From the Ground Up: Building a Mission-Driven Culture in Blue Collar Industries

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At some level, are we admitting that we look at hourly workers as lesser than compared to our salaried employees? What if we got rid of that mindset and took a total health approach to our entire workforce and especially our hourly employees? What impact would that make? I know a lot of folks will hear these questions and think that making that pivot is too expensive and not feasible given the churn that typically occurs at the hourly employee level. Got a news flash for you, when instance turnover can cost up to 250% of annual salary in replacement costs, can organizations and e leaders afford to maintain the status quo? These are all critical questions that we're going to look at today. And it's a good thing [00:01:00] that we have our featured guest, Samantha Coker, joining us to help answer those questions.

So what's Samantha's story? She's a leader in human resources management with over 17 years of experience in the construction field services and professional services sectors. She has a passion for delivering values and results to business, providing opportunities and resources for employees to live a better life and leading a team of accomplished and talented HR professionals. to joining Apache Industrial Holdings as the Chief Human Resources Officer, Samantha held senior HR leadership roles within both domestic and international responsibilities. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from LSU. G a u x tigers, I think. And a master's degree in psychology from Southeastern Louisiana university.

Samantha, welcome to the show.

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[00:01:51] Dr. Jim: Yeah, I think I'm looking forward to this conversation on a lot of different levels and particularly the fact that we are going to be taking a [00:02:00] lens that is decidedly. Focused on the hourly employee in this conversation, because I think that's a conversation that doesn't happen too often, so I'm looking forward to digging into that.

So before we actually drive into that part of the conversation, there's only so much about your background that I can get out in three sentences, so I think it's important for you to connect with the listeners, some of the key moments in your career that you feel are going to inform the conversation that we're going to have.

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So getting our folks out to work in the field safely and quickly, and then [00:03:00] keeping them. Happy and healthy and safe once they get there was that was the overall mission. And I learned so much along the way of, how to do that in the right way, how to engage employees in the right way, how to support leadership and in the right way.

So you have a thriving workforce. So whether that was domestically here in the US or, figuring out how to do that sending folks overseas, there were many challenges along the way, but the mission remained the same the whole time. And so as I grew into leadership roles in my career finding team members that, that were really passionate about delivering that.

Became my mission because that's how we serve the company and that's how we ultimately serve our employees that are out, sometimes in remote or dangerous job sites doing work to make the company successful. So that's always been the mission. And now I'm fortunate to have the leadership position that I do.

With a [: 00:04:00

So we really need to go all out and show that it's a fantastic career. And it's a great way to grow and provide for your family and have a really long, successful life.

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And that's one of the missions that that drew you into your current role. The thing that I'm wondering about is when we think about field employees, [00:05:00] we can often think about their life circumstances, almost in survival mode. So how did your psychology background help you bridge the gap and meet some of those?

Basic needs from an employee perspective that helped you move the needle on some of those higher value things like mission and service and all of those sort of things.

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So it's about connecting with each employee on an individual basis and helping them to understand that what they do matters. And, we care that you show up to work in good condition and you go home [00:06:00] safely. So that you can live a good, healthy life so that you can provide for your family so that you can grow and develop and train to become whatever it is you may want to be in this industry.

Those opportunities are there. So understanding that. Regardless of position, we're all human and we all want to win and be part of the team and be part of the success was really fundamental for me.

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Oftentimes we've seen and heard of a lot of organizations that kind of have this perspective that hourly employees are merely cogs in the wheel. What is the origin that kind of had that worldview embedded in you and how that, that carried forward in the different roles that you've had.

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So I can remember on many occasions, at night or on a weekend when the doorbell would ring and it would be someone, asking my dad if he could help them go to work. And he would give him a, an address or a phone number to call and he'd say, I'll give you a chance, but you need to show up, you need to be able to pass a drug test and you need to work hard.

can really happen, if they, [: 00:08:00

And he also came up through the trades, same thing. He's now the CEO of a billion dollar company. Has an an MBA from Rice University, but he started as an apprentice in the field, so he understands. The value of a chance and, connecting the dots and really working hard and working toward a goal, but someone has to give you that opportunity.

So that's it for me is recognizing those examples and knowing that there are many more people like that out there, like my father, like my uncle, my brother. My current boss, that have made very successful careers in this business in the right way.

