it’s joining a union, going to trade school, going to college and studying construction management, there’s a plethora of opportunities out there. Advocacy is the biggest thing we can do to grow our industry. It’s up to us to make sure we are getting the message out that if you don’t want to sit behind a computer, there are a ton of jobs where you can work with your hands and make a lot of money.
Fehringer: I didn’t start in the industry growing up. I got into construction in high school at a tech class where we went out to a jobsite every day and built a house. That was my early entry and I liked that you could step back at the end of the day and see what you achieved. That evolved into college where I studied construction engineering, and after that I worked for a landscaping company and an HVAC company before getting into heavy civil.
You can step into this industry on day 1 after high school and start climbing the ladder, and I think we need to promote that. These days we don’t have as many shop classes, for example. I think we need to reach out to the parents and teachers about the opportunities that exist, and we need to be passionate about it. A lot of our kids love technology. I have three boys and they love playing video games. Well, guess what’s on all of our equipment now? Nine-inch screens with colors, flashing buttons, GPS equipment and automated devices.
If your company is hiring, how are you getting the word out? Trade school programs? Social media? What seems to be working?
Stanford: We’ve had huge success using social media. About a year ago we hired a marketing agency, and they take care of all our posts on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, and they tailor the posts to bring in new hires. We’ve also done things a little outside of the box, such as radio ads, posters on the side of the road, posters in laundromats, gas stations and more. Before that, we were trying to use Indeed and headhunters and we weren’t really getting anywhere with it.
McKay: I agree, I think social media is critical and if you’re not posting multiple times a day on different platforms, you’re probably doing yourself a disservice. I think reaching out to schools is great, but most companies are trying to get younger people in the door. And the easiest way to do that is to hand them your phone with your Instagram profile on it and say, “Look how cool my company is.” They will immediately be impressed if your social is well designed. I can’t overstate the importance of that – I think it’s critical.
Privitera: We use social media to post new job openings and we also rely on recruiters to bring in new in-office talent. Being a union contractor, we’re very fortunate that when we need skilled labor, we go to the hall and they provide it for us. Personally, I’m also involved with a couple groups that go to Topeka, Kansas, to lobby our legislators to help get funding for apprenticeship programs and trade schools at the local community college. We also make sure our name is attached, so these workers know where they can look for a job when they finish.
Fehringer: Usually referrals and word-of-mouth are how we attract talent. Our own employees are our best recruiters. I would say 60-70% of our new hires who last longer than a year are from referrals. We also participate in career fairs, Dozer Days and in-house development. We also have 15-20 internships per year, which can lead to positions as superintendents or project managers. I think retaining good workers is also very important. In order to obtain and retain the best, we have to provide first-rate compensation and benefits packages, and make sure our company is a great place to work with good culture and core values.
Barnard: If your company is a great place to work, and you can bring in guys who are referred, those are the ones who tend to stick around. If you have a lot of hires through referrals, I think it says a lot about your company. NUCA of Oklahoma is trying to launch a program to offer opportunities to military veterans. There are people who get out of the military every day and they don’t know what they’re going to do and where they’re going next. Those people have a skill. They know how to show up every day. Most of them are honest guys who have been through some hard times. Those are probably going to be pretty good employees.
Do you have apprenticeship programs? What have you developed for training and what is effective?
McKay: A big part of our training platform is based on our culture. Since you’re not pulling in all this new talent instantaneously, you have to train people. The old school mentality was always “if you can’t do it, I’ll find somebody who can.” It seems like that mentality has long sailed. We’ve tried to envelop training in a cultural blanket to enable our staff and leadership to want to train people. I think that resonates with the staff because it shows that you want people to develop and grow. We also have an outstanding safety director and officer manager who lead routine training programs. We’re also building a massive training facility and buying a construction-grade simulator that’s worth five times more than my truck!
