Brazing torches flashed and the sounds of sheet metal being drilled into place filled the air Friday in Northeast Portland, as the Associated Builders and Contractors‘ Pacific Northwest chapter hosted its annual Craft Championships for third- and fourth-year sheet metal and HVAC apprentices.

Three teams of two HVAC apprentices squared off to build functioning heating and air conditioning systems, while sheet metal apprentices competed individually to build heating and air conditioning ductwork from scratch in the shortest amount of time and with the fewest mistakes.

In the sheet metal competition, the winner was third-year apprentice Matthew Brunner, an employee of Portland-based ProTemp Associates, while third-year apprentice Calvin Nail, an employee of Hybrid Heating & Cooling in Cornelius, took home top honors in the HVAC division. Both Brunner and Nail next March will travel to Long Beach, California, to compete in the ABC national Craft Championships. There, they will take on other regional winners from around the United States.

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It is often said that technology makes the world go round. Each year televisions seem to get bigger (yet thinner), computers get smaller, and Internet speeds get faster – especially on our mobile devices. We anxiously await the latest and greatest, and watch as the early adopters line up outside retail spaces to be the first to get them.

Just like in the world around us, the construction industry is always hungry for new innovations. Access to new technology is increasing efficiency in our industry, improving work quality and helping contractors build the highest-performing buildings the world has ever seen.

In fact, we get something new and then we wonder how we ever lived without it. Then, two years later it’s a paperweight collecting dust in the corner as something newer, faster and cheaper replaces it.

“It wasn’t long ago that we wondered how we got by without fax machines,” explained an ABC member I visited with recently. “If our fax machine rang right now I would probably wander around the office for ten minutes trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.”

Contractors get bombarded everyday with new technological advances. The options are endless, but the budgets to pay for them rarely are. I really enjoy seeing how contractors are using new products, and I’m often reminded that the applications aren’t just good for the contractor – they also benefit the customer.

Smartphones, tablets, mobile apps and even social media are providing contractors new ways to find efficiency and collaborate across their field teams.

The ability to snap a photo – or video – from a smartphone or tablet and leverage people across an entire company to troubleshoot a problem is helping contractors solve tricky problems while sending fewer employees to a job site.

New building technologies are driving energy consumption down through innovative control systems that better regulate temperatures, enhance the use of natural light and save the customer enough money to justify the expense.

Even social media is proving itself beneficial to contractors looking to engage a variety of audiences about latest industry developments, share best practices and contribute to larger conversations in their community.

“Social media isn’t just talking about your company and posting a picture of your latest project,” explained a contractor recently. “It’s about engaging with the community around you, adding to the conversation, and building a network that would not have otherwise existed.”

Technology isn’t just about computers. It is also providing us all with amazing new building materials and construction methods. From multidimensional computer modeling to high-performance engineered wood products and energy-saving eco-roofs, a variety of new options are emerging to deliver better buildings to construction consumers.

Unless you have a side business printing money, you never want to adopt new technology or innovation just for the sake of doing so. You’ll wear out your workforce and you’ll probably waste a lot of money in the process. When weighing whether to adopt new technologies, consider:

• Is the latest technology cost-effective?

• How will something interact with other tools already in place?

• Will it improve efficiency for the team?

• How soon will it be obsolete?

It is exciting to see how new technologies and applications aren’t just the domain of teens posting via Instagram, but the way we use them can improve the bottom line and drive efficiencies in traditional trades.

Share with us how technology is changing the face of the industry by tweeting it to us via Twitter: @abcpnw

Laurie Kendall is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors‘ Pacific Northwest chapter. Contact her at 503-598-0620 or at lkendall@abcpnw.org.

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Merit-shop contractors are passionate about training and developing a highly skilled workforce. I’ve used this space to talk about that quite a bit over the past several months.

The one common bond that I find across ABC‘s members – and among other merit-shop contactors – is the belief that workers should be in control of their careers. They don’t look at their workforce and see “labor” or treat people like a commodity. Instead, they see real people, with real families, with whom they want to build a long-term relationship.

One of the things that has impressed me most about this approach is the long-term commitment to their employees. Contractors become committed to training the members of their team, rewarding their good work, and retaining them for the long haul. They’ve embraced a business model that fosters an environment where hard work, innovation and commitment by both sides is rewarded.

That is not the way it has always been done in the construction industry. And for some it’s still not the way business is done.

For many decades, most contractors relied on union hiring halls for labor. When they had a big job they called up the union and asked them to send “labor” to the job site. When the project was done, the workers were sent back to the union. They signed their names in a book and waited for someone else to determine when they could work again. The system was impersonal, and meant that there was little to no relationship with the employee beyond the specific job.

