TOOLBOX
THE #1 COMMUNITY OF SUCCESSFUL CONTRACTORS
CCN
AUGUST 2020 FROM THE PRESIDENT
IN THE TOOLBOX
3 Fall Conference Preview 4 Production in the New Normal
The Vital Importance of the Network SCOTT SIEGAL
Scott Siegal, President CCN
Things are changing so fast from week to week and month to month, and there is so much uncertainty right now. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Will the virus go away and life goes back to normal? Is it going to continue like this? Are we going to have another shutdown? Are we going to have more stimulus? Are people going to stop spending money? There is so much uncertainty.
How do you know if you’re succeeding?
6 What is SalesBrain? 8 The Critical I-9
10 Onboard Quickly 11 Stay in OSHA’s Good Graces
The uncertainty leads you to second guess the right thing to do. What should I be investing in? Are we doing well or should we be doing better? At the beginning of March when it became clear we were going to get shut down and everyone was pretty scared, my first reaction for my roofing company, Maggio Roofing, was to cut our expenses because I thought preserving cash flow was the most important thing. My gut reaction was to start the cuts with marketing since its one of the largest expenses we have (and I thought people would stop spending money during a pandemic).
Once the stimulus was passed and finally appropriated to small businesses, the world was still facing a complete shutdown and uncertainty for the future. Sales (and leads) in the month of March/April slowed down, which reinforced the decision to cut our marketing expenses. As the shutdown went on, I continued to speak with CCN members all over the country and it became apparent that consumers were starting to purchase again, and things were going to be very busy. This allowed the decision to reinvest in our marketing much easier. It dawned on me that if I didn’t have this network, what would I have done? Called my competitors and see what they’re doing? Call my family and ask them what they think? Neither of these were viable options. First, my competitors aren’t going to share information and my family has no idea what this business is like! continued on page 2
CO N T R AC T O R S . N E T
FROM THE PRESIDENT
continued from page 1
TOOLBOX THE #1 COMMUNIT Y OF SUCCESSFUL CONTRACTORS
MISSION STATEMENT To enhance the professionalism, performance and perception of the construction industry. We promote ethics, education, leadership and innovation, so that the construction industry and the community achieve mutual benefit. CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS 6476 Sligo Mill Road Takoma Park, MD 20912 301.891.0999 800.396.1510 866.250.3270 fax www.contractors.net STAFF Scott Siegal, President scott@contractors.net John Martindale, Principal johnm@contractors.net Catherine Honigsberg, GM catherine@contractors.net Matthew Winslow, Director of Operations matthew@contractors.net Anthoy Brooks, Director of Sales anthony@contractors.net Sindy Wohl, Director of VIP sindy@contractors.net Denise Metheny, Accounting denise@contractors.net Troy Timmer, CCN Business Consultant troy@contractors.net Dave Harrison, CCN Business Consultant dharrison@contractors.net Daniel Murgo, Events Manager danny@contractors.net Brian Wohl, Membership Consultant brian@contractors.net Carla Sarabia, Help Desk Administrator carla@contractors.net Toolbox is a publication of the Certified Contractors Network. Toolbox is a member benefit. Non-members may subscribe for $75 annually. design: Stacy Claywell www.thatdesigngirl.net editor: Jessica Vaughan jessica@contractors.net
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Beyond advice, the network is a benchmark. Just the other day I got a call from another contractor who was asking about my metrics for pay per click. He didn’t know if he was doing well or not. How would anybody know? Ask marketing companies? Are they going to tell you the truth? You pay them to handle social media and paid search. Are they going to tell you they’re failing? Maybe of all the people they serve, you really are doing well, but compared to others in this industry, you’re not. We compared numbers and started aggregating metrics in different areas between companies. When trying to make a decision about where to invest, how much to invest, changing vendors, or strategies, it’s essential to have certain benchmarks to compare your metrics to.
A network shortcuts trial and error. Benchmarking morphed into a strategic planning session with other contractors (in other markets). We started to ask each other questions like - what technology solutions work for contractors of my size and market and how much should I be spending? There are many different customer management systems (CRMs), virtual sales tools, and project planning software products on the market that will affect your business. When you don’t talk to other people, you don’t see those little things that could make a huge difference.
