“One of our guiding principles is that if you come forward with a problem, you have to come forward with a solution as well,” says Kesterke, who has been elected to the panel each term since its inception. “It works out well because people are not so apt to just complain. We’ve been able to come forward to management in a professional manner with solutions that have resulted in improvements to our parking lots to the creation of the employee-of-the-month program to getting a larger safety program started.”
Getting the employees more involved in their own welfare has been a key component of Marion’s master plan. “The true mark of a supervisor or a leader is how well they share their knowledge with their people to make them successful,” Marion says. “Just as a truck driver needs ownership of the load he is going to place at a contractor’s site, the employees need to take ownership of HR as well, and the supervisors need to get involved, because as long as you are in a growth posture, you need to figure out how to get the job done through your people.”
Since Marion’s arrival, the turnover rate at Lumberplus has been reduced by half to 10 percent, respectable for any industry, and morale is at all-time highs, says Beckman. “I don’t think we have completely mastered it yet, but we have cut turnover down to where we can focus on what we need from a strategic standpoint [as opposed to blindly filling vacancies],” he says. “It has taken us two years of hard work to get here, but we’re really starting to feel that we’re hitting on all cylinders for a change. Whether it is in this industry or another, if you can feel that way about your business, you must be doing something right.”
Bolstered by the high spirits and even higher confidence in their crew, the Beckmans are getting ready to bring on a third location, for truss manufacturing, as the company looks toward the $75 million and $100 million milestones. Luckily, Marion isn’t going anywhere. “I’ve had the big HR job in the corporate ivory tower behind the mahogany desk, and I was bored,” he says, adding that the family-owned and -operated atmosphere of Lumberplus has put the retention hooks in him. “In HR you have to have your hand on the pulse of your firm, and the only way you can do that is to be among your people.”
For Lumberplus, it’s been a long time coming, but the company has finally realized the personnel professionalism and esprit de corps that will bring them additional growth, no longer shooting from the hip, just shooting for the future.
Vital Statistics Company:
Lumberplus
Year founded: 1907
Headquarters: Crown Point, Ind.
Number of locations: 2
