Laboring Short?

March 6, 2006

   Get a crowd of tradespeople around from various sectors – contractors, fabrication shops, installers and others – and it’s a topic that always arises. Somebody will decry the lack of skilled workers, and that it’s impossible to hire anyone who knows a bullnose from bull … well, you get the idea.
   The truth is that plenty of excellent people are working in the stone trade. If we didn’t have them, the whole industry would collapse from too many orders unfulfilled and inferior products being offered at outrageous prices, like a snooty five-star steakhouse on the edge of going off the cliff.
   The labor problem in stone isn’t that there are too few people. Take a good look; you’ll find them spread far too thin. Sorting out this dilemma is a process that may get ugly and won’t be cheap, although you may be well on the way to your own solution.
   We’re not talking about some organized-labor unrest, although there’s a union element to it. Don’t blame those card-carrying workers out there, though; they’re caught up in the same whirlwind as a small-town mom-and-pop shop when it comes to stone’s universal appeal.
   Some of the feeling that there aren’t enough qualified stoneworkers comes from big-ticket projects where, depending on the geographical location or the nature of the job, the work goes to union crews. Put enough of this work in areas like New York, Washington or Las Vegas, and the union labor pool is going to run thin for any number of trades. It could be a shortage of millwrights or plumbers or, well, stonemasons.
   The International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) isn’t a labor organization that sits by idly while tallying the membership dues. I’ve seen plenty of unions in my career as a business journalist, and I can say that the BAC is one of the most-aggressive in finding and training qualified members.
   Last year, I spoke to BAC union and contracting executives, offering some perspective on what’s happening in stone today. I found well-informed people keenly aware of the market. They know that there are plenty of jobs out there, and they need members to fill them.
   Dive into the meat-and-potatoes work you see in Stone Business, though, and you’ll find the majority of the jobs aren’t union, whether it’s the one-on-one work with individual homeowners or filling the needs of the area big-box stores. And, you’ll still find the same complaints about not enough people to get all the fabrication and installation jobs done all over the country.
   As with union jobs, the qualified labor force may be spread too thin. And, if we want to find the underlying factor for the problem, it’s an easy process. Just get up, walk out to your stoneyard, and start pointing fingers at all those slabs out there, the customers picking their favorites – and the person making the deposits of checks at the bank.
   Stone is immensely popular, in a way that long-time shop owners could’ve only dreamed about in the past. It’s moved from a high-end luxury to a throw-in when selling a new housie or condominium, from a status symbol to the new look at the local fast-food franchise. Rent a room at a mid-level hotel chain, and among the amenities will be those same individually wrapped plastic cups, now sitting on a gleaming granite bathroom countertop.
   As more work comes in the shops, more people are needed to get the work done. One-shift operations turn into staggered-shift factories that come close to round-the-clock workflows. Experienced hands get tougher to find to keep the shop running.
   And, in the American spirit of free enterprise, more of the long-time workers find that a job just isn’t enough. They strike out on their own, opening new shops and trading salaries for a piece of profits. More shops dilute the labor pool even further, even as a growing crowd of customers demand lower prices and faster turnaround times between orders installations.
   This is where the answers should come in. Some of them are literally stone-cold ugly. Some are costly. Most will involve some hard choices.
   The easiest solution relates to that earlier quip about the big-time steakhouse hitting the skids. You can cut corners, lower overall job quality and let customers just take what you decide to give them. You’ll also be heading for an eventual Chapter 7, and it’s not really an option (although it happens often enough).
   Then there’s the CNC and other ways to automate your shop. It’s a large investment, but it allows you to maintain quality and redirect your shop workforce.
   You also may also need to weed out marginal workers to make things more efficient, which always sounds great in theory but not quite as easy when a guy’s standing in your office when you make it his final Friday afternoon. To paraphrase the philosophy of one notable American industry, it’s not personal, it’s business – but it’s still not easy.
   Just how you’re doing business might need a hard look. Even with the cutthroat pricing out there, you may not be charging enough, and marginal customers and jobs may need to be weeded out as well. Quality and service come at a price; watching a customer walk away hurts, but it’s better for your health than bleeding red ink and flogging your employees with too much work and not enough time.
   Finally, consider your employees’ point-of-view. Good stone work isn’t just a job; it’s a craft. Good stoneworkers are made in your shop, and you need to make sure they get the training and guidance to improve their craft, and not just crank out more countertops in a week. That’s going to take time and money.
   You also need to keep them happy, or at least glad that they’re working for you. If you haven’t done so already, you may need to think about incentives, or profit-sharing, or a pay schedule that really rewards good work and keeps them loyal. You also may need to make sure of good benefits, which often mean a lot more than a raise.
   The abor situation in stone today could use more help industry-wide, such as multi-shop and association-member health-insurance and benefit plans. These won’t be easy to put together, but the rewards would be tremendous.
   Stone’s labor problem is that we’re successful and still growing. It’s not that we need to work harder; we need to work better and make the job more than a day’s pay.