A single idea could save you thousands. I was helping one contractor with marketing metrics and for some reason, the conversation got around to production and his fleet of trucks. He mentioned that for years they were using a gasoline delivery service. This company comes to their yard at night and fills all their trucks with fuel. I didn’t think for a second that it would help us. We have a gas station literally around the corner. But I decided to take a closer look when I saw all twenty-five guys go to the gas station in the morning. That fifteen minutes amounts to approx. 6 man-hours per day at a cost of $40 per hour. That works out to slightly more than $50,000 for an entire year. So, I decided to hire a company that would provide the same service to us in our city. The end result of that conversation is that we will likely save $50-65K when we factor in insurance costs and other costs related to the labor such as payroll taxes!
A Network is the best way to collect and distribute new ideas and best practices. One case in point, I started performing virtual sales calls myself, just to see how this would work. The results were good. I was closing, but not as well as I was expecting or as much as I could in person. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong. Then I got on the phone with a member in Boston who told me that when he did presentations online, he needed to get to the price much faster than when he was presenting in person. People’s attention spans are not what they used to be. I started thinking of ways to shorten the follow up call. I found the intro to the whole CCN Sales Process online a little cumbersome when presenting online. The content is still gold, but we had to get it across to prospects much quicker. I watched what my employees at Maggio Roofing (salespeople) were doing and also spoke with
We’re going to be delivering our training via livestream and transforming the entire business to a whole different model. John Martindale about what Brothers Services’ salespeople were doing on their sales calls. We realized that it takes salespeople an average of ten minutes to get through the first pass of the presentation. Ten minutes is a long time online and they were even getting it wrong. The beginning of the presentation is crucial to getting the sale. It’s the “why” behind the whole CCN process, but that’s hard to convey quickly when you have a prospect in front of you asking, “How much is it going to cost and why can’t you lower your price?” This led to us producing a short video that in less than two minutes, covers the entire first part of the CCN presentation. Then the salesperson can jump right into answering the questions. After testing it we found that it was not only successful with the consumers, but the salespeople liked it because it made their job much easier. Now, we don’t have to worry about the salespeople getting the “why” right. Once they play the video, the salesperson can transition right into answering the questions using their own answer materials. This has resulted in higher customer satisfaction with the sales process and increased closed sales.
What idea will pay your CCN dues? That only came about because I spoke with one of the members and found out that we needed to speed up the process. This will be one of the things we’re going to teach in the sales mastery program in August. You don’t have to be a statistician or a Ph.D.
in math to know that one little change may pay for your CCN dues for years.
The new CCN is here. CCN is going to deliver our training in a whole new way. We’re going to be delivering our training via livestream and transforming the entire business to a whole different model. We used to think that we were in the live event business, holding training classes when there was enough demand. This has all changed. We’re becoming an online university for contractors with additional networking capabilities and benchmarking. It’s changed the way our whole business is going to operate and provide a whole lot more value for everyone. Since everything will be livestreamed, attendees will not have to travel. This eliminates our need to find venues to hold the training, which will allow us to hold training classes every month. This will allow a company to get a new employee trained almost immediately and avoid any downtime, not to mention that the cost of training will be reduced significantly, which will save everyone money. Never underestimate the power of networking with others in your field. Even for contractors who have been in it for a long time, with changes happening so quickly and new people coming into our industry, there is always something new to learn and implement.
CCN LIVE-STREAM EVENT CCN LIVE-STREAM EVENT CCN LIVE-STREAM EVENT
Join us for the CCN Fall Conference September 30-October 1 10am-5pm est
Virtual happy hour 6pm-7pm September 30 The CCN Fall Conference will take place from September 30-Oct 1 and will focus completely on the new normal and making 2020 beyond a success. Highlights include a deep dive into the CCN 3.0 Sales Mastery training and best practices for selling virtually. The Masterminds have always been the heart of CCN conferences where contractors can take advantage of the network, but they’ve never been more important in this rapidly changing landscape. Additional sessions devoted to COVID and keeping workers safe and succeeding remotely will unfortunately be as important as ever. But there will be an equal focus on moving forward with new online marketing strategies, the best technology for success, and a panel on just what the new normal is going to look like. Stay tuned: More information to follow including price and registration
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Production in the New Normal
Collected from CCN Members
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our production crews are essential workers and can't work from home. With COVID on the rise again across the country, this presents new management challenges every day, mainly to keep people safe and keep people feeling safe. Sometimes those are not the same thing. What happens if someone gets symptoms? What happens if someone is diagnosed? What if they come to work, regardless of your policies? What's the threshold for sending someone to quarantine? We're all learning together what works and work to keep crews in the field. Here are some of the interventions CCN members have been taking. As always, please consult your local ordinances as well as the CDC for the most up-to-date information.
