ENGINEERING A PANDEMIC RESPONSE

HOW TO HOW TO

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT | BY DAVID HICKEY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT | BY DAVID HICKEY

Engineering a Pandemic Response Keeping employees productive through a curriculum.

Harold Pedley, president and owner of Sign Engineering LLC in Puerto Rico, is accustomed to getting things done in-house. The company’s 102 employees handle just about every aspect of their vast business on their own.

“We are an old-school sign shop,” he said. “We still bend neon in-house. We do our permits in-house. We do our own engineering and architecture in-house. We even do our own fleet mechanical work, including diesel and hydraulics, in-house.

“We pride ourselves in that we have full control of the entire process—from project management to all types of fabrication and install all the way through to routine maintenance—all done by our full-time employees.”

Sign Engineering also does most of its training in-house. When COVID-19 struck, Puerto Rico was one of the first and strictest governments in the United States to impose lockdown orders. Sign Engineering wanted to keep its employees “productive,” so Pedley purchased a company package of ISA’s online learning.

“We started off thinking we were only going to do it for a few middle management-level employees,” Pedley said. “Then we ended up with about twenty-three employees in the program—from field supervisors to our Human Resources manager and vice president of Operations.”

They are hoping to expand it even more in the future. They developed a “core curriculum” of approximately twenty of the seventy-five courses, covering a broad variety of topics that each Sign Engineering employee is required to complete prior to moving on to additional courses.

After employees complete the core, they then begin to specialize in their area of expertise. After completing their specialty, they are free to take as many courses as they would like in whatever fields they choose.

“The core curriculum helps each department better understand how the company should be operating as a whole. It also creates a better dynamic between employees since they better understand each other’s jobs,” said Pedley.

To help with social distancing, the staff is rotating days in the office. As things return to normal, the plan is to have regular weekly roundtable discussions about each course so that employees can share what they’re learning.

Already, though, Pedley has found dramatic improvement in developing a more common language of communication and an increased understanding of the overall process of the company.

“The ISA program gives us the ability to provide a more formal education that, as a small company, we are not easily able to create on our own. It also gives us the ability to better cross train/expose employees to other areas of the company that they are not normally directly ex-

RISE

ABOVE YOUR COMPETITION

Sign Builder Illustrated is the “how-to magazine” of the sign industry. Each issue includes SBI’s signature “how-to” columns and features with detailed, step-by-step instructions covering a wide range of signage. SBI’s website (signshop. com), newsletters, Buyer’s Guide, and digital edition keep you updated with timely news, recent projects, and upcoming industry events.

HOW TO

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT | BY DAVID HICKEY

posed to,” said Pedley. “People perform their jobs better when they understand the other roles in the company that they interact with. Exposing operations people with account management and vice versa is huge. It is much easier to relate with people when you’ve walked in their shoes a little bit.”

The ISA online learning has aligned with Sign Engineering’s philosophy of investing in their employees. “We like to do as much training as possible in-

house. Before the ISA program, historically suppliers (and even our customers) had been our biggest source of education. With the support of the ISA education program, we are now able to educate our people in ways that were previously just not available,” said Pedley.

While the investment in the program was designed to keep employees productive during the pandemic-related shut down, Pendley believes it will pay off for the future.

“Our people are our greatest resource and asset. The average tenure of our over-one hundred employees is almost fifteen years,” said Pendly. “Many have been with the company for more than twenty-five years. In thirty years, we have never laid off one employee.

“Maintaining our employees is our highest priority. Better education will bring better employee retention, [and] better retention will bring higher quality and higher productivity. If you educate, empower, and retain your employees, you will also have a wonderful company and life.”

We have spent a lot of time focused on what the pandemic has cost us—and that is a tally certainly worth counting. But just as ISA has built programs and resources that will stand the test of time—such as receiving an essential business designation for our industry— Sign Engineering proves that, with the right focus, we can come out of this even stronger.

I have no doubt that Pedley’s employees are better trained and ready to take on what 2021 brings—and they’re even more committed to his company.

Sign Engineering’s experience should be a lesson for us all. As we look into the coming new year—with all its hopes, promises, and uncertainties—we keep our focus on the long-term investments that will pay dividends no matter what short-term disruptions come.

David Hickey is vice-president of Government A airs at the International Sign Association.