Construction Informer

Independent contractor status keeps surfacing. Several states have been adding legislation aimed at discovering workers who are misclassified. Typically the legislation creates a process that helps the worker to first of all determine if in fact they are independent contractors under the law, and then, if not, they supply processes whereby the employee can petition the government to make a determination without fear of retaliation.

There is a bill pending in Congress, H.R. 5804, that would provide a safe harbor for taxpayers (read employers and others who hire people to do things like work on construction sites, clean their houses and do their laundry) who have fulfilled a couple of requirements so that long standing independent contractor relationships could be validated and approved. By my reading of the bill there didn’t appear to be any undue requirements being placed on the employer or independent contractor. Later the Bill stipulates that any individual who performs services for a “taxpayer,” can request their status to be reviewed at any time within a year after a determination has been made.

We all know where this is going - it’s about making sure that taxes are being paid. There may be a side benefit in that it could help people who are working for someone and are misclassified as independents, when in fact they are employees. Unscrupulous people will always try to get something for nothing and this is one way it’s done. It may also be trying to ferret out illegal workers who are not citizens.

An organization by the name of Coalition for Independent Contractor Freedom points to these legislative efforts as ones that are trying to take away an individual’s right to be self employed, independent contractors. This organization bills itself as “A Voice for Independent Contractors,” and includes articles about how those independent contractors may become victims of government regulations and includes an opportunity to make a donation.

In the three legislative actions I’ve looked at the focus appeared to be helping people who may be misclassified as independent contractors to remedy the problem, not to unduly burden their ability to work as independent contractors. 

From my experience in construction there are far too many “independent contractors,” who are siphoning off valuable work from people, (even from other independent contractors who really fit the definition), who are in the business for the long haul - not just to make a quick buck while they wait for the next job to come along. These same nascent independents will be the first ones to go on the public dole or sue the people who hire them when the opportunity arises. 

I don’t like a lot of laws, but sometimes people just take too much advantage and laws are one way to keep the playing field level.

For some reason I was thinking about David the other night. David was a homeless person I hired once to work on lawn maintenance tasks. There wasn’t any special incentive for doing so - no government program that would match the wages - and I wasn’t paying him “under the table,” just to gather some kind of minor advantage. I had been in the downtown area and he approached me looking for some work.

I would pick him up each morning at the shelter he stayed at and he would travel with me to the various jobs and help out. He had an estranged wife and a kid, and he was trying to get things back together.

One day while we were eating lunch at a little diner some robbers pulled up and started unloading equipment from the trailer. I ran out and nabbed the handle of a mower that one of them was trying to load into the back of the station wagon. His accomplice was in the driver’s seat ready to pull away. The guy pulled a knife and in the seconds that followed I remember entering a zone where everything slowed down to a crawl. It was as if I had ample time to avoid any jab or slice. David showed up before the robber’s blade moved in my direction and he pulled a blade from a sheath inside his high-top boot.

The robber let go of the mower and scrambled into the back end of the now moving car, getting away with only the mower bag.

David worked with me for quite awhile after that and I asked him once if he wanted to manage a crew. But, he didn’t want any part of that, and that was cool.

As fall approached he said he needed to go to California and would check back with me when he got back in the area. That was the last time I saw him. So, I was wondering about where he was, how things were going, and if his life was working out like he wanted.

Then, today, I was reading about a program in Vancouver that was training street people to work in construction. Companies in the industry are involved along with an organization called the Building Opportunities with Business Inner City Society.

Life is full of opportunities, and they come from all economic backgrounds.

The modernization of career and technical education can be seen in a new alliance between the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and a company called Elluminate.

As more of the curriculum moves online the products Elluminate sells make those online sessions a reality. The Washington Online project brings online teaching and learning tools to approximately 450,000 students. Elluminate’s suite of products supports the online learning cycle from beginning to end. One of the key reasons for its products being selected had to do with being able to deliver over low bandwidth. The company also has products for web conferencing and training that businesses can take advantage of.

Washington has a very aggressive approach to raising the knowledge and skills of its citizens. Besides making basic skills education within reach of low income residents its workforce education department builds partnerships among colleges, companies, labor organizations and industry associations. This appears to be a wide ranging effort that ought to meet the needs of most people who want to better their skills and knowledge specifically for application in the real world workplace.

