Better Employees & Antis Roofing - The Cultural Revolution of Latinx - TRANSCRIPTION

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Heidi Ellsworth:
Hello, this is Heidi Ellsworth with Roofers Coffee Shop. And we are here today for something a little bit different today. We're going to be talking about leadership training and soft skills for our amazing Latinx community within roofing. There is so much potential, so much potential that we are missing out on. And so today, I've asked some very good friends of mine to be with us, to really talk about what's happening and what we can be doing better in the industry. So I want to introduce Susan DeGrassi with Antis Roofing.

Susan Degrassi:
Hi everyone. I'm Susan DeGrassi, the vice president of administration and cause at Antis Roofing. And it's my great joy to have as part of my job description, oversight of HR and organizational development. I also serve on the national women in roofing board, as well as several nonprofits here in Orange County and happy to be here.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Charles Antis, with Antis Roofing.

Charles Antis:
I'm excited. Hi Roofers Coffee Shop, Heidi. I'm Charles Antis, the founder and CEO here at Antis Roofing in Irvine, California. And you know, I'm a roofing pro, but I'm really a people awakener. Man, I live to stop and acknowledge people in my company and in the community every day. And if I can do that, then I am fulfilled as a leader.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And Eduardo Figueroa, with Better Employees.

Eduardo Figueroa:
Hi, my name is Eduardo Figueroa. I have a training employee company. I have 20 years of experience developing leaders, that preferred to learn in Spanish. And I have been doing this for many years and I like to help Latinos.

Heidi Ellsworth:
What led you to say we have a problem and we need to do something about this?

Susan Degrassi:
Well, it started probably last December, January, we do annual performance appraisals and a check-in twice a year. And one of our very respected leaders in the field asked for as part of his review, feedback for coaching in leadership and managerial skills. And so that kind of sent me on the hunt, not just for him, but for a number of our kind of rising stars on the field production size of the business, for what might be out there. And specifically because their native language is Spanish, they can speak English, they can read English, but they're going to get more out of it, like any of us would, if it's the language that we grew up in, that we think in. And so I started to look for training like that and try Googling it. It barely exists.

Susan Degrassi:
And I didn't want a program that was translated in dubbed in Spanish. I want it delivered in Spanish. And so through the Hispanic chamber of commerce, which we are members of in Orange County, we heard about Eduardo and I ended up signing his website and lo and behold, he's in our backyard. So we could actually meet and keep in mind, this is during the pandemic. So everybody was being cautious about how they were delivering and he had an online program, but he also had an in-person options here and there. And that's how it began.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Charles, I'd love for you to kind of set the stage of why this is important. Why in the first place, you have Susan went out, found it realized there wasn't much, but overall it's not just employees asking, but I know it's you also, you and Susan identifying that this is so crucial for your business.

Charles Antis:
Really nailed it. She Googled it and there wasn't anything there. The fuel that drives our industry, over 50% of our industry, is this immigrant or first-generation workforce. And we don't know that much about them. And I thought, wow, there's a big opportunity here. And so there's a big intent here. There's a big intent. It's the same intention that we have for all of our employees. We really do believe that if we build them up to be as great as they can be in whatever capacity their greatness is, that it's going to come back to us in the company and show up in a product. We believe that, and we're proving it as true, but wow, we were overlooking those that are doing the work.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And Eduardo, tell us a little bit about your training that you've done over the years and what you're seeing in culture shifts. Just like what Antis going through right now.

Eduardo Figueroa:
I think like Charles say, a lot of the companies in all industries, they don't realize how important is to develop the soft skills of their employees. And what is the economic impact of this in the long-term, not only for the company, but also for the families. When the person learns how to communicate better, how to, maybe change their attitude to a more positive attitude, develop their self-esteem, that family gets also the benefits and the company, of course, gets the benefits and create a positive impact for everybody, even the community. There is an impact in the community. So that's why it had been doing this for more than 20 years. I developed first in-person training and now we have my online program, but that's for me, is how to transform the participants in better persons and better employees and better bosses and better leaders and better maybe husbands or wives. So there is a lot of positive things in just training and listening.

Charles Antis:
I want to emphasize what you just said, Eduardo, because I've gone to lunch with several of our leaders in the last couple of months. And in each of those lunches, your name came up and there was a grin. There was a pause. There was this appreciation because of what you just said. They have leveraged now on something that they didn't know was there. And when you teach that to my admin in the field, and only say that because we only have men on the roofs. When you teach that to our people in the field, oh my God, it's such a gift. It's a complete gift to their life. It's not just at work and you nailed it. And that's really been a huge deal right now that our team knows that we're invested in them. And they know that if they stay with us, we'll help them to sleep even better and to earn better because if we can perform better and retain our people, like you say, then we're going to have a better product.

Charles Antis:
We're going to make more profit. We're going to be able to pay better. It all trickles down to success for our teams, for our families. And then that overall, that can so easily overlap in the community. We believe we're making it better for everyone. And we attract people that believe they're making it better for everyone and our men and our leaders in the field can now wire this into their brain. Oh my God, we are making it better for everyone. And that really shows up in your roofs.

