Fabricator Focus: CogswellStone, Palmyra, Va.

Rather than throwing up his hands or throwing in the towel, he took every process in the shop and broke it into steps and then tiers of steps – writing manuals and taking pictures in the process. Eventually, the entire set of materials was assembled into a DVD.

“We determined what someone who’s been with us three months should know,” Cogswell explains. “We could say, ‘We want you to be able to run this machine and complete these tasks, and before you graduate to the next pay level or move up a position, you have to be fully competent in all these levels.’”

Click photo to enlargeFor instance, a machine operator would have to demonstrate everything from how to turn the power on and off to how to grease and maintain it. And the employee would have to successfully demonstrate its use on a piece of stone.

The Cogswells even took on the job of teaching their new employees basic math skills, such as geometric shapes and measurements.

“We had some who didn’t know what 5/8ths was on a ruler,” he says. “These people weren’t college-educated; some weren’t high-school educated, but we tried to give them the tools to enable them to be successful in what they do for us.

“And, all of a sudden, it started to click for us,” Cogswell adds. “We started to see less and less of the horror stories where people mis-cut $1,000 pieces of stone.”

The program also created unexpected side benefits, he says. It gave the couple something to talk about when interviewing potential employees and, Cogswell believes, ultimately led the company to get better applicants because they could see a clear path to bigger paychecks and more responsibility.

It’s also led people to look on their jobs as careers. At the moment, Cogswell says no one has worked for the business less than four years. And, he says that’s a benefit when working with the high-end clients CogswellStone aims to serve.

“The people who are building these homes need to have some stability in who they have on their worksites,” he says. “They see the same installers, and the same general manager. If they first came in two year ago, they know that when they call Rachel in the showroom, she’s still here. Some of these projects are that long in the making, and there’s a level of comfort for them.”

Because of the longevity of the employees, Cogswell says the shop has gotten away from its training program as of late. With the sagging economy, the number of people on the payroll dropped from a high of 18 down to the current 10, plus the Cogswells.

“But, when we do start bringing in new people, we’ll head back and start using our training program again,” he says.