Blue Collar BS

Episode 14: We Cannot Find Good People - How the Generations Can Behave Better with Paul Giles

In this episode, Steve and Brad welcome Paul Giles, Director of Technical Services at Lannon Stone Products. They talk about how we can engage with the millennials in the industry and the environment that we have today in the blue-collar space.  Paul shares his experience of working in the quarrying, mining, and aggregate industry. According to him, this industry is turning the page on the old-school way of doing things and starting to embrace the talents they’ve missed out on in the last decades. If you have a culture that embraces change and does not look at the change as a bad thing, that culture is going to be a lot more welcoming to a newer generation.

Episode Summary

03:56 - It is critical, especially in this industry, to have a mentor. What we do is extremely hard and challenging work, and if you do not find a mentor or a mentor does not find you, you can be pretty easily lost.  

07:49 - We’ve got a bunch of people who have been doing the same thing for 45 years, and then a bunch of people who are fresh out of high school, fresh out of college, coming from a different industry. There is this huge gap that we have to break.

08:35 - They are adapting really well. They bring a ton of different ideas to the table.

13:27 - The fact that this technology is coming on hot and heavy is a game-changer. Now as an industry, we get to attract a whole new level of employees out of high school.

14:46 - You got to go to where they are, and you have to make the best case for what you do, why it’s cool, and what difference it makes in the world, community, or your pocketbook.

Contact your hosts:

Steve Doyle:

Website

LinkedIn

Email

Brad Herda:

Website

LinkedIn

Email

Paul Giles:

Email

LinkedIn

Lannon Stone-Website