Pit & Quarry, July 2018

HIRING AND RETAINING WORKERS Is the challenge of finding and keeping skilled laborers getting any easier Participants at the Pit Quarry Roundtable Conference discuss the dilemma and explore potential solutions T he following transcripts were edited from two concurrent discussions at this years Pit Quarry Roundtable Conference The transcript from one session begins on this page while the transcript from the other starts on page 44 P Q According to a 2017 Pit Quarry producer survey employee retention and hiring remain two of the biggest challenges aggregate producers face Weve discussed this challenge at the Roundtable for years Is this problem getting better or worse What jobs do producers continue to struggle to fill With which jobs have you had some success filling How are you getting by in areas where you have shortfalls Is a labor shortage reaching a point where its threatening the livelihood of your business How is technology helping you to overcome shortfalls on the labor front Manufacturers Are you experiencing similar shortages on the labor front HAL WILLIFORD MEMPHIS STONE GRAVEL CO Labor is still a huge problem in our industry I think its even worse I think someone may have mentioned its due to unemployment being down It has a lot to do with it Weve upped our pay scales Were still having trouble on entry level positions keeping people that want to work in this type of industry As our chairman of the board says were bidding for our own people We decided were going to have to do our own in house training quit looking outside to find people to come in and take the training Weve tried to increase our benefits packages so we do attract and keep people But we are just starting to put together some formal training to try to train people in different jobs and give them different opportunities Its going to be a long process But instead of looking for outside schools or training associations its a resource where we decided to do the training ourselves Williford BRENDAN DEVEREAUX HAMM Hal hit my thoughts right on the head Weve had this huge paradigm shift where wed always be trying to fill positions with X number of years of experience or have done this type of work and it wasnt working So we finally had to say were going to just hire people that want a job have interest in working for our business and were going to train them over time to take on the skills that we need them to have So there have been challenges Devereaux with that But I think there are also benefits in that kind of start from scratch mentality where you have a good opportunity to have someone as part of your business and not the hired gun per se Its definitely a LABOR DISCUSSION CONTRIBUTORS Below is a list of Pit Quarry Roundtable Conference participants whose comments appear within this section Jeff Carlisle Douglas Manufacturing Brendan Devereaux Hamm Ross Duff Duff Quarry John Garrison Superior Industries Gary Hirsch Bramco MPS Alton Hudson Trimble Pat Jacomet Ohio Aggregates Industrial Minerals Association OAIMA Mike Johnson National Stone Sand Gravel Association NSSGA Dan Johnson formerly of Anderson Columbia Bob Martin Cemex Hal Williford Memphis Stone Gravel Co 36 PIT QUARRY July 2018 pitandquarry com