One of the things I love about my work is that I get to work with so many different and interesting people and businesses. One company I’ve worked with for the last year is V. Dolan Trucking. These folks haul construction materials to jobsites in several types of equipment, such as super-dumps, transfers, 10-wheelers and bottom dumps. All of which I can now proudly identify and happily point out to my poor husband every chance I get.

Like the remodeling industry, in the trucking industry, it is primarily the field employees that differentiate one company from another. The efforts and decisions they make every day help determine if a company has success. But, like everyone in the construction industry, Dolan Trucking faces a shortage of qualified employees. Last summer, while working on job descriptions, they came up with a very interesting way to attack this problem.

They generated a list of everything they wanted the perfect driver to do and know. This included knowing how to drive each type of truck and the willingness to drive each one. This was important, because when some drivers couldn’t or wouldn’t operate certain types of trucks, it limited the company’s ability to meet their clients’ needs without subcontracting the work. (It’s like one of your carpenters knowing how to drywall but is unwilling to do it, so you have to sub it out.)

The list also included:

• Daily upkeep of trucks. As a remodeler, think of keeping tools and equipment clean, maintained and well organized.
• Ability to deliver different types of material. Think of someone able to do some electrical, plumbing, painting, drywall and finish carpentry.
• Willingness to work evenings and weekends when needed.
• Customer service, attitude, courtesy and respect issues.
• Paperwork compliance.

In the final document, 56 items defined the perfect driver. To this list, the company added three more items that reward long-term employment. They also added two “discretionary” points, which allowed them to acknowledge extra efforts.
After several labor lawyers reviewed the program, the company evaluated the driver’s, and then used a wage scale tied to the system to set an employee’s wages for the year.

If you used this type of system in your remodeling company it could:

• Provide clarity to employees on what the company needs for success.
• Provide clarity on what is expected of employees on the job.
• Compensate employees, not for how long they have been with the company, but for the skills and attitude they bring to the job.