I have often heard people suggest that many workers dispatched via union hiring halls expect to work only about 1,500 hours a year. That’s hardly job security when you consider that most people consider 2,000 hours a year as the norm for full-time employment.

This old way of doing things is becoming less common though – with more workers and contactors abandoning this approach each year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 14.1 percent of all construction workers were members of a union in 2013 – down from 17.5 percent in 2000.

The irony is that the training, skills, and work ethic among today’s merit-shop workers isn’t going unnoticed by unions either. As union membership has dwindled, unions are now trying to recruit workers away from merit-shop contractors. In the past month I’ve had several people share with me fliers that have been left on workers’ vehicles, encouraging them to leave the stability of their current careers. My sense is that there aren’t many takers.

Declining union membership is also causing unions to pursue bad public policy. Instead of recognizing the changing values of the worker, they seek to protect the worn-out system that they have always known. Proposals like the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, union-only project labor agreements, and expansion of prevailing wage laws seek to hold onto the past by manipulating the relationship between people and their employers. They simply fail to recognize the shift that is taking place.

Today, workers have come to recognize that an open door and a direct relationship is always better than short-term jobs and fewer hours of work that ultimately mean lower wages. It’s a big transition for the industry, but one that I think is good long term and will better empower people in the industry for what lies ahead.

Laurie Kendall is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors‘ Pacific Northwest chapter. Contact her at 503-598-0620 or at lkendall@abcpnw.org.

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Hundreds of apprentices from communities across Oregon participated in graduation ceremonies this past spring. For many it was the end of a very long journey. They represent the last of a crop of workers who boldly entered the construction industry at its lowest point. They may also provide us insights and solutions to a major challenge that our industry is facing once again – a skilled workforce shortage.

We all know how stable a career choice the construction industry was in the summer and fall of 2010. As thousands of workers exited, some may wonder who in their right mind wanted to join us. Were these people crazy?

Many of the men and women who completed four-year programs weathered some of the toughest times that the industry has ever, and hopefully will ever, see. Thankfully, they took a chance on our industry. They managed to survive, persevere and succeed. And, they are probably stronger for it. They knew that things would get better and they recognized the opportunities that came with the challenges the industry was enduring at the time.

Still, not a day goes by – check that – not an hour goes by where I don’t hear about some form of challenge that a contractor is facing related to finding journey-level workers for a growing number of projects.

Apprenticeship has always been the means to this end. Workforce issues have been a challenge for the industry for much of the past 20 years. Even in the best of times, when apprenticeship programs were turning out large graduating classes, there was trouble keeping up with demand. Today we see the challenges that come with five years of small graduation classes and thousands of workers lost to other industries.

The problem is pretty clear, so what’s the solution? The challenge ahead of our industry is not the output. It is the input.

But it is more than just getting more apprentices into training programs. It’s more than just getting shop classes back into schools. Both are major priorities, but the solution is much bigger. I also need to note that government mandates regarding apprenticeship utilization on projects are also not the solution.

Just as the men and women graduating apprenticeship programs this year adapted and survived to complete their training, the industry needs to be thinking about how apprenticeship should adapt and survive as well. Shifts are taking place as new generations of workers approach their careers. How are we going to respond? An effect response to this reality is the solution.

Research shows that younger, “millennial” generation workers care less about pay and climbing the corporate ladder and are instead drawn to careers where they feel good about what they do. They want to know that they are making a difference in their community. They have also grown up in classroom environments different from past generations of workers to come through apprenticeship. And they have been programmed to believe that a four-year degree and tens of thousands of dollars of debt is their only ticket to success.

Those are big things to overcome. But it can be done.

We must modernize the way we deliver training to address the new and innovative ways younger workers are accustomed to learning. Can we integrate competency models into our training? Can on-demand, online training augment or even supplant some of the traditional classroom training models?

Equally important is helping future generations see the forest through the trees. We must reframe the opportunities that exist. We must expose new generations of workers to the opportunity to build something … to build their community, to build exciting new environments for people to live and work in, and to build the infrastructure that can fuel an innovative economy that solves problems within our society.

As we look to the future and work to solve our workforce challenges, we must confront reality. Today’s apprentices mostly found us. They took a chance, and our industry is reaping that reward. To succeed in the long term, we can’t rely on workers finding us.

Our industry must become relevant to a new generation. We must retool, modernize, and take a chance on them so that they too will take a chance on us.

