Extreme Makeover - Company Edition

I feel the need to make a big investment to make the company successful.

It seems currently that any expense is questioned severely. The majority owner goes to the secondary owner who then asks me about the expense. This usually ends up with the majority owner being huffy with me for awhile. I need a more sustainable decision making process.

I want to grow the company. Of that, I am pretty definite. One thing that holds me back is the desire to make sure that we have the necessary processes and procedures in place before growing to make sure that we can handle the growth. I want a system that allows me to bring on new employees and train them in a very short time to be productive team members. In short, I want to minimize the training curve. In my mind, this means developing databases and other software and purchasing equipment that simplifies and standardizes our work procedures.
Key areas for improvement/standardization include:

Cadd - AutoCad is a very complicated program and my drawings come from varied sources. I need a professional to set up a standard program and train my people to use this program efficiently.

Hours - We need a database to track hours spent on various projects. This will be helpful for bidding new jobs as well as preventing missed billing. The program must be easy to use to prevent additional, non-billable work. I may be able to use an existing program but I think it may be simpler to develope one that exactly fits my desires.

Data Collection - I have already started buying equipment to allow my field personnel to collect data in an electronic format that I can import. I need to keep looking at this and also look at custom database programs to import the data into.

Repeated Reporting - The majority of our reports (and billing) are routine reports. I need a way to standardize and document this process such that I could have a secretary do the majority of the reporting with the PM only double-checking and making recommendations.

What I think I need to do is develope a mind map with these and any other areas that need development. I need to estimate costs for each item and present the data at the next corporate board meeting. The board should vote on and approve the necessary expenditures to make this makeover a reality. Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen.

Dependable Employees - An Update

The Story - The tech failed to show up because his blood pressure went through the roof and, therefore, he called a relative to take him to the hospital. This was backed up with doctor's notes. He showed a blood pressure of 180/130. Everything seemed legit. The employee stated that he had been skimping on his blood pressure medicine because he was not covered under insurance and it was too expensive.

What we did - we informed the employee that he was required to take his blood pressure medicine if needed to keep his blood pressure under control. He was told that we could not incur the liability associated with him driving our vehicles in an unsafe health condition.

What happened - The employee returned to work and worked the entire week with no problems. However, on Friday, again the employee failed to show up after leaving our lab (about 5 minutes from the office). After many unanswered calls, the employee called the supervisor to say that he was in the hospital for blood pressure again. Later info indicated that he had blacked out and ran the company truck into someone's yard before being taken to the hospital. He also informed the supervisor that his son had accidentally taken the wrong card (the company card) from his wallet and used it. The statements show charges similar to previously reported unauthorized charges.

What we did this time - We scheduled an appointment for the employee to see our occupational doctor - something we would have been doing soon anyway. The occupational doctor refused to let the employee return to work until seeing results from a cardiologist. Based on this information, it appears unlikely that the employee will be able to continue working outside in the heat of summer.

After consulting with an employment lawyer, we wrote the employee a letter. The letter stated that we were sorry for his health problems and hope he gets better. It went on to say that he will go on unpaid leave after exhausting his paid leave and until our occupational doctor clears him to work. The letter also referenced the unauthorized credit charges and stated that they would have to be dealt with before he could return to the staff.

In essence, the employee is gone. I can not imagine keeping him on with a complete lack of trust. I will pay for my occupational doctor to reexamine him following the cardiologist exam but I don't think he will be released for work. In that case, he will be let go for medical reasons. Otherwise, he will be let go for repeated personal use of company credit.

In summary, I feel that I am forced to discharge an employee who was doing a good job for the company. He has become a liability due to medical and credit problems and those tend to outweigh the benefit of his good work. C'est la vie.

Potential lessons learned - The thinking now is that we will hire only degreed people for the field position. If they are worthwhile, they will have the opportunity to advance to an office position. I'm not sure this will work but it seems likely that we will at least narrow the field to people who care about their future.

Dependable Employees

One thing that I consider mucho importanto is being able to give a task to an employee and not worrying about whether or not it was completed. Quality is a second degree in this consideration. The first degree is simply whether or not I can depend on the employee to complete the task.

