How to Reset & Reframe Your Thinking About the Workforce Problem

Welcome to The Contractor's Daughter, your go-to podcast for eliminating random acts of strategy and marketing in your highway construction business. Hello, friends. I'm your host, Jeani Ringkob. I'm a third-generation asphalt contractor and an absolute brand strategy and marketing geek.

Welcome to the Contractor’s Daughter podcast. I'm your host, Jeani Ringkob. I was recently speaking at the Women in Construction Conference which is founded and hosted by CIEF (Construction Industry Education Foundation), and I wasn't terribly familiar with this organization but I’m only mentioning this because this is part one of a three-part series—apparently, we really like these series—but I want to give you useful valuable content in bite-sized pieces.

I bring this up because the topic that I spoke about there was not just workforce development, but we actually narrowed down and dug into millennials and what are the characteristics that make them feel like a struggle to the solution that we need? Then also how do we turn that table and look at what are the things about that generation that make them incredible and part of the solution to this?

It really got me thinking a lot about that struggle versus opportunity. What are the bottlenecks or the problems that we run into and then how do we turn those on their head in order to make them the strategic opportunities, the things that actually give us an advantage, whether it's in our products, our sales strategy, or marketing strategy, our growth strategy, how are we going to acquire things, move into different markets, maybe add products to our offerings? But also in workforce, how do we think about this from a really high level at this workforce challenge that we've been facing?

How do we say on an individual level that we're going to tackle this problem, take this situation, and actually turn it into a strategic competitive advantage? That's something that I've been working on since probably about a year and a half ago, we really undertook a massive project with TXAPA, really dove deep into a workforce strategic development.

What we found is so many of the things that we already have in our company, and so many of the things that I do with clients on a regular basis actually are very well positioned, designed, and can be leveraged to solve this problem. I am a firm believer, and I've actually seen it in action with some of the clients that we've been working with over the past year, that if you can take this problem as well and turn it into an opportunity, it's an incredible advantage.

Imagine that everybody, because it's true, everybody else around you is also struggling with this exact same issue. What if you were to say, “I'm going to stop struggling with it, and I'm actually going to learn how to solve it in a way that's going to give me an advantage over all my competition, even the competition outside of my market that is part of the competition for this workforce”? That is the most incredible thing to see happen with the companies.

What we're going to be talking about during this three-part series is how can you change your mindset, first off, to really think about this scenario and this problem that you're facing, that our entire marketing industry is facing, that really our economy at large is facing, and turn it into a strategic opportunity.

The companies that do this first, do it the best, and do it where they're owning the solution internally as much as possible are going to be the companies that don't just survive through this latest challenge and some of the economic struggles that we have coming, starting, and in front of us, they're going to have an advantage, they're actually going to be the ones that are growing or already seeing that in the marketplace.

The companies that are really taking this on and deciding to own this and bring it in internally and solve the problem as part of their growth strategy are the ones that are actually growing during this time when everybody else is really saying, “I'm having to turn down projects. I can't be in a growth mindset right now,” and having a lot of negative feelings about how to get around this or that it's so incredibly hard.

Let's dive right in. You can already tell about what I've already said that we're talking about how to rethink and reframe that workforce challenge and that is going to be part one of this three-part series. Let's talk about it. The problem really isn't even that there's a shortage of workforce. As a matter of fact, the millennial generation right now is actually bigger than the baby boomer generation but it's a different generation.

They have unique characteristics. They've also been really molded by a lot of circumstances like the push for four-year degrees, the economic scenario that we've been in, the different cultures, the perception of work influenced by what they saw in previous generations and what they want for themselves.

So many things have changed that and I hear a lot of hemming and hawing about what's good and what's bad. But there are a lot of really good things too, and I have to tell a story before we go too far into really how we can rethink this.

When I was at Women in Construction and I was talking about this, I was actually asking the audience to engage with me and give me some insight as to what are the things that they themselves have experienced that make them feel like this generation of millennials is not going to be part of the solution, is making the problem more difficult, what are some of those characteristics?

What are things that they hear their peers saying? What are things that they've experienced? What are things that they believe to be true about this? It was really interesting because I had no lack of people raising their hand and engaging and giving me examples. They wanted instant gratification, that they were into development and continuing to continue to develop themselves, that they showed up in professional ways, they were too casual, and stuff like that.

They're going on and on and this was the most fascinating thing, I'm standing up on a stage looking down on this audience and I can quickly see that at least 40% of the people in my audience were millennials.

