Underground Construction - June 2019 - 30

2019 HDD Roundtable
Baker: I'd be lying if I said we don't have
people jump ship. We do. But we've been
very fortunate, for the most part. Our core
guys are people who have stuck with us
and helped us grow, and they're a big part
of our success. We profit-share as well, so
with them being part of our success, we
reward them for that. But we have the
same struggles.
I think it helps that we try to treat every
employee as a family member and treat
them right. We have a good employment
package and consistent work because, fortunately, we haven't had to do layoffs. In
our case, security is probably a big reason
people stay. You might be able to jump the
fence and go over there and make a dollar
or two more an hour, but when they're
done, and they lay you off you're going to
be without a job. That's a selling point, that
you've got a consistent home here to work.
Brotherton: We're not really losing
them to other drilling contractors. We're
mostly family grown, family oriented and
been that way for 30 years. We saw their
kids growing up and now their kids are
working for us. That sense of security is a
factor here, too.
When our employees decide to leave, it's
usually a choice to leave us to be with their
family. They might have an opportunity
to go to a telecom company that keeps
them nearby or being a welder or working
for the local gas company because they
want to be home. That's what we see-just
jumping ship because they don't want to
be out in the field.

Kottelenberg: Ultimately it comes
down to finding people that fit your company and your culture. There are some people that just aren't going to work within
that, we've found. No matter what you do,
our setup and our style is not what they're
looking for. With us, if someone's looking
for top dollar, we're probably not the right
place. We're outside of the top-dollar
markets, so we're not going to be able to
offer that from a cost-of-living perspective.
But we offer other things. And for us it's
always about keeping work through the
winters, we can keep everybody employed
all year round. Thankfully we've been
blessed to be able to keep everybody going
the last five years straight through the
winters. So, it's a huge asset to not have to
get into the layoff cycle
Otherwise, for us, it's a lot the same.
We do an informal profit sharing with our
guys. The other thing we try to do is, as a
non-union company, we have the flexibility
to balance guys from different types of
work. They do some time in telecom, then
maybe jump over to water and sewer or
another area for a while. It gives them a bit
of taste for different things, which helps a
bit from our perspective.
UC: So, creating opportunities for
experience along a defined career
path can help retain employees?

Kottelenberg: Yes, but today we find
it's becoming more and more important
to communicate that in a very clear way.
In the past, I think, as long as you had

a job and could provide for your family
you were happy. We find that, especially
with younger guys, it's important to work
with them to help show them what that
career path could look like. But it's equally
important to temper expectations about
how long it will take to get there-that
you have to work your way through that,
and it's not going to happen in a two-year
period. You must be clear with them as to
how that can work.
We strive to do these things, to do this
communication, but let's face it, we all get
tied up and busy in our day to day work.
At the end of the day it's about getting
jobs done for the client because you need
revenue. For us, we try every couple of
years to sit down and go through an
employee evaluation, where it just forces
an opportunity for them to say, "Hey, this
is where I want to go, this is what I think
I'm good at." But then on the flip side, we
can say, "This is what we see in you, this is
where we think you can go."
Baker: If you have good employees, they
all have drive, they all have the desire to
grow. We try to teach our crews to run that
crew as their own company, and so they're
responsible for their expenses, their labor,
their revenue, everything. That's theirs. We
bring competitiveness to our crews as well.
Every month, we report the margins that
they achieved on their jobs along with the
margins of every other crew. Everybody
gets to see how they're ranked in the company and how their profit sharing is going
to look at the end of the year.
If you have a crew that's a little weaker,
they're looking at this top crew saying I
want to be there someday, and it gives
them that drive. We try to make it fun
and there are rewards along the way, little
things-hats, coats-to inspire them to
stay there. If it's not fun, of course, you're
not going to keep them.
UC: Of course, this implies that the
company is growing, as well. The
positive HDD market outlook is
probably inspiring a lot of contractors
to ask themselves, 'How much should
I grow, and when?' Any advice?

Audience members at the HDD Roundtable listen intently to the discussions.

JUNE 2019 | UConOnline.com

Brotherton: Some of that is dictated by
the client. Sometimes you get a perfect
client who says you're the best contractor I
have, and I'd like you to grow to take over

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Underground Construction - June 2019

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