Laurie Kendall is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors‘ Pacific Northwest chapter. Contact her at 503-598-0620 or at lkendall@abcpnw.org.

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I once heard a contractor say that safety starts at the top. His point was that safety is not a grassroots initiative. Companies with the best safety records do so by making it a priority from the very top and drive that culture down and through their organizations.

And why wouldn’t you? Accidents are preventable. It’s like Benjamin Franklin said: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” From a pure dollars and cents perspective, safe workplaces are proven to save companies money. Fewer accidents mean less lost time, lower rates on workers’ compensation insurance, and lower workforce turnover.

What about companies with high incident rates? Well, the exact opposite shows to be the case. Insurance companies are not the only ones that care. Owners and upstream contractors also value employers with strong initiatives to make workplaces safe. Every project team is only as strong as its weakest link. No one wants a contractor on the jobsite who will put others at risk.

Now that we’ve established the value, how do you make it a reality?

First, take advantage of the resources available through the organizations you are already a part of. Most trade groups can provide the resources that you need to start an initial safety program. The Associated Builders and Contractors‘ Safety Training Evaluation Process, known as STEP, helps companies prioritize safety by putting them through a rigorous audit to determine their programs’ efficacy and thoroughness. It helps them identify blind spots and gaps in their systems so that they can address them before a tragedy occurs.

While ABC isn’t alone in offering such programs, I will tell you that companies that have completed the STEP process have Total Recordable Incidence Rates (TRIR) 38 percent below the Bureau of Labor Statistics average. Contractors that achieve STEP platinum and diamond levels are 67 and 86 percent better respectively.

The other critical component of a top-notch safety program is a drug- and alcohol-free workplace program. The Construction Coalition for a Drug and Alcohol Free Workplace offers contractors a wealth of resources to implement such policies. The group, a coalition of leading industry stakeholders, has proposed a minimum set of standards for drug and alcohol policies, and asks companies to sign the Drug and Alcohol Workplace Pledge. It states that the company will enact a substance abuse testing policy equal to, or greater than, the one featured on the coalition’s website, www.DrugFreeConstruction.org. Signing the pledge is required for all ABC STEP participants.

DrugFreeConstruction.org also provides model policies, designed around industry-best practices. They are customizable to conform with local laws.

Safe workplaces don’t happen by accident – no pun intended. They require a commitment from the very top of an organization. They manifest themselves when owners and managers have the will to create a safe workplace and focus on the best practices that bring them to fruition. If you aren’t there yet, take some time and do some research. Use the tools at your disposal and change the culture of your organization. You’ll never regret taking the time to prevent the preventable.

Laurie Kendall is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Pacific Northwest chapter. Contact her at 503-598-0620 or at lkendall@abcpnw.org.

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Does the company you work for or own hold an annual planning session or retreat? Do you write down a list of goals, action items and maybe even some performance measures for the coming year? If so, what do you do with them once you finish the process? If you are like too many, the strategic plan ends up on a shelf or in a drawer for the rest of the year.

I’d like to challenge you to take a different approach. As I noted in January, I’m a list person. I love lists and I love goals. It’s simple and methodical – and you can always see your success.

But too often it’s just a plan that you spend a day or more creating and then forget about until someone asks about it as next year’s planning session rolls around.

Last month the Associated Builders and Contractors held its planning two-day conference. One of our team-building projects was to break into small groups and do an art project that painted a picture illustrating the future of the association. At first there was grumbling and a lot of joking around. But it was fascinating to see how much each team got into its work.

It got me thinking about how powerful it is to stop and picture our future.

You see, each portrait showed all the many things ABC does and what those things mean to our members. Most fascinating was the way the pictures also illustrated what members see that the organization can, and should, be.

While we built plenty of lists and set plenty of timelines that will lead to greater success and results for our members, the most powerful exercise of the whole weekend was asking our members to think creatively.

What are you doing in your organization to do the same? Are you tapping your people and asking them to dream and paint their picture?

I encourage you to take a shot. Ask your team to illustrate how they see the company today and what they see for the future. Encourage them to be creative. You might be surprised what they come up with and how it can help plot a more prosperous and impactful future.

Laurie Kendall is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Pacific Northwest chapter. Contact her at 503-598-0620 or at lkendall@abcpnw.org.

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The Pacific Northwest chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors recently held its annual Construction Industry Summit at the Oregon Convention Center. Contractors and industry professionals of various sizes involved in many trades and market niches came together to discuss the state of the industry, learn about important topics and look inside the crystal ball for insights into our industry’s future. What we heard was encouraging.

