Page 4 - CMA PROfiles Spring 2019

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

All of this sounds great, but there is a proverbial
800-pound gorilla in the room…

related area on the forum to share purchase their own insurance. I feel the
programs around the country for overall quality of our employees is much
up-and-coming cabinet makers as better than just a year ago! The shop
well as educational opportunities for culture is stronger, and everyone appears
business owners. We would also like to be happy. Next, we will work on health
The first quarter of 2019 is behind us, and to include ideas to help employers insurance, which is a crucial benefit! I
I hope you have been busy and will be find local programs and explain how have personal experience with this. In late
blessed with even more work to come. to get more involved. January, I made a sudden trip to Tampa to
We have been seeing a steady ramping-up All of this sounds great, but there is a visit my baby brother in the ICU. He had
trend, and with this comes the challenge proverbial 800-pound gorilla in the room: always worked for small employers that
of finding employees to help you acquire We as an industry have historically not didn’t offer health insurance. He is ath-
and deliver more business. been willing or able to pay our employees letic and in shape but had bad genetics in

My shop has used the traditional avenues enough money and/or benefits to keep the form of diabetes. I stood there as he
of placing “help wanted” ads through the employee pipeline full. We also have and the doctor explained that he was in
industry websites and also sites such as an image issue: Parents and young people both kidney and heart failure with a prog-
indeed.com. We have had some success who may want to enter the industry often nosis of weeks to maybe a year to live. I
with this, but the overall majority of appli- have Geppetto’s workshop from Pinocchio have to think that today’s outcome might
cants were just okay, and some were not in mind instead of the high-tech, modern, have been different if he had health in-
a good fit at all. Our process of hiring re- and automated manufacturing business surance to help him manage his condition
quires an initial phone interview followed that truly represents our industry. throughout his life. Perhaps this could
by an in-person interview, which also This brings me back to my own shop’s have been prevented with the right care.
includes a test and shop tour. We check strategic changes. We began offering pay Because of this personal impact, I want to
references and the applicant’s driving rates that were 30 percent higher than do my best to figure out how to provide
record. We encourage the applicant to what we had offered previously. As an this type of benefit for my employees.
take a few moments to talk with employ- example, the previous range of $15-$25 Fellow CMA members, I know we can all
ees, too. Once the applicant’s application, per hour is now $21-$35 per hour. How do this. Taghkanic Woodworking is not
test and interview are reviewed, we then could we offer such a large increase? We a big company; on average we employ
make the decision to hire or pass. also raised our prices in September by 30 3-7 people full-time. If you think you have
Our successes started to appear late last percent. Of course, at first this was tough to be one of the bigger shops to be able
summer. We’d had a lackluster year and for our customers to accept, but now I to afford this, you need to think outside
made some awful hires; totally frustrated, wonder why I waited so long. the box. There may even be payroll tax
I made some changes. I started with Because of these changes, we now have savings and Workman’s Comp savings if
writing a better ad. I also included the two new hires. Both were hired away you offer slightly less $/hour so you can
pay range and what we currently offer from other cabinet shops, and both said cover health insurance premiums (or part
for benefits. their pay rate and length of commute of them).
During a recent CMA board meeting, (more than an hour) were their biggest I hope you’ll give this some serious
we discussed membership benefits and reasons for leaving the other company. consideration.
what we were going to offer members One person previously had health insur-
this year to help ease the labor shortage. ance as a benefit, yet we were able to
One suggestion was to add an education- offset that with higher pay so they could

2 PROFILES SPRING 2019