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[00:09:41] Samantha Coker: So great question. And I'll share a story about our current CEO that I think is pretty funny, but yes, he, he understands that the path. To success and construction because he has lived it. His belief in, HR and how valuable that is to an organization [00:10:00] took a little bit of time. So we started working together several years ago and we hit it off.

We had a good working relationship, but I distinctly remember a conversation one day where he said. What are you going to do with your career? Where do you want to go next? And I thought I like what I do. And I think I'm pretty, pretty good at HR. And he was like, I think there's something else like you, you can't possibly want to do this as your career.

And I thought why would you say that? And it occurred to me that his view of HR is antiquated Very, red tape policy driven. So I said to him, I was like, let's give me a chance. And I think we can change this because I view myself as a business person that happens to work in HR rather than an HR person working in the business.

bout red tape. Yes, you need [: 00:11:00

So that's been the journey. There Is being a business minded person Working in hr versus an hr person trying to fit into the business

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[00:11:51] Samantha Coker: We talk a lot about employee engagement As an hr profession, what does that mean? And how do you really do it engaged [00:12:00] employees are? Understand the mission engaged employees want to win they understand how they're Position their role what they do day in and day out Contributes to a winning project a winning team, you know a successful thriving business so to me that it's really fundamental and really basic but Having the understanding of you know what are we here to do if it's to deliver a project or delight a client or whatever?

It may be Helping each person understand how they fit into that picture Just really breed success. And then, oh, by the way, if along the way you're helping people to develop their skills and to grow as professionals grow as people even better, you're providing that environment. That people want to work in.

every level has been really [: 00:13:00

Is absolutely imperative, if someone feels like they don't have the right to speak up it really could be a matter of life and death if they don't feel like they're empowered to call out a safety sensitive situation or say something doesn't look right. So we go the extra mile, certainly here at Apache to make sure people know they matter.

And their voice matters and we want to hear from you. So those are two different perspectives on that.

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So tell me a little bit about how [00:14:00] you actually brought that to life at the manager level and made sure that your line managers and your frontline leaders are equipped and supported in a way that. Puts them in the best position to engage and retain their employees.

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So we partnered with a company called headversity. That puts resilience and focus and overall mental health training in the palm of the hands of our employees and also provides some tools to our supervisors to have really good conversations. To check in on our employees and say, okay, is this person's head in the game today?

s this are they in the right [: 00:15:00

So our employees, again have access to different tools and resources in the palm of their hand on their phone, their families can access it. And then from the supervisor perspective, we're saying, okay, we're seeing whatever trends are going on in the field or in the industry, here are some topics of discussion to get a conversation going with your teams out in the field of what's really going on, what's driving this, how we can look out for each other even better.

el of care and concern and a [: 00:16:00

[00:16:06] Dr. Jim: So it's interesting that you used a technology component to, to drive this forward. I think the area that I'm wondering about is when you're in a field environment, how much time do leaders actually have to. Mess around with an app and have those just in time or in the moment conversations, because I can understand what you're saying, how that would work in a corporate setting.

I'm not connecting how you actually manage that change management process and built that habit in a field environment. So tell us a little bit more about how that worked.

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that we can talk about. So we went ahead and put that in the hands of the supervisors, just like we would a regular, physically focused safety moment. So they had topics there that they could use as conversation starters, just as they would anything else. And then other training to say, here's some things to listen for or look out for if you hear this or see these behaviors.

So they had a little bit of an extra level of training as far as the employees, you're right. They shouldn't be, on their phones during the day, but they can. I've had multiple people tell me, Hey, I was really nervous about this activity. I was going to do or this meeting or something like that at the field level.

efore working hours and just [: 00:18:00

And at the same time, they can also share it with their family members. Kids going through things, teenagers those kinds of things. We've had multiple employees share that these things helped or simply having the conversation and knowing. Like it's okay for me to, raise my hand if I need something has been really beneficial.

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Wouldn't our resources be better served looking. Higher up in the organization or just being focused on optimizing our corporate environment. When you hear that, how do you respond, react? And what's been the impact that you've seen through these things that you've put into place?

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Construction is one of the highest Professions with incident rates of suicide, so that's going to the extreme. There's a lot of stuff that happens in someone's life before they get there. So our goal is to, set people up for success, peel away as much stress as possible. Teach people how to, tone down their own stressful situations themselves.