Mindset The biggest thing we did was switch mindsets and replace the word “issues” with “opportunities” COVID is a change agent allowing us to renew relationships with employees, subcontractors, customers, and stakeholders. We're now a stronger company because of these opportunities. It was a bit thing early on to not focus on negatives, to reframe those, and see the opportunity. We have to give up the short term for the long term. It’s easy to say we can throw around money from loans. If you can make lasting changes to help the company grow and be sustainable, there will be more dividends down the road.
There is opportunity in chaos. Culture is a really big thing in our organization and making sure people feel we’re all in this together is a huge deal. So many opportunities have come out of the crisis. Our margin is up, and people have stepped up. We’re going to be a stronger company at the end of this. This made us a better company. We’ve had to strip everything in our company and rebuild. Now leads are up and there's heat on the demand side.
Incentives We instituted hazard pay based on the PPP loans, which seems to be a mixed blessing. People were excited at first but got used to it pretty quickly and it pales in comparison with the 4
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nightly news, so it hasn’t been as effective at keeping people working as it was. We said the hazard pay is yours to keep if you earn it. The books are open and the profitability of each job is there for anyone to examine. If the crews can find efficiencies and increase productivity, and we can be profitable at a higher wage, we’re happy to pay it. Our incentives were focused on the long-term sustainability of the business. We did deep sales discounts for the salespeople, which then also benefited production and kept people working. We also implemented increased commissions, unlimited OT, and 40-hour minimums. We put a lot of money back into the company, which was difficult to do. We had to get everyone on the same page about how the biggest gift we can give them is uninterrupted business and continued employment. Everything became about making that happen. As a primarily external contractor, we haven’t had to incentivize working, because there haven’t been many interruptions to our sales. That may change, but for now, we’ve focused on keeping things as normal as possible. We didn't go with hazard pay, because we had to shut down. We had to go in the opposite direction and warned people they may come back to a reduction in pay. We didn’t end up having to do that with the PPP loans we received. We even gave some raises out that were scheduled with annual reviews. We offered discounts in April, which got the gears moving again, now we’re looking at price increases because demand is up.
We job costed and confirmed there's room for overtime, so we turned on unlimited overtime for 8 weeks to make up the 6 weeks we were out and are evaluating keeping unlimited overtime on through the rest of the year. We downsized by 30% in anticipation of the slowing economy, which was a good opportunity to get rid of B and C players. We are hiring now and being very picky.
Absences The most successful thing we did was to work with individuals in our in-house workforce. We didn’t issue blanket policies but talked one-on-one about their comfort zones and individual circumstances. We lost some folks along the way, but now we have an amazing team invested in the sustainability of this business. We sent a letter saying they have to stay home during the lockdown and when it is over, they can continue to stay home, but we'll have to terminate and cut off medical benefits once the office is open again. Everyone is now back at work. We have much closer relationships with our subcontractors. They’ve been essential in keeping jobs going.
Cases We did have one employee test positive for COVID-19, but fortunately, it didn't become a mutiny or turn into an outbreak because we’ve been so militant about social distancing that other people around him didn't feel threatened. We had one positive case, a crew member. Luckily early on, we isolated crews. The field crews always work with the same team so if we did have an outbreak, it would be limited to that team. We "contact traced" and only had to quarantine him and his working partner. You can’t prevent one case — depending on who people live with or where they go, they will be exposed. What you need to prevent is cases two through ten. We quarantine employees if they're symptomatic while they wait for test results or until their symptoms resolve. Usually, the teams around them have continued to work, unless someone is in close physical contact with them for longer than 10-15 minutes and we send them home too. This is why social distancing is so important.