Experts in the design and real estate community spoke optimistically about the road ahead. New projects continue to appear on the horizon, investors are opening their wallets again, and the pipeline continues to fill up. These forward-looking indicators are important. While many economic data points are providing us with mixed messages, I always take optimism (or pessimism) from design professionals as the best indicator.

We also heard a lot from contractors looking to reinvest in things like training and continuing education, and ways to take themselves and their employees to the next level. Not unlike how investment by owners and real estate investors froze for a few years, many contractors had to focus their spending on their most basic and immediate needs. Contractors scaled back and focused on survival. Today they are again asking for opportunities to invest in the tools that will carry them forward.

Contractors also expressed a lot of support for new workforce development efforts that our organization is undertaking. From $3,500 in scholarships that were presented to four high school seniors who plan to pursue careers in construction and design disciplines, to new initiatives that create exciting partnerships with local high schools, there is renewed passion to once again fill our industry’s need with a pipeline of future leaders.

What does this all mean? It means that the industry should expect more opportunity in the coming months and year. And those opportunities will be multi-pronged. They mean a continued strengthening within the construction industry, as well more robust options and offerings for professionals looking to grow and better themselves. Also, these opportunities should result in making the industry more engaged with our future workforce.

As one attendee at the summit said to me at the awards dinner honoring top projects, “It feels good to see all the project submissions. Not only were they great projects, but it is nice to see contractors engaging and investing again.”

I take that as a light at the end of the tunnel – and it is getting brighter.

Laurie Kendall is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Pacific Northwest chapter. Contact her at 503-598-0620 or at lkendall@abcpnw.org.

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Oregon’s economy and construction contractors could use some couples therapy. I hate to be dramatic because the relationship is getting a lot better. But let’s face it: There are some serious trust issues.

It’s been well documented that the relationship between the economy and the construction industry was doing well through August 2007. According to the Oregon Employment Department, construction employment peaked at 105,400 that month.

Then things went south – fast.

By June 2010, construction employment hit its lowest level since 1995, bottoming out at 67,200 seasonally adjusted jobs. Nearly four out of 10 people in the industry were out of work. Ouch.

From there, the construction sector bounced along, expanding slightly and contracting – climbing above 70,000 jobs only once prior to January 2013.

That’s when it looked like the relationship might be back on track. Things seemed to warm back up as the industry added jobs in each of the next five months. Both sides were starting to feel good about where things were heading.

Then, bam! The industry shed jobs again in both June and July.

August through November saw more gains, but December brought additional losses. The economy turned a cold shoulder and construction shed four hundred jobs again.

“Two steps forward then one step back” became the local theme of 2013.

National indicators painted a similar picture. Despite job growth in most of 2013, national construction employment decreased by 16,000 jobs in December, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Nonresidential construction accounted for 14,100 of those losses.

With all the mixed messages coming from the unstable employment numbers, is there any wonder that construction feels insecure?

What gives?

Next month, the Associated Builders and Contractors will release its Construction Backlog Indicator (CBI) for the fourth quarter of 2013. CBI is a forward-looking national economic indicator that reflects the amount of work that will be performed by commercial and industrial contractors in the months ahead. The report for the third quarter of 2013 included some interesting insights and possible reasons we aren’t moving forward as quickly as we hoped.

“For the past year, businesses and consumers grappled with higher tax rates, rising interest rates, a federal shutdown, and the uncertainties associated with health care reform, sequestration and debt default,” stated Anirban Basu, chief economist for ABC. “In October, the International Monetary Fund downgraded the 2013 U.S. growth forecast from 1.7 percent to 1.6 percent.

“As if headwinds emerging from the federal government were not enough, the uncertain resolution of Detroit’s bankruptcy has induced more cautious behavior among certain large and similarly situated American cities, which continues to impact the outlook for U.S. infrastructure investment.”

That’s a lot of issues to work through.

Yet we all remain optimistic that the relationship is on the mend. Earlier this month, Basu looked at the situation this way: “It is discouraging to observe losses in momentum in both the broader economy and in nonresidential construction; however, construction-specific and economy-wide employment data are likely to improve in the months ahead.

“Even slow growth leads to construction opportunities,” Basu noted. “Ongoing recovery steadily produces lower vacancy rates, higher rents and more comfortable lenders. However, growth also results in higher interest rates, and ABC believes this factor will begin to serve as a more meaningful speed governor in late 2014 or in 2015.”

What are we to do to make this relationship work? We have to stay together. It’s not like divorce is an option. Therapy is all we have.

Laurie Kendall is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Pacific Northwest chapter. Contact her at 503-598-0620 or at lkendall@abcpnw.org.