Then I had to stop, after we really had this conversation, I said, “Alright, well, let's flip the coin here,” I had to disclose to them and say, “As I look at you, guys, there are at least 40% of you in this room that are millennials and they appear to be dressed professionally. By showing up here, they're working on their development. So let's have a conversation now about the other side of that. What are some of those things and those characteristics that maybe give them an advantage that would make them great assets to this workforce that you're trying to develop?”

It was really interesting to watch people squirm but then also get very into those kinds of solutions to. I was really excited to see that not only could we say that these are some of the problems, maybe some of the beliefs that we have been holding that maybe aren't necessarily true, and then turn around. I think part of it was that they were motivated once they looked around them, that they were surrounded by millennials to really kind of flip that coin but everybody really got engaged in a conversation and everybody was willing to make that shift in the room.

It led to the whole conversation, it was an hour-and-a-half workshop, so there were lots of opportunity for interaction, but it really took us to a place where we could really be optimistic and get creative about what that could look like on the backside.

As we go through this conversation today, I want you to have that same mindset, be open-minded, that maybe the things that we've held to be truths aren't necessarily truths, or if they are truths, how could they actually be an advantage? Or what might be things that we're overlooking that could be solutions in the scenario?

This isn't all strictly millennials. We're talking about all the generations coming up after that generation as well. We're going to need to really understanding and excited and clear on the opportunities moving into our industries, and really engaging with us.

But what I believe is true is that as business owners, leaders, managers, supervisors, executives in these companies, we have to own the solution, and we actually have to create it, we have to build it so that then they can come. We need to explore new possibilities to [inaudible] challenges with this series.

We're going to be rethinking labor issues, insights, actions that we can take, and the knowledge that we currently have and that we need to have in order to transform what we see as a challenge, what's been causing the struggles in growing our business, meeting the demand of the industry and the infrastructure that's out there, so that we can actually improve from ourselves and find the solution internally.

We talked a little bit about that shortage mindset. But before we move on, I want to talk about a couple more of the challenges that I hear people say. High turnover rates is one of the things when we're working with clients, even when we're getting into the numbers of over the past 5, even 10 years, what does turnover look like in your business?

That is a real strong pain point. Another challenge is the cost. What are the costs of not just recruiting, because those costs are going up dramatically, but what are the costs of that turnover when you're actually having to replace that position multiple times, maybe even during a season?

What is the productivity cost, which in doing this, I found some incredible research about the productivity levels during the first few weeks, few months, three months, all the way down to where you're getting to that 12 to probably 20 weeks where somebody can actually be said to be on boarded efficiently, where they're actually at full productivity.

That's if you're intentional about onboarding and developing them during those early critical stages, and not everybody is. What are the costs of that? What are the costs of training and testing when you're having to do it over and over? What is the cost of morale? What is the cost of the slowdown in production during your season?

Then also, what is just the cost when opportunities come to you and you're having to say, “No, I don't think I can hire another crew. Maybe I had to go get the equipment and add it from that standpoint, but I don't know if I can hire another crew and if I could actually retain those people enough to sustain all the crews I need in order to take on and leverage the opportunities that are coming in front of me”?

I don't want to see my clients not being able to make and take on those opportunities for that reason, because I feel like that reason is absolutely solvable. That's what we're going to be talking about is how do we go from feeling like we're just beholden and at the whim of these challenges to actually feeling confident that we can and we are on the way to building a solution or owning this problem ourselves. It's no longer a problem, it's actually a strategic advantage.

Let's dive right in. We can own our own workforce solution. Now this is a complete mindset shift for a lot of people. You could actually own this and not only that, it can be an asset in your business.

If you're the business owner or you're an executive in a business, no matter what the size, from small, medium, large, corporate, whatever it is, if you can own this solution inside of your business, and be able to control whether or not you're adding people, if you're tracking your own metrics, and you're always making those better, it is an asset that even when you wait on the line in terms of succession planning and the value of your company, it is a huge asset to say that you have built this process and system into your business, you've optimized it, you are not beholden, and you are controlling those expenses, you're leveraging that, and you have a consistent pipeline of great, fit potential candidates that you can use to grow your business whatever opportunities arise.

If I think about somebody that's looking at business as potential opportunity, that is something that would incredibly pique my interest in terms of an asset inside of that company that I can apply an actual value to. We're not just solving problems, we're actually creating great potential asset and value into our business.

I want you guys to have that mindset. This is part of the reason why I really want to challenge companies to think about how do we actually build the solution into my company, build the processes and the systems and have it integrated as part of our business operation. It’s not just that we attract customers and partners that we need to grow our business, but that we are also attracting the workforce that we need to grow our business.