Operations Meetings happen in the warehouse or the parking lot. We do monthly and TQM meetings using Zoom. Fortunately, we have everything in the cloud, including our financials and job info. We’ve done town halls with the entire company over Zoom. We shut down for eight weeks. The production managers and sales team kept working. Fortunately, everyone is back now. We’ll never get back the two we were shut down, but it’s allowed us to get our ducks in a row. Subcontractors were a critical component in providing timely service.
Supply Chain issues We communicated more proactively and frequently with vendors. We haven't, fortunately, had supply chain issues, and have been enjoying renewed relationships with vendors, new materials, deeper discounts, and better payment terms. We haven’t experienced supply chain issues. Our main issue is getting permits, with all the deficits at the state and county level. Permitting is going from 4-6 weeks to 4-6 months. So
now the challenge is to sell jobs that don't require permits to fill in the time until the permit jobs can get done.
Scheduling Scheduling changes took a lot of time — more time communicating with customers and teams and more time reading changing regulations. But with a lot of communication and patience, we've been able to keep everyone satisfied. We did have a fair amount of customers putting off their projects for safety reasons, but they've mostly come back on our schedule. Flexibility was key. We were shut down for six weeks by our local government, so we had a lot of time to figure out rescheduling. A lot of our work is inside work and we had a ton of people who didn't want us in their houses, but with the enhanced PPE and everyone earning more, we have recovered to about 70% of our old business.
Safety Measures If we’re in the home, we wear masks and require homeowners to wear masks, temperature checks at the beginning of the day and keep hand sanitizer everywhere. Masks are essential. According to the CDC, it’s becoming more and more clear the virus is spread through respiratory droplets. Catching those droplets is a big priority. We’ve spent $5,000 in PPE by now, but our governor has issued a $10,000 fine if companies show up without PPE, so the $5,000 is still a bargain. CDC guidelines were a major cost, particularly the amount of time we spent getting them implemented. Getting PPE, sourcing sanitizer, and sewing masks, was a huge part of the job and continues to be an ongoing challenge. Social distancing seems to be a universal intervention. We’ve asked people to stay six feet away from crews and customers. Crew sizes are limited to two men across the company, which led to efficiencies we didn't expect and has prevented outbreaks. We’ve instituted washing stations in the truck with buckets for disinfecting and sanitizing right at the job site. The biggest thing for us was the messaging — pushing information out to employees about the rules, why they are what they are, and how they change.
With cases spiking across the US and regulations shifting every day, keeping crews in the field has been a constantly shifting challenge. Don’t hesitate to reach out to CCN if you have questions or ideas. C C N T O O L B OX AU G U S T 2 0 2 0
I 5
JESSICA VAUGHAN
What is SalesBrain The CCN Sales Process is becoming a SalesBrain-certified selling technique. What is SalesBrain and what does that mean? SalesBrain bills itself as a neuromarketing agency. It was founded by Dr. Christophe Morin who has a Ph.D. in Marketing Psychology and Patrick Renvoisé, who started his career selling multi-million-dollar super-computers. They recognized there have been some major advances in neuroscience over the past decade, but those advances in persuasion weren't penetrating the business world. Now their mission is helping companies to make sure all sales teams are using ethically sound, sciencebased persuasion techniques. The science of neuromarketing started in the early 2000s when a researcher put subjects in an MRI machine and studied their brains as they drank Coke or Pepsi or an unidentified Cola. If they knew the brand, their brains lit up differently and they perceived taste differently. It was the launch of a multitude of studies that confirmed that our satisfaction, pleasure, and how we perceive information from our senses are deeply affected by what we know and believe. There's no such thing as objectivity. In other words, there’s a big difference between saying, “I choose that unidentified brown soda,” and saying, “I want a Coke.”
