Think Long-Term
“As I talk to my friends, we all say that we should have spent more money on training and management,” says Andersen of Builders. “We didn’t formalize what we were doing.”
Thus, the first step in building a long-term personnel development program is committing to one. That certainly includes allocating part of the budget for training and development. But it also entails figuring out how you’ll replace the team you have now.
“Our management team is tasked with finding their replacements,” Barreto of GBS says. “It’s not that they are working on it every day, but it is part of their annual review and something they need to work on.”
Experts also recommend you spend time identifying the skills your company will need to prosper long after you’ve gone. Recruiters say the 21st-century CEO their retail clients covet is more of a mentor than a micromanager, with well-honed communication abilities and a basic appreciation for how finance and technology enhance sales, operations, and marketing. They also are adept at dealing with today’s younger employees, who require a more flexible management style.
“People skills, people skills, people skills,” is what Kelly Fox says Lumber Traders in Port Angeles, Wash., wanted most from its next CEO, a job he assumed last September after spending 12 years as a manager with Dunn Lumber and, before that, his family’s lumberyard. But today’s CEO “must also have a vision,” says Scott Spanbauer of BP Sales Staffing in Grand Rapids, Mich., “and be able to develop a sales strategy on a sophisticated level.”
Those sales skills come into play for more than just moving 2x4s. Experts say it’s incumbent on today’s leaders to interest young people in an LBM career. “There’s nobody from MIT fighting to get into the roofing business,” says RSG’s Willis.
“You have to have human assets to move forward,” Barreto says, “and, if you don’t have the best people, you are moving backwards. Not only did this industry go through a prolonged downturn, it was hard to hire people into that industry. As an independently owned company, we have to compete. We are equal in most ways, and we have to compete with our people and the expertise we offer to our customers.
“Everybody has the same trucks and buildings,” he adds. “Why wouldn’t you develop the people?”