I perused the state’s professional-technical programs and found construction management, architectural engineering and drafting, CAD, civil engineering, construction engineering, cabinetmaking, carpentry, and even a “job skills for construction trades” program. And now, much of it may be even more accessible.

Ethical Efforts: As an industry, construction has had a bit of a reputation for questionable practices. Some of those less-than-desirable behaviors relate to ethics.

Now, a group of construction company CEOs are attempting to address this through a forum that will happen October 16 and 17 at the Marriott Metro Center Hotel in Washington, DC. Founding members of the  Construction Industry Ethics and Compliance Initiative (CIECI) include Austin Industries, Lane Construction, Traylor Brothers and The Walsh Group, just to name a few.

This initiative seeks to build more trust in the construction sector by making things more transparent and accountable. There is also the desire to get rid of conflicts of interest. That one ought to be challenging.

This panel of CEOs has an aggressive agenda for the two day event. It wants to identify how ethical business practices help profits, create examples of the kinds of things that are included in an ethics and compliance program, and map out ways companies can build ethics and compliance programs on a limited budget.

Attendance and membership on the forum can be set up through Dick Bednar at 202-624-2619.

Teaching Green: On another front, and another cause, more than 30 Washington DC-area builders are set to unveil what’s being billed as the “nation’s first green collar job training curriculum.”

The idea is to train current construction workers, and those enrolled in technical education, in construction methods that are sensitive to the environment. They will also learn the green building ratings systems advanced by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

This training is going to focus on things like:

• Understanding the kinds of challenges that construction activities cause for the environment
• Understanding the life cycles of buildings and how each of those affects the environment
• Learning to identify, qualify and quantify costs associated with eco-friendly alternatives to traditional building materials and practices
• Knowing the LEED certification rating process and then applying construction practices that contribute to certification

Hopefully it will be easy for other communities to follow in these footsteps because the curriculum is endorsed by USGBC and will be used to train workers on revised LEED standards for 2009. I guess it would just be a matter of when, or if, the curriculum will be made available to others.

Assuming you have a motivated employee who wants to move to a new level within the company, and you have a qualified coach, there are a few steps to take that will help to make the adventure successful.

1. Outline the desired outcomes: If your company has job descriptions this will be a fairly easy task. You will compare the job description of the employee’s current position to the new one and list the new, or upgraded, behaviors. If you don’t have job descriptions then one approach would be to have a broad statement like; Employee will be able to manage the day to day operations of a construction site so the project comes in on budget, (or say within a percentage), and on time while following company established rules and job requirements. In this case the person’s degree of success will probably be gauged against others who perform these same jobs.
2. Assign a project as the training ground: Ideally the person will start their training on a new project so they don’t inherit issues left behind by someone else.
3. Schedule the coach time: Initially the coach should be working at least half days with the trainee, and more if possible. The coach will perform all the normal tasks associated with the project as the trainee shadows him while also accomplishing some of the tasks him or herself. This is the “watch and learn” approach and for most people it works well as long as there is enough time allotted for the two to work together and the coach has a highly successful style and understanding of the work.
4. Gradually release tasks to the trainee: As the coach witnesses the trainee catching on, more and more of the tasks are released for the trainee to do on his or her own. As this begins to happen the coach’s time with the trainee begins to diminish, slowly at first.
5. Evaluate and adjust: In this stage the coach will carefully review the trainee’s performance, suggest changes, reinforce positives and offer suggestions for improvements. It’s also perfectly okay during this time to entertain ideas the trainee has come up with for ways to be more efficient, or streamline work, or to even accomplish things in his or her own style. A good coach will be able to assess these initiatives and help the trainee to understand why some may work and others may not, without putting the damper on the trainee’s budding attempts to innovate.
6. Acknowledge the end of training: Here is where it might be a good idea to have a ceremony or social event where the person is recognized for their achievement while at the same time is shown a clear ending point of being in training status. From here on out, normal employee controls are picked up and followed.

This is a simplified look at this process that makes a lot of assumptions. The main point is that coaching doesn’t have to be a highly difficult and time consuming event, and if entered into with people who have the best interests of each other and company at heart it can go a long way toward helping to fill the ranks from within.