How can this be? How can what we think affects what we see, taste, touch, and enjoy? Our brain is divided into several different lobes. The newest, most complex, and intelligent is our prefrontal cortex. SalesBrain calls this the rational brain. The subcortical lobes are much more ancient and simple. In general, they have two states: sympathetic which is activated to fly or fight and parasympathetic to relax, rest, and digest. SalesBrain calls this the Primal Brain. Over the years, the primal system has become slightly more sophisticated, but not by much. If you've ever seen
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the Pixar movie Inside Out, you know the primary emotions: joy, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust. There are two more: anticipation and surprise. But all of these emotions are still about two things: this thing is something good and I want to approach, or that thing is something bad and I want to get away. It's important to note the neuro-transmitters driving our feelings primarily come from our primal brain, not our rational brain. We think it's the other way around. We think we have a sophisticated thought in our prefrontal cortex, and then we have an emotion. The rational brain can definitely affect how we feel, or marketing wouldn't matter in the least, but for the most part, we feel and then we justify how we feel using our prefrontal cortex after the fact.
Next, you need to demonstrate the gain.
So what does that mean for your sales and marketing efforts?
Finally, you need to deliver all of this to the primal brain.
It's your job to capture people's attention and persuade them to buy from you, whether using email, ads, or sales presentations.
But if you are not speaking to your prospect’s primal brain, in a language it understands, your messages are doomed to fail. SalesBrain argues most of your persuasion efforts need to be directed to the primal brain, which is primarily concerned with keeping people safe. If you're speaking to the rational brain, but the primal brain feels like buying is not a safe thing to do, there's nothing the rational brain can do about it. We can't override our own survival instincts.
So how do you persuade that primal brain? A lot of this is going to feel familiar because the CCN sales process speaks to this method naturally. CCN Founder Richard Kaller intuited how to speak to the primal brain in the 1970s.
To persuade, you need to first diagnose their pains and fears. The primal brain spends most of its time scanning for threats and eliminating worries. Unless you're offering solutions to directly address that struggle, it won’t hear you. SalesBrain asserts there are three primary types of pain in the modern world to address: financial pain, strategic pain, and personal pain. These correspond to material, emotional, and psychological needs.
The second step is to differentiate your claim. Our brain is constantly scanning for the variance. If you don’t successfully tell your prospects how you're different, all the work you’re doing at the CCN Measure Call and Follow-up appointments is selling as much for your competitors as for your company. When you get done, there should be no more choice, and that comes from differentiation.
One of the CCN WordtracksTM speaks to the heart of this: is this project an expense or an investment? The value of what they're getting needs to greatly outweigh the cost they're paying. But they don’t measure that objectively; what goods and services are worth is a collective agreement in our society. It's all about perception, not reality. Brands do a lot of research about where to position their products in the market and the smallest part of that equation is how much it actually costs to make. A much bigger deal is what they think customers will pay. The most important way to show proof of gain is to use thirdparty proof. Your answer book is the heart of the Follow-up presentation and is full of testimonials, contracts, and data to demonstrate proof of gain.
How do you do this? The primal brain has six primary stimuli. Remember, it's far less sophisticated and intelligent than the prefrontal cortex. It has to be. It's concerned with keeping you alive, and it’s very fast and very good at it. You can't have a group discussion or a rational conversation if there's a lion after you, which is why this part of the brain is stronger than the rational brain. We're the ancestors of humans who were the best at this; the others didn’t last.
To persuade the primal brain you need to be: Personal — How is this particular product going to help me survive threats? Our primal brain has no empathy for other people. Its single job is keeping itself alive. Contrastable — This choice is the only right one. All others are wrong. The promal brain doesn’t understand the abstract. Tangible — This isn't the part of the brain with an imagination. It’s scanning only for what's familiar, friendly, and concrete. Memorable — It can only process a limited amount of information so that information has to sparkle. Visual — Our eyes are our dominant sense particularly for scanning for threats. Emotional — If it doesn’t feel good, there’s no reason to do it. Fortunately, the CCN Sales Process 3.0 is designed to hit all of these buttons. And now we're partnering with guys who are keeping up on all of the latest neuroscience so we can stay on the cutting edge. The irony of course is that the cutting edge is about learning how to speak to the simplest, oldest, most instinctive part of our brain, so your messages keep getting simpler and more emotional.
Don’t leave sales on the table; learn neuroscience! (Did you notice the persuasion in that sentence? Not selling is a huge pain and fear in a contracting business. Paying attention to neuroscience is a game changer. Learn more at salesbrain.com.