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I am a list person. I don’t mean that I just casually sit down and make a “to do” list each day. No, if you’ve ever stepped foot in my office, you have seen two giant white boards filled with goals, dates, things to get done, and people I need to go meet with.

Obsessive-compulsive? Maybe. But as Zig Ziglar said, “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”

So celebrating a new year and establishing resolutions is something that gets me pretty excited. The opportunity to set new goals for membership, build an exciting calendar of events to benefit our industry, and strengthen the ability of our organization to serve members are definitely filling my white boards quickly.

But this column isn’t about me and my resolutions. It’s about encouraging you to set your own – for you personally, for your business, and for the betterment of our industry. I’m not suggesting that everyone go out and get giant white boards. What I am suggesting is that you take some time this week and set your own goals and resolutions for the year.

With the economy slowly recovering, 2014 looks to be the year for all in the construction industry to think boldly and aspire to accomplish some big things.

In case you’re having trouble – or even if you are not – here are three resolutions for business owners and professionals in the construction industry to consider for 2014:

• Make your own list of goals. What do you want to accomplish this year professionally and in business? What are the steps to get there and how are you going to measure your success? I often find that it is easy to set a goal; however, if you don’t assign a metric, you can never state with certainty that you have accomplished it.

• Invest in professional development. Whether it is a class or conference for yourself or investing in key employees, resolve to help yourself and your team learn new skills that can improve profitability, strengthen leadership or enable you to enter new markets.

• Build for the next generation. If your business isn’t already suffering a shortage of skilled workers, you can be sure that it will in the future. With baby boomers retiring and many workers having left construction during the Great Recession, there is rebuilding to be done in our industry. Whether through apprenticeship, school-to-work programs or other means, embrace the future workforce needs of our industry.

So, if you have not already done so, make your list. Set your goals for 2014. Make a couple of resolutions. And track your progress. Make sure you are following through. At the end of the year, you, your employees and hopefully the whole industry will be better off for it.

Laurie Kendall is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors‘ Pacific Northwest chapter. Contact her at 503-598-0620 or at lkendall@abcpnw.org.

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Mark Twain popularized the saying that “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” For people in the construction industry, the statistics don’t lie and the past is well-documented.

Construction employment in Oregon hit an all-time high with 105,400 workers in August 2007. And then it dropped … like a rock.

According to data from the Oregon Employment Department, the industry shed over 38,100 jobs between August 2007 and December 2010, falling to less than two-thirds of its pre-recession employment level.

In 2007, construction made up over 6 percent of Oregon’s total workforce. But in 2010 that fell to barely 4 percent – making it the industry hardest hit by the recession.

While many contractors began to grab more work in 2011 and 2012, a proportionate number of new jobs didn’t follow. Efficiency, longer hours and a heavy load fell on owners and managers as they tried to guess what the future held. Employment levels within the industry bounced along the bottom for nearly four years – adding a few hundred jobs one month only to lose them a few months later.

But we seemed to have turned the corner in 2013. The two-steps-forward-followed-by-two-steps-backward types of monthly jobs reports are fading. The Oregon Employment Department’s October job numbers show that employment in the construction industry has been on a fairly steady march forward over the past year.

Since October 2012, over 6,500 jobs have been added in the construction sector – an increase of nearly 10 percent year over year. Our industry has scratched and clawed its way back to being near 75 percent of our peak.

The industry is growing again. In fact, as the numbers above illustrate, it is growing pretty fast – particularly among specialty contractors who the Employment Department says have added over 3,600 jobs this year.

Yet our industry is on a collision course with a new reality.

Even though there are still about 29,000 fewer workers today than the industry had at its peak, contractors are beginning to face challenges identifying a sufficient supply of skilled workers.

The industry is not attracting new workers fast enough to keep up with demand. It is a challenge that is certain to grow in the years ahead.

By 2020, the “millennial” generation will comprise over 50 percent of America’s workforce. But the construction industry has a workforce and career development track built around a baby boomer mindset – an ever-shrinking segment of our workforce, particularly in construction. Recruitment and training models are going to need to change, or our industry will never truly be able to attract and retain the best and brightest that we need.

The employment statistics reflect the growing optimism and encouraging tone among contractors and suppliers – but there are still challenges ahead. Our struggles to adapt and meet new demands for a skilled workforce – and ultimately modernizing our training models to fit new generations of workers – are not going to go away. Stay tuned.

Laurie Kendall is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors‘ Pacific Northwest chapter. Contact her at 503-598-0620 or at lkendall@abcpnw.org.

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