Absolutely, it's money well spent. It's time well spent in helping people to, again, peel away those levels of stress that don't need to be there. We have enough to deal with on a day to day basis. That we, we have to deal with. So if there's something you can do that helps you stay calm, stay present keep your head in the game it's invaluable.

e professional level, that's [: 00:20:00

[00:20:14] Dr. Jim: So how have you seen all of these different things that you've put into place show up in, in your organization? Bottom line issues. Like what have you seen from an employee turnover and retention perspective? What have you seen from maybe even a employer brand perspective? Tell us a little bit more about how that shows up from a business perspective, because I'm thinking about that CEO or COO who doesn't come from this world, who's hearing the argument that.

There should be this level of investment focused on the hourly staff and the field staff. And they're gonna be like why would I do that? So tell us a little bit more about, how this is actually showed up in terms of bottom line impact.

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So knowing that you have a company that's going to stand behind people, give them a voice and give them tools to make sure that they are absolutely as safe as they can be. Is invaluable to us. If we don't have the people to put on our jobs, then we don't have a business. So from a bottom line impact, that's You know far and away the most impactful side of things And like I shared earlier our customers want to know how we're doing things differently And this really is a game changer for us And something that we plan to continue doing, you know for the foreseeable future for sure

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[00:22:12] Samantha Coker: Oh that the time and money saved You know, for a rehire that we already know that's already in our system has gone through all the checks is massive. So it, yeah, that churn is greatly decreased and the stress on the system. Because again, the workforce is it's a challenging one in terms of availability.

There's study after study on that. So that's huge. The other thing is, we've we're rehiring people that we know to work for leaders that they know. So those teams come together so so much faster and hit the ground running. They already know our processes are procedures. And they're able to make an impact much faster, which ultimately, leads to greater success for us.

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If you're not giving people a reason to actually show up to work, maybe that should be the problem that you're obsessing about versus, having one of those, get off my lawn, the kids these days type conversations. So real good stuff. I appreciate you lending your perspective into this. I think one of the things that we're going to probably struggle with is how do you put this into action? Because what we're talking about, especially when we're talking about field and skilled trades and how you actually reallocate resources and set up the infrastructure, it's not.

ld people leaders be looking [: 00:24:00

[00:24:04] Samantha Coker: So a couple of things we've done that have, has been really valuable. First is leveraging your leaders that are out in the field. A lot of times we as HR professionals, we're a small, but mighty team. So we're not out there on the ground, On a day to day basis. So talking to your safety professionals and your project leaders that are really on the ground with the employees.

And understanding, what are the challenges, what are the struggles, and then translating that to, okay, what can we do about that, realistically, what resources do we already have, or what would we need to get to address these problems, or challenges, I should say. The other thing is, HR loves to do surveys, so if you're doing that, make sure you're doing something with it.

everything from benefits to [: 00:25:00

I'll give an example. Financial health is very important and that's an added stress to many people, especially these days with rising prices on everything. So we went to our 401k advisor and we said, Hey, can you do some education on everything from basic budgeting for people that may be new to the industry or new to the workplace all the way through, some more senior level things for people that aren't novices.

with your employees and give [: 00:26:00

And again we get those, thank you. This made a difference to my family messages, which. Is incredibly important to me in this seat

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[00:26:23] Samantha Coker: on linkedin. Samantha coker apache industrial Connect with me anytime

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one of the things that. That immediately come to mind is understanding that a lot of your hourly staff, whether they admit it or not, are probably in some level of survival mode.

a big chunk of your employee [: 00:27:00

How you view white collar work versus skilled trades and hourly work. And that fundamental mind shift will lead you to making different decisions in terms of how you're supporting your entire workforce. I think one of the things that stands out in this conversation is that you, were tuned in to What is going on at the front lines that is keeping the individuals out in the front lines from being their fully capable self and not just simply taking that input, you actually put it into action in terms of resources that were allocated.

the front lines. And that's [: 00:28:00

A lot of that ability to connect sits with you and how you show up and how you demonstrate that you care about what's going on in that individual's life. You can have all of the benefits and all of the talking points, but unless you, as a leader, Are showing up in a way that demonstrates your care for that entire person, regardless of where they are in the organization, you're going to have problems in moving the needle.

So I appreciate you hanging out with us and walking us through that process to help connect the dots. For those of you who have been listening to the conversation, we appreciate you hanging out. Make sure you leave us a review. Also join our community. You can find that at www engage rocket.

R impact, where you can find [: 00:29:00