C C N T O O L B OX AU G U S T 2 0 2 0
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ON HR
The Critical I-9 BY ANITA DOMBROWSKI, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, PRESIDENT & SR. HR CONSULTANT, FOURTH DIMENSION ENTERPRISES LLC.
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ew Hire forms are an essential part of your onboarding process and it seems every government agency needs a form. While all the forms are important, the I-9 form (www.uscis. gov/i-9) is critical. The form is used to verify the identity and employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States. The agency responsible for the I-9 form is the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency (USCIS). The I-9 form must be completed by U.S. employers of all sizes. Employers must have an I-9 form on file for each employee on their payroll. There are very strict guidelines on how the form must be completed. There are 15 pages of instructions online. There is also a more detailed book of instructions outlining the requirements. The Handbook for Employers: Guidance for Completing Form I-9 (M-274) can be found at www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/ handbook-employers-m-274. The booklet is extremely helpful to identify some of the proofs you might be witnessing.
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Some helpful tips: Both the employee and the employer have sections to complete. USCIS requires the employee to complete his or her section on Day One of employment. The employer has a maximum of three (3) days to complete their section. While there's a form listed on the website in Spanish, only employers in Puerto Rico may file the Spanish form. Forms must be completed in English. However, the Spanish version may be used to assist a nonEnglish speaking employee to better understand the information requested. If the employee is having a hard time understanding what's required, a translator can be used. There's a section on Page 1 for the translator information to be added. The I-9 is a three (3) page form. The instructions specify all three pages of the form must be given to the new hire. Page 3 of the form outlines all of the authorization proofs employees are permitted to use. The list is very specific. There's an A List, B List, and C List. Employers should be sure to enter
the proof information in the proper columns. For instance, Column A is for a U.S. Passport. Column B is for the Driver’s License proof, and Column C is for the Social Security card information. Most employees use a driver’s license and Social Security card as their authorization proofs. Speaking of proofs, the employer or employer's representative must look at and review the original proof document. You can't use a copy of a birth certificate, Social Security card, or any other of the listed proofs. The employer or employer's representative should examine each of the proofs to determine if the proofs look reasonably genuine and relate to the description of the approved proofs listed on the form. The person who reviews the proof is the person who should sign the form. While these details may seem "over the top" to you, they're critically important. Employers who violate the law and either don't have I-9’s on file for every employee or have been careless in how the forms are completed should take heed. Civil and criminal fines may be assessed.
According to the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) website “Monetary penalties for knowingly hiring and continuing to employ violations range from $573 to $20,130 per violation, with repeat offenders receiving penalties at the higher end. Penalties for substantive violations, which includes failing to produce a Form I-9, range from $230 to $2,292 per violation. In determining penalty amounts, ICE considers five factors: the size of the business, good-faith effort to comply, seriousness of violation, whether the violation involved unauthorized workers, and history of previous violations.” www.ice.gov/factsheets/i9-inspection Once completed, the forms don't need to be sent to any agency. Keep them in your employee’s personnel file. USCIS recommends that you keep a separate I-9 form file which is much easier to keep up to date. Also, should government agents come to your facility to inspect the I-9 information, you'll have it readily available for inspection. Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Labor, or the U.S. Department of Justice may call on you to review your forms. Retention of the forms is also a critical issue. Don't destroy a form as soon as an employee leaves your employment. You must retain the forms for three years after date of hire, or for one year after employment is terminated. Most employers find it easier to pull a terminated employee’s I-9 form and place it is a separate folder for separated employees. It doesn't matter whether the employee resigned or was terminated. All forms for separated employees go into that Separation File which can be filed by year of separation. That makes it easier to purge the file once the one year mark is reached. It's a good idea for employers to do an audit of I-9 forms on file to make sure there's a form for each employee on payroll and to make sure each form is completed properly e.g. signatures in all places required and appropriate forms are not expired. Some work authorization proofs have an expiration date which must be monitored. Many employers don’t pay a lot of attention to the I-9 form which could be a major headache if agents come knocking at your door. Seeing the list of penalties demonstrates the I-9 form is critical to your organization.