It is an absolute mindset shift, but it is a really powerful mindset shift and a way that we can really create some advantages in our business. I want you to be committed to taking this challenge and leveraging it as part of a specific strategic advantage.

I know a lot of times when I start working with companies, it's about finding those opportunities and these days in the environment that we're in, a lot of times, this is the one that rises to the surface. This is how I want you to think about it. There's a great tool, I mention it oftentimes when I'm speaking or even here on the podcast, it's a book by Mike Michalowicz, and it’s called Fix This Next, and what are the models that he uses in there are the business hierarchy of needs.

Just like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it has things that you absolutely must have. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you've got to have air. If you don't have air and oxygen to breathe, nothing else matters. That is a lowest level in the hierarchy of needs.

The same thing can be true about our businesses. We can think of it as the same thing. What's on that lowest level, the most essential thing for our businesses? It’s sales. As our businesses grow, we may think, “Well, once we've mastered that bottom level, we actually never have to go back.” But that's not true.

If you think about it, we go back to that Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you have tons in your life, you could be choking on something, your health could get bad, things like that happen, and you may be functioning at a different level or have different concerns, and then all of a sudden, you're having to revert back and put a lot of focus on really working on that fundamental day-to-day health element so that you're actually able to get out in the world, perform, and live the life you want to live.

Same thing is true with our businesses. As we grow and expand, we need to also make sure that we have enough sales to keep us bolstered, to meet that auction demand that our business needs. Then also we can have external factors, we can have competition, we can have economic factors. We can have products, we can have customer demand, new suppliers or partners coming into the market.

Those things can all impact sales. It's really important that on a regular basis, we're assessing our business. One of the reasons I want to bring this up is because at first sight, people don't really think about workforce as being that fundamental level. They think about where does workforce fall into the business hierarchy of needs?

Well, actually, it falls directly into that sales level, that bottom level that's super essential. Because one of the questions that you get deep into that in the assessment that he uses to help you understand where your bottlenecks are at in your business, is are you able to actually fulfill the obligations of your sales?

You have to get the sales but then can you actually fulfill those contracts? A lot of us are finding right now that even fulfilling the current contracts we have is a struggle, because we don't have the workforce that we need. We're getting turnover that's causing delays in the production.

It actually is right on that sales level. It is a fundamental level. It is what prevents us from actually executing on the promise that we've given to our customers in that sales negotiation, in that sales contract. It is super essential.

I think that's a great visual aid to understand that if it's so essential, and if it's such a bottleneck in your business, and if it's also preventing your business from growing and expanding because you're capped in and stalled by that limitation, then it definitely makes sense that it's worth investing, worth solving, and if we can actually own that solution internally inside of our company, that gives us an incredible ROI on investing in solving that problem.

Companies that solve this problem are going to be the ones that win. We have a lot of demand for the infrastructure demands in our industry, but we have plenty of challenges and our economy has plenty of challenges coming on and we have plenty of expenses that are continuing to grow that are more outside of our control.

When we can find expenses and pain points in our business that we can actually internalize and get control of those ourselves, that's an incredible asset that we want to leverage.

The companies that don't solve this problem will at best stall their businesses. I've seen it time and time again. I have companies that are talking to me about the different contracts, opportunities, and customers that are coming to them, partners that are coming to them about rolling out new products, all of these types of things that they are turning down because they cannot grow and expand.

But that's the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is that you slowly start to fail. You don't optimize this, you continue to put more money into it, your competitors will start figuring out, they will start prioritizing solving this problem. They're going to be the people that take this on and turn it into a competitive advantage and those that don't, and the ones that don't fall into the category of stalling or failing.

It is essential. I can confidently say that because we can actually model it out with that business hierarchy of needs and we know that it impacts the sales level, which is that first level that we always have to be thinking about in our business.

Let's take this strategic advantage and let's figure out how we can solve the workforce problem. A few ways that we can solve workforce inside of our brand—and I'm going to hint at some of the things we're going to be talking about in upcoming episodes—are elevating our brand strategy.

Brand strategy is defined by how we're perceived in the hearts and the minds of our market by our competitors, our customers, our partners, our internal team. If you think about it that way, if you think about how are you perceived by your current employees, your current employees are probably really good mirror of your future great employees, that gives you a great insight as to how you might be perceived by them as well out in the marketplace. You should have bearing on how you are perceived.

Sometimes it's hard because we're a little bit worried about how we're perceived. But if we don't ask the question, we can't mold it to what we need and we want it to be. That's the first step is what does your current brand scenario look like and how can you elevate that to gain that perception that is going to attract what you need?