Privitera: Mark One Electric is a union contractor, so our training is through a Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee of the IBEW and National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). All of our apprentices are paid as they learn, and they work with an experienced guy every day, learning from him and then going to class at night. Of the wages that our guys earn, we contribute a percentage on top to help fund that apprenticeship training program. It helps develop not only our workforce, but the community of union electrical contractors in Kansas City. We also do continuing education with a lot of our foremen right in our yard.
Fehringer: Whether you’re new to this industry or if you have some experience, we will train and develop you – 100% on-the-job training is what is effective. In my experience, younger generation employees want to be engaged and want feedback and companies should incentivize them to want to do good for you. We regularly have 20-25 in-house training classes every fall and winter that offer opportunities for different certifications. One of the things I think is big is the language and communication barrier. We have professors come in and teach English and Spanish and we’re offering 4-month and 2-month programs for English second language and Spanish second language. There’s also a general construction craft laborer apprenticeship program through the Department of Labor that we offer in-house.
Barnard: We have a standard safety training program, and we have a third-party safety company that runs it for us. But as far as other training, we like to promote in-house. The guys who have been doing it for 30 years and they’re just studs, they’re not walking in your door. Companies will pay to keep those guys. So, you want to hire people who want to grow, but you also want the guys who are going to be okay being the number 2 or 3 guy on a crew, and that’s totally fine. But it’s all in-house training. Real-life training needs to happen in our industry.
How has NUCA helped your company? How has NUCA helped you personally?
Privitera: We’re a member of NUCA because we value the connections we make with other contractors. We’re a community and we all have a common interest and we’re working toward a common goal. I’ve learned that it’s not necessarily what you know, but who you know. A lot of times, if I don’t know something, someone I know might have the right answer for me. Someone can make that connection with a customer I’ve been trying to connect with. Someone can help me solve a problem at the city where the inspector is being difficult but one of my fellow NUCA members knows the guy, and he can help me solve an issue I may not have been able to solve on my own. The connection aspect of NUCA is what I find most valuable, as well as for me.
Fehringer: Being involved in NUCA gives all of our companies a bigger voice. This is especially true on the legislative side when we’re pushing to get a bill passed or trying to get funding. Locally, we got a One Call bill altered in our state which I think is a great example on the safety side. But NUCA is about bettering the industry, and one guy cannot do that. It’s a team collective of all of us pushing the same direction. As a younger person in this industry, getting more engaged with industry partners and gaining the confidence to speak up and ask questions is key.
Barnard: NUCA kind of put us on the map. I’ve talked about Oklahoma being kind of a “good ole boys” club and everybody is a little standoffish and nobody wants to be friends. That’s what we initially thought. And there are other associations in Oklahoma that are a little like that, where it may be a difficult group for me to get involved with. But I’ve since been able to recruit some of the younger people from other companies into NUCA. Personally, I like coming to the NUCA convention and hearing all the great company leaders talk and hearing about how they operate. I think leadership is either something you have or you don’t.
Stanford: As a company we tend to fly under the radar and joining NUCA has really helped us step outside our comfort zone. We see our competitors as our partners in the industry, as well. We have like-minded goals and are facing a lot of the same challenges. NUCA gives us an opportunity to network and collaborate on those issues.
McKay: I’d like to touch on our local chapters. The Suncoast Utility Contractors Association (SUKA) is where I initially got involved in the industry. About nine years ago, as a Canadian engineer who decided to immigrate to America, I met Tom Butler of Petticoat-Schmitt Civil Contractors my first day here. Within the first three days I think I knew more about Tom than my own dad! But he introduced me to SUKA and I got very involved. After a while they asked me to be on the Board, which was great because I got to be amongst these heads of industry who were brilliant people and I made a lot of wonderful connections. I would attribute a lot of my personal growth to a lot of the Board and members at SUKA who have helped me grow professionally.
Utility Contractor and NUCA would like to extend a special thank you to our “Young Guns” who participated in this panel.