NewPRODUCTION
MASTERY PROGRAM SEPT 15-17 LIVE STREAM
BUSINESS PLANNING 201 BOOT CAMP
NOV 5-6 HANOVER, MD
This article should not be considered legal advice. Should you have any questions about this article or any of the HR articles presented in this newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact me at AnitadombrowskiHR@gmail.com.
Toolbox Wants To Hear From You
Have something different, unique or particularly successful you’re doing with your marketing? Is there a method or process you or your staff has developed that solved a problem? Is there a sales or production superstar on your staff? Toolbox aims to bring news, views and above all the best practices of CCN members and member companies to the attention of the overall membership of CCN. If you have a story to tell, we're eager to share your news to all CCN members!
BUSINESS PLANNING BOOT CAMP
NOV 9-11 HANOVER, MD
C C N T O O L B OX AU G U S T 2 0 2 0
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Onboard Quickly BY JESSICA VAUGHAN
Many contractors shed workers in the past few months because they weren't considered essential and had to shut down, because markets softened and customers didn’t want them in their homes, or in preparation for the economic uncertainty ahead.
again in the future, give people fewer hours, or more jobs. We need to hire people who thrive in chaos instead of getting broken by it.
Make in-person interviews a success. With every interview, you're widening your circle of exposure drastically, so if you're sure from your phone screenings this person is worth talking more to, spend some time thinking how to hold the interview safely. Set up a station outside, keep six feet away, and keep masks on. It's harder to read someone when you can't see their whole face, so ask more questions than normal. Hiring is always going to be a gut decision. You want to feed your gut as much information as possible. Unless someone does something to disqualify themselves pretty quickly, take time to really dig into their experience, personality, and fit.
After you hire them, ask about COVID again. Have they been exposed? Have they had symptoms? Have they traveled to a hotspot recently? You don't want to bring someone onto your team whose partner is quarantining at home or has test results outstanding. It's not a reason not to hire someone, but it might be a reason to adjust their start date.
Be patient.
For some contractors, it's now time to hire again. SInce customers can't go on vacation or throw big parties, they spend a lot of time in their houses. Suddenly home improvement takes on new urgency and feasibility. Some needed repairs, put off for months, are now on the books. Taken all together, it's time to hire. In the brave New World of COVID, hiring is a little bit different. Here's how to make sure you have the top-notch crew you want and need while keeping everybody safe in the process.
"Phone screening" is key. You don't want to hire anyone if you haven't looked in their eyes. Today, hiring comes with risk of exposure, so you want to make sure they’re worth it. Most job postings are getting more and more applicants as temporary layoffs become permanent, so the "phone screen" is your friend.
Start screening with questions about COVID. If you're hiring for production crews, ask about their appetite for risk. They're considered essential in most areas and even if we're headed for more lockdowns, they'll still be going out into people’s homes. Don't hire anyone without asking how they feel about potential risk. If they hesitate at all, pass them by.
Ask about their adaptability and willingness to take on any role. We don't know what kind of restrictions or safety requirements will happen next. We don't know if we'll have to shelter in place
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Yes, you have more people to choose from, but they're also more desperate. You don't want people who will take anything. You still need a good fit with your company and someone who wants to get into contracting, never someone who's desperate for anything. At the very least, you want someone smart enough to pretend they’re very excited about the job in the interview. You're going to have a lot more disappointing interviews to wade through to find the gems, but they are out there.
Take onboarding seriously. It may be tempting after you hire and get their I-9 documents to think your work is done and your problem is solved. You have another body on the team and everything is good. But because everyone is so spread out, and they may not see or meet a large portion of your staff, making sure they land well is more important than ever. A trial period is also critical. It’s not just throwing them on a team and in three months, telling them, “Welcome aboard.” When are you giving them feedback? How will you get feedback from the guys they're working closely with? You should fire quickly if they're not working out.
How do you teach someone about your culture? How did they get the download on safety? How often do you evaluate them? What's your mission and how do you pass it on to them? Make sure you have this process in place before you hire so any new hires are ready to stay safe and contribute quickly.
