Masonry Magazine July 2004 Page. 16
Contractor to Contractor
I believe if your entire team focuses on the customer, you should be successful. It's a concern keeping everyone focused on the customers' needs.
Masonry: What do you feel is the industry's biggest challenge in the near future?
Davenport: All the same things that I just said. I think mason contractors as a whole don't focus on the customer enough, and I don't think that as an industry and I'm talking from stem to stern - we are focused enough on productivity improvement. The unfortunate thing when you say "productivity improvement" is that all most people can think about is cutting wages. I'm talking about improving the system, improving the process, and improving the training of the workers. If you do that, your productivity is going to go up, your level of workmanship is going to go up, and you will be a sought-after building system.
Masonry: What are your biggest concerns in keeping your company successful?
Davenport: Continuous improvement. Getting the entire work force management team and all workers - to understand that it is absolutely mandatory that we as an industry have productivity improvement.
Drug-Free Workplace Dilemma
# MASONRY NEWS CONTRACTOR TIP
Are you missing out on opportunities because you don't have a drug-free workplace policy in effect? Even worse than that, are you putting your employees at risk?
This subject is a sensitive topic for most companies and it was for Lang Masonry as well. We initiated the drug-free workplace in November of 2000. I didn't know how it was going to work out. Can you imagine? My suspicions were that some of our employees may use drugs casually, but never figured it to be a problem. I figured it was their choice what they put into their bodies after-hours. However, I had a lot of trouble with equipment getting damaged. Some of our best employees started complaining that we were not drug testing. They put letters in the suggestion box that said things like, "You have a forklift operator out here that is going to get someone hurt and is costing us all money. Get him off the job because he is on drugs." Any supervisor knows that if you put 20 men on one project, it is hard to watch them all at the same time.
I have even had parents say, "My son wasn't on drugs until he came to work for your company." That's an eye-opener. This involvement with drugs was not the kind of image I wanted for our company. So, after years of believing that we did not need a drug testing policy and that it was too intrusive on employees, I gave in. Considering the negative impact on our business and employees, I decided it would be best to start a drug testing program.
Who benefits from having a drug-free workplace? You and your employees. The statistics indicate that the employee turnover rate does go down and accidents drop 40-50% when you have a drug free workplace program (Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation). In addition to that, according to the Ohio BWC, the cost of substance abuse on businesses involves the five areas of productivity, absenteeism, accidents, medical claims and employee theft.
Another thing to consider in some states is that a drug-free workplace may become the difference in whether you get a state funded project awarded to you in the future. As of January 1, 2003, within the state of Ohio, in order to bid or perform work on any project that involves funds from the state, the contractor must have a drug-free workplace policy in effect. We were lucky to be a couple of years ahead of the curve on this mandate. Since this is the direction most businesses are headed, if your company isn't drug testing, you may be employing some drug users that can't get hired elsewhere and you don't even know it.
Believe me, when it came to drug testing, I was not a very popular guy for about six months. I received nasty letters that stated things like, "This place is like working for the "blankety blank IRS." It was at that point when I finally realized that a drug problem might have existed in the company. Within a few months, the complaints slowly went away and the attitudes of the whole company got better. It turned out to be the right thing to do. Equipment abuse is down, employee morale is better, and it's a routine thing for us now. However, if you are considering starting a drug testing program, I recommend that you begin it as soon as possible, before things get out of hand. Also, give them a 30-day notice to clean up their act before their first test. No company is immune to this problem; no matter how hard they try to prevent it.