Dependability is on my mind due to a recent incident involving a field tech. The field tech does good work. He seems conscientious in his work, relatively efficient, and usually dependable.

The field tech has been with me for about five months. In that time, I have had only(?) two problems with the employee. In each instance, the employee failed to show up where he was expected and complete the tasks had been directed to complete. The first instance was a situation where the employee was directed to call his supervisor the following morning to receive instructions regarding the days tasks. The employee failed to call and the supervisor could not reach the employee until later in the evening. The employee admitted that he had gotten drunk and hanging out with a woman. Further details revealed that the woman had reportedly used his company credit card. But that's another issue.

The second instance was this past Friday. The field tech called his supervisor from the lab. The supervisor instructed the tech to come to the office. The tech asked permission to stop by the bank on his way into the office and the supervisor agreed. This conversation occurred around noon. At 4 p.m. the supervisor remembered that the tech was supposed to have arrived hours earlier. Calls to the tech went unanswered and the tech could not be located. The Tech's wife also was unaware of his whereabouts.

Finally, the tech left a message for his supervisor stating that he was bringing the company vehicle back. The cause of the absence is, as of yet, unknown.

Several interesting emotions/thoughts have transpired as a result of this repeated lack of dependability. First, in my mind, is that the tech's supervisor is questioning whether or not we are too nice/lenient on employees. I hate the idea that we should be more stringent. It feels like losing my humanity. My employees are humans and I try to treat them with respect. I don't want to treat an employee as less than human. If they don't deserve my respect, they should be gone.

The question is how long is too long or how many chances should I give an employee. Should I fire them at the first sign of a problem? If that's the case, would the Supervisor have survived beyond the first forgotten sample? Do I need to differentiate between character flaws and training? Of course, judging character is what the hiring process is all about. I want people of high moral character. The rest should be taken care of by training. Is that reasonable?

Monday will be an interesting learning experience for me and the supervisor. Whether or not it will be a learning experience for the company remains to be seen but I think it has to be. What can we learn that will help us to hire the right person the next time. Is there such a thing as the right person?

I'll try to provide a follow-up with the outcome.

History

I moved to Atlanta to attend college at Georgia Tech as a Civil Engineering student. All I knew was that I liked being outside and I liked math. Civil engineering seemed the perfect field.

I was hired as a co-op student by UCG. I did field work consisting mainly of directing drill crews and classifying soil samples. I enjoyed it but I was never overly happy with the bosses. They did not seem to care if I was doing a good job or not. I remember my supervisor thanking me one time in the four years I worked there. That was because I didn't interrupt his softball game with a vehicle problem. To put it shortly, I felt underappreciated.

I left UCG and started at AEM. AEM was started by the owner of a drilling company that wanted to start a consulting firm. At the time I started, AEM had a project manager who was also the minority owner (15%), a secretary (the PM's wife), and a marketing guy. The drilling firm owner held 85% of the company stock but did not contribute to the work of the firm.

I began as a field technician. I collected samples (mainly at landfills and underground storage tank sites). After a brief time, I began writing the reports for the sampling jobs also. I should mention that I was still taking classes during most of this time.

I graduated college and began my full-time career with AEM. I don't remember all of the events that have taken place but over the years my responsibilities grew. I recieved ownership (5%). Around 2003 I made a concious decision to start running the company. It was easy to make the move since no one was really running the company and no one seemed to want the responsibility. The majority owner seemed only interested in seeing increased profit each year and the PM seemed happy to keep things on par. I went back and forth from being content that we were providing a salary for the current employees (a field tech and an additional project mananger) to wanting to make the company grow. I thought and heard all the quaint cliches such as "grow or die" and "grow smart". I was and am still not sure of the correct direction.

Introduction

I want to build a company that will stand the test of time - a sustainable company. I want a company that's around when my grandchildren or my coworker's grandchildren need jobs.

This blog is all about my path to building this vision - my successes and my failures. What works and what doesn't work? Where is the value that leads me to the goal? How do I start? These are the questions I want to work out.