Hiring in the age of COVID has a few quirks. Use these tips to ensure you add the best candidates to your high performance team and ensure everyone stays safe during these trying times.
Stay in OSHA’s Good Graces BY JESSICA VAUGHAN
It feels like everything's changed, but there are several important requirements from OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, still in place. Don’t fall afoul of inspectors; that’s a headache you don't need right now.
Guard against the 10 most frequently cited violations on worksites. Prevent falls. This is one of the most common causes of serious injuries on job sites. Keep up with all preventative measures: scaffolding protections, ladders, harnesses, and PPE requirements. Fall protection needs to be in place anytime someone works over four feet off the ground. Part of protecting against falls is training. Make sure you have at least yearly training in fall protection and job hazards. The law specifically states it must be in a language they understand, so if your team is multi-lingual, take that into account. One guy whispering to another guy in the back of the room doesn't count.
Train yearly on hazard communication. All chemicals and their hazards need to be identified to all workers. You must have all chemicals labeled correctly and display the material safety data sheets to each one. Once a year, you must train your workers on hazards they face, how to read chemical labels, and where to find these MSDS sheets.
Evaluate your respirators. Lack of respiratory protection is another common violation. If your workers require protection, inspect it regularly, train on proper use, and make sure you have backups. Since there's such a huge demand for respiratory protection for virus-related safety, knowing you have the supplies for your construction needs is critical.
Ensure PIT or other machinery safety. If you work with Powered Industrial Trucks or other heavy machinery, ensure everyone who uses it is trained or certified to do so. Make sure you have measures in place to “lockout, tag out” a machine, which means to deprive it of power if it is broken, usually by locking the power cord up, so someone can't accidentally injure themselves if they don’t know it’s not working.
You must hold additional safety meetings and training. Most of these citations require specific annual training. Most companies need to touch on safety more often than that to answer the question “Did this employee receive adequate training on the job?” A monthly safety meeting is a good way to discuss opportunities and threats, needed PPE, and other safety measures. Many companies add a safety topic to their monthly TQM meetings or weekly production meetings.
Emergency Action Plan and Fire Prevention Plans are required. All companies are required to have an emergency action plan in place for major hazards workers may encounter during their workday. If you work with anything that can cause a fire, like welding tools, and you have more than ten employees, you need to have a fire prevention plan on the books. It must include a list
of all major fire hazards, proper handling and storage for flammable materials, as well as potential ignition sources. Personal Protective Equipment is an article unto itself, but many major OSHA requirements have to do with what PPE you need to supply, what PPE your employees supply themselves, and what's required for various jobs. Please consult OSHA for the latest information.
Record keeping and reporting are critical. Another general OSHA requirement is to keep and post records of injuries. Any company over ten employees is required to record serious work-related injuries and illnesses. If it only requires first-aid, it doesn't need to be reported. These records must be maintained for five years. Each February through April, you must post a summary of injuries and illnesses recorded the previous year and also provide copies to current and former employees, if requested. You also need to submit these records to OSHA. That’s form 300A and fortunately can be done online as of this year. Any severe injuries must be reported immediately to OSHA. Any fatality must be reported within eight hours and any amputation, loss of an eye, or hospitalization must be reported within 24 hours. Please note, amputation includes the tip of a finger if the bone is nicked.
COVID-19 Please consult OSHA for the latest in this fast-changing pandemic. As of May 26, 2020, a diagnosed case of COVID-19 that's work-related is a recordable illness. To determine workrelated, the guideline is to do a “reasonable” investigation. Privacy concerns prevent “extensive medical inquiries.” OSHA recommends three steps: 1. Ask the employee how they believe they contracted the illness. 2. Ask about their work and out-of-work activities that may have led to the illness (while respecting their privacy and right to decline to give details.) 3. Review the work environment for potential exposure. The illness is likely work-related if a cluster of cases shows up on a team or if they had prolonged exposure to a customer or coworker with the illness. If you can't determine the origin after this good faith investigation, you can treat this as nonrecordable. If you determine it was likely recordable, add it to the usual forms as a respiratory illness. These are the highlights of what it takes to keep workers safe and keep in OSHA’s good graces as of August 2020. As always, please consult OSHA for the most accurate, up-to-date information.
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