& CONSTRUCTION PROFESSIONALS
April 2017
BUILDINGTOGETHER
DOING THINGS THE HARD WAY Recently, I was enjoying lunch and conversation with an owner of a trade contractor and we got onto the topic of achieving excellence. After describing to him the efforts of our talented employees to achieve greatness in everything we do, they said, “You do things the hard way!” He meant that, and I took that as a compliment for all of us. "Yes!," I said. "At E&V, we do things the hard way!" I know this seems contrary to the popular belief that we should look to do things the "easy" way, but I truly believe the effort that goes into doing anything well, takes hard work! Now, don’t get me wrong, as an owner here at E&V, I also appreciate the quest for efficiency, simplicity and doing things the “smart way." But to even begin to develop those efficiencies takes hard work! Here are just a few of the examples of what I mean by this belief:
- Our newly revised Quality Standards Manual took hundreds of hours of hard work to make, and (that I'm aware) it's the only one of its kind in the industry! The easy way would have been, to just tell everyone, “Do your best,” and accept it. - Hiring great people that fit our culture we have developed at E&V, is hard work! It would be easy to hire off an application or resume and “assume” that person will do a great job because of their education or experience. However, it takes meeting the person, and getting to know them to determine if they will in fact be a good fit. - Constructing high quality buildings that our clients love, takes hard work! - Reducing or eliminating debt, fixing the faucet instead of hiring a plumber, and just being a good person and citizen, takes hard work!
- Our highly successful and award winning safety program and culture takes a continuous, Herculean effort by nearly all of our employees. It would be “easy” to print out some safety guidelines and ask everyone to follow them; instead, we developed a World Class Safety Manual that took many hours of hard work. Our Safety Committee meets every month to ensure we are staying on course, to be the safest in the industry. The team of employees responsible for putting on our monthly World Class Safety Meeting, work diligently to plan an informative, efficient meeting.
So, I would like to encourage all of you to, “Do things the hard way!" Be honest with yourself and assess the effort you currently give to your family, your friends, your job and even yourself. I truly believe, you will reap the rewards both professionally and personally by doing things the hard way!
Tony Roussey VP of Operations
RSVP Today Elzinga & Volkers invites you and a guest to join us on,
Book Release 70 Year Anniversary Celebration, New Tulip Time Attraction and Office Space Tour 4:00 – 7:00 PM | Open House 5:00 PM | History Book Release 5:30 PM | Tulip Time Unveiling
Appetizers & Drinks • Parking available at the ramp off 7th Street RSVP to Morgan Weaver by April 28th: E: morganw@elzinga-volkers.com P: (616) 395-1414
COME AS YOU ARE - STAY AS LONG AS YOU CAN!