Letter from the President

From the president HOW TO BUILD UPON A YEAR LIKE 2020 BY: DAVID HELVESTON, PELICAN CHAPTER, ABC Almost every single one of us can say with unfortunate confidence that we have never experienced a year like 2020.

A pandemic has taken the lives of more than one million people worldwide. Countless were and are stuck at home, many without work or a source of income. Our education system has flipped on its head as schools scramble to teach in a virtual or hybrid format. The 2020 stock market looks like an epic rollercoaster ride. Protestors took to the streets and social media to stand against racial injustice. Multiple natural disasters, from hurricanes to tornadoes to fires to floods, pummeled our country’s landscape, our communities and homes. And the oil and gas industry took such a nosedive that multiple industries, such as petrochemical, took a steep downturn.

Where do we go from here? How does our industry build upon a draining year like 2020 and look ahead with hope and vigor towards 2021 and beyond?

The work has already begun. Since the Spring, ABC companies have taken innovative, adaptive and safe approaches to continue to win work, to prioritize workforce development, to serve the community and to rebuild our economy. Industry along the Gulf Coast region has remained essential this year because the services we provide the American people are vital and necessary for everyday life.

The priority of safety has not wavered in 2020 for ABC. Safety is in the DNA of our industry in part because people are our companies’ most valuable asset. Throughout the year, I saw ABC companies address this pandemic with a strong safety plan and procedures that prioritized their employees, while providing great customer service to the owners. I saw employers adhere to federal and local guidance and plans, that often changed with little notice, to keep their employees safe. Whether the safety concern was a hurricane or COVID, companies incorporated the additional variables needed to plan accordingly while prioritizing the health and wellbeing of their employees. Now is not the time to let our foot off the gas in the area of safety. Continue to revise and revisit your safety procedures and remain diligent and reasonable as you take the necessary steps to protect employees.

Industry has harnessed the power of technology to continue to get the job done with excellence. Our world went remote in Q1 of 2020 and the acronym of WFH became common place in most homes. Tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, webinars, GoToMeeting, integrated project delivery systems, smart contracts, cloud hosting allowed communications and knowledge sharing amongst our workforce to continue with empty offices. Technology has launched our industry forward in the areas of health tracking, and daily checking temperatures of employees onsite. ABC companies were able to improve site services in terms of safety, such as geofencing and wearable technologies and harnessed the power of tablets and iPads on job sites. I encourage you embrace these innovative trends going into the new year; we are encountering new landscapes and new client needs that technology will help us achieve.

Two tools in the toolbelt of ABC companies include people and culture. I am proud to say that 2020 is a year that we have exceled at using these two tools, and we are counting on people to propel us forward in 2021. Our reality is evolving quickly, and I have witnessed ABC companies evaluate equity in the industry, in their own companies and assess how we can make that stronger. Do not get complacent in ensure the workplace culture in your company is vibrant. To the leaders of our industry: be consistent in your leadership and practice what you preach. Tackle problems head on and do not just tolerate them. Empower employees in your company to not only lead but embrace the culture you’re creating. Building upon a year like 2020 will be hard. It will be challenging and take grit. However, I can say with absolute certainty that the construction industry is up for the task, that the workforce of our industry was made for such a time as this.

As we wrap up this tumultuous year, I encourage you to mentally revisit those hard lessons learned, impossible moments and valleys of 2020 and remember building is what we do. We build, and then we rebuild. We begin with ideas, incorporate ingenuity and make something from that. Now is the time for our industry to do what they do best. We are the builders of this great nation and now is the time to build ourselves stronger than we were going in to 2020.