Even by focusing on attracting a great workforce, you're going to attract other things to. A brand strategy can be really important in terms of leveraging you in your marketplace and setting you up for an advantage in lots of ways. By addressing this workforce problem, it's also going to gain you a competitive and market advantage. We've talked about that.

You're either going to do it or you're not and it's going to be a significant impact on controlling your costs, controlling your ability to push the button and grow or to take different opportunities constantly in your business. Then also, it increases the value of your company. We're going to be talking about this over and over again during this three-part series.

I know this seems like we've just scratched the surface and let me tell you, we have, but it was really important to take time to reframe this problem for you. I don't want you to be thinking about all the bottlenecks and the challenges that you see in your business just as that. I want you to have a mindset where you turn them into opportunities. That's always what I'm aiming for.

As somebody who wants to see business owners in this industry flourish and succeed, that's one of the most critical things that I'm always trying to help people understand is how can we rethink that mindset because you're in the trenches, you're working on it, and you're really impacted by all these challenges, but how can we make them turn into our own opportunities?

Workforce is a very clear way to do it and it's something that really should be prioritized if your business is struggling from this. Make sure that you're subscribed to the podcast because in the next episode, we're going to be talking about some of the hidden assets, divisions, and people you probably already have inside of your company that you can be leveraging as you actually build the solution into your company.

How do you leverage what you already have, expand the value of it, get more out of it, give them more things to be excited about, and a way to actually impact the company as well? What are those things and how are we going to be using them as we build these solutions into your company?

It's not like you're having to reinvent the wheel. A lot of the things you already need, you already have, or you're going to think, “Maybe I need to be finding a way to borrow those types of skills or some things into my business because there's a really great advantage to it.”

Then lastly, we're actually going to be circling back to a model that I've talked to you about before, that Strategic Growth Wheel, and how you can use that as a path and a map to help you start going through the process and breaking it down into steps that you can actually take, tackle, and feel confident that you can move through that process and start actually building this into your business.

Now is a great time. For many of us in the industry, we are going to be slowing down. We are actually going to be doing some layoffs and things like that. But when you move back into that spring cycle, you want to have the solution built into your company and ready to start deploying so that you can start measuring metrics, optimizing it, that you have everything built, that infrastructure is actually in place for you to run with and actually have ready so you're not looking at some of the same expenses that you had in these previous couple of years when it comes to workforce and you're already ready to tackle and you're confident that you're not going to have those same turnover problems as well.

Getting you to a place where you can really breathe and then hopefully really look at what are those opportunities that we want to tap on next now that we know we can actually address this, we know that we can turn this into an advantage for our company.

While you're waiting for this next episode to come out, make sure you're subscribed but then also we have actually created an asset, we've actually created a workforce playbook quiz. What you can do is you can go and in about five to seven minutes, you can take this quiz, and it's going to give you a gauge as to the health of where you currently are with your workforce. It's also going to give you some ideas about what those next steps might be.

As we're continuing to go through this series, you're going to have a little bit more clarity on what assets do you currently have, what gaps might you have, and how you're going to be able to move forward. Make sure that you go and you actually take that assessment, and you can find that quiz at storybuilt.marketing/workforce.

You can take that quiz in five to seven minutes, you're going to get results, you're going to be able to really gauge what is the health of my current workforce program. Not only that, based on that, what are some recommendations that I can do to really be focused in to take the very first steps I need to building my own internal playbook, my own internal strategy, all the processes and systems so I actually have an asset in place?

That means I'm never going to be worried about workforce again. I know and I'm going to confidently know that that is not something that is going to limit or bottleneck the growth of my business. A really powerful tool. Lots of really good advice on the backside to help you narrow in and take next steps on this. This is all based on the work that we are currently doing with clients that we're seeing in the marketplace for previous projects and research that we've been doing and the actual process that we're going to be walking through over these next several episodes.

Make sure that you go over to storybuilt.marketing/workforce. Take that quiz because you're going to want to have that on hand. As you move through this, it's going to help you get more out of this episode, more out of this series as we move forward, and it's going to get you really excited and get you clear on what the next steps are to make sure that next time you're really needing to hire, you're looking at the opportunities in front of you, you are confident that you can tackle the struggle that everybody else is facing with their workforce and that it's actually turned into an advantage for your company.

Make sure you subscribe, take the quiz, and we will be here in another week to talk about that next step. What are those assets and resources you already have in your company that we can leverage and rethink on how we leverage them to deploy them to solve this problem?

Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of The Contractor's Daughter. If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe and review. But most of all, share this with all of your friends, partners, and customers in the highway construction business. Thank you for building the infrastructure that we all rely on.