In today’s video, I speak with Joey Hatch, Executive Vice President of Skanska USA. Skanska is one of the Top 5 construction companies in the world and in this video Joey tells how the 3 P’s (People, Process, and Performance) have helped them to reach that position.
TRANSCRIPT:
DONNA: So today, we’re fortunate to have Joey Hatch, the executive vice president of Skanska USA. Now, Joey, I know that you’re one of the top five construction companies in the world, which is totally amazing. And in fact, for those of you who don’t know, they even build NFL stadiums, and behind us, here are several of the NFL stadiums that Skanska has built. Can you tell us about some of the secrets that have helped you grow Skanska to the point where you are one of the top five in the world?
JOEY: Well, thanks Donna for that introduction, and your kind words about Skanska. We are a very profitable company. We’re also one of the safest companies in the world, and we’re awfully proud of that, and I’ll tell you that, that kind of behavior along with profitability really adds to the bottom line. Our approach is simple. It is not about profit. We’re a publicly traded company. We have to be profitable. So, I would say we use the process or the approach is the three Ps. It’s people, it’s process, and performance, and what we have to do is focus our people on we recruit great people, we train ’em well in the Skanska way, we teach ’em, we, we have robust development plans. We hire people that we allow to be innovative and creative, but still focused on how to get to the bottom line.
DONNA: So that they have parameters that they’ll work in.
JOEY: That’s right. So, you know, the performance then becomes predictable. It’s much like putting a team together. Construction’s a team sport. We put, we build project teams of people that have complementary skills, so we’ve got innovative people, we’ve got hard-charging people, we have people out in the field that are really gettin’ it done. We have people in the office that a bein’ innovative, so that combination really helps add to the bottom line, so while the focus is on all of the other things that get you to that point,
JOEY: The profitability is an outcome of all of those processes, and then I’ll tell you that we talk about this a lot, sometimes kinda lightheartedly. One of my sayings is you gotta know stuff and do stuff. Well, how does that translate to what you really do daily? You gotta know about your clients, you gotta know about your people, you gotta know what makes ’em tick, you gotta get involved in the community, you gotta know how that works, and then when you make all those connections, and then you’re actually networking and selling without knowing it, that’s something that our people have gotten really good at. That’s not a trait that most engineer types are comfortable with. So we kinda trick ’em into that. So then what happens is that becomes their daily job. They like it; they have fun. It is a family environment, and all of that together creates an incredible culture that then delivers safety and profitability and sustainability in a company like ours.
DONNA: And it’s true that here at, at Skanska Nashville, you look at your group as your family.
JOEY: I do, I do.
DONNA: You don’t look at it as your group of employees, but this is my family.
JOEY: That’s right, and I’m not, I’ve got a pretty good memory. I’m not, however, the best at remembering names, but I remember hire dates of people. I remember where they went to school. I remember their children. I remember their wives, and when we have those kind of conversations, it does feel like a family. So that, those are conversations we have frequently here.
DONNA: And so do you feel like, I know you have low turnover. Do you feel like that whole culture and environment, and let us help you be the best you can be, that has everything to do with the people that you get hundreds of resumes every time you have an opening?
JOEY: That’s, that’s true, and I’d say the turnover rate in the construction industry, in general, is probably, in the 15% rate. We have about ve percent a year nationally because we maintain that culture throughout the United States, and hopefully throughout the world, and so people want to stay. We’ve got people that’ve been here a year, people that’ve been here ten years, people that’ve been here 30 years, but we do have a lotta folks that stay for an entire career.
DONNA: That’s amazing. And I know that you’ve grown up with a lot of those people, and grown a lot of those people.
JOEY: That’s true, that’s true.
DONNA: Congratulations.
JOEY: And, well thanks for that. And we’re really proud of the buildings we build, and the people we build as well.
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TAGS: company culture, corporate leadership, employee management, employee retention, executive leadership, Nashville business, Nashville business leadership