Susan Degrassi:
I want to see that we have a secondary goal, an outcome for this. And Eduardo knows this as our partner is some of these men, we are trying to develop it to take higher level positions, more managerial roles, learn how to execute through other people. So thank heaven, our NRCA has done a fabulous job of bringing so much technical training. This is the other component to make the person whole, in their ability to really rise.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And don't you think, I love the first focus on culture and the first focus on the empowerment of the employees, but that all adds up to ROI for the business.

Susan Degrassi:
If you want to grow, you've got to grow your bench. Growing your bench from within is highly desirable for everyone involved.

Heidi Ellsworth:
What do you see as the benefits for the company, when they start incorporating your classes, your mentoring, your one-on-ones, what are some of the results you've seen?

Eduardo Figueroa:
Like you were mentioning and Susan, just the time, just one case is a manufacturing company, that HR person, when they have to deal with complaints about the leaders, the supervisors, they spend hours in the investigation on documentation interviewing people. And when they add that was around $20,000 a year. So when you invest in this kind of training, it practically disappeared that cost. That without counting that turnover because some of the employees love that company now because the company or the pay. It's because they poor leaders that they have. They leave their boss, and look for a better environment, something more respectful. So, that's another impact. So impact everything I have in customers I say, my productivity increased $75,000 dollars a year. In other ones, so everything, there is economic impact. That return on investment has to be something to measure.

Eduardo Figueroa:
It's not like, okay, just hire this person, fix those guys. And that's it. No, it's like, there is a economic impact, reduced turnover, increase productivity. I have a client there. They have a lot of errors and mistakes during the process. So the team worked to reduce those. I didn't know that technical part, but I know how to tell them how to solve problems, help improve the processes. And they say, in this case, almost $200,000 a year, just in reducing the voice. The voice was $500,000 and then they work. So that's what is the economic impact and besides everything we already talked.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Loved what you said, Eduardo respect. We always talk about roofing respect and that this is a way to create confidence and to build the respect in a relationship.

Charles Antis:
It's really important that we respect the labor force that drives us. There's such an opportunity for us to pause and in a kind way, acknowledge the workforce. And it's such an opportunity for us to pause and strengthen ourselves and our culture and our profitability and the way we communicate. Acknowledge the workforce and show them honor and respect and the dividends are huge. We're in a different time today. If you're in business just to make money in this or any other trade in the next 10 years, good luck. I've been saying that before what's happened in the last couple of years. Now, it's so true. Take care of your people. Who are your people? Oh, they were born in another country. What do you know about that?

Charles Antis:
What do you know about it was like for them? What do you know what it was like for him or their family getting here? Boy, there's some tough stories. And if you haven't heard them, then you shouldn't be piping off because until that's not who your labor force is anymore. Now I'm not angry about this, but I love these people and I'm angry at myself because I once didn't stop to acknowledge them. But if you want to tap into that labor force, you need to understand who they are. And they are just as beautiful as those who live across the street from you. And that's what we've discovered. And it's been powerful for us.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Growing up in the trades with my dad as a general contractor and having been in roofing for a number of years, one of the things that we saw before in the past, is really bullying, hazing, problems on the roof or on the job site. What an awesome opportunity for roofing to take that step and say no more and how we're going to do it is through training, through leadership training, through the soft skills that make such a difference for management. Eduardo, have you seen that out there? Have you seen some of those things? Because you're nodding. I love that.

Eduardo Figueroa:
Yeah, [inaudible 00:12:18]. I see the transformation in also the CEOs of the company. So managers, when they talk to me about that, I say, really, we have a better environment. It's more respectful. It's changing because they know now what is respect, how to respect each other and they stop. And not everybody, but it's a change. It's good to take time. I just want to add a little bit of what Charles was saying, that when you train the employees, it's also healthy for the CEOs and the managers. A lot of benefits beside economical, is also for the person. It's okay, I have to enjoy my life. Now that's another thing that they will see.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yes.

Susan Degrassi:
What I observed Eduardo, also in these last five or six months is that the relationship between these men is more equitable. It kind of shifted from command and control mostly, to way more of a dialogue. And when you give people the confidence of how to communicate effectively up as well as down, that is such a gift.

Heidi Ellsworth:
How much better are we when we are getting information and communications from all levels of the company on how to be better. Everyone, all the orders are going on the same direction. And Charles, I've seen you talk about this before. And obviously you've had MVP winners from your company. You are just recognized all the time, but how important is that, like we were just talking about that bottom up communication?

Charles Antis:
It's so important, but it's hard to recognize when you're a craftsman, when you're starting a company, when you're a young contractor, it's hard to pause to say, Hey, how you feeling? And really want to hear anything other than, but fine. It's because it doesn't feel like there's enough. There's a capacity thing there that we have. I'm glad you asked that because this is, I'm going to give you maybe a magic tool. And that is this. Imagine that there is enough, it starts with that. And then what I've discovered is, is when I imagine there wasn't enough, I was always right. But once I imagined there could be more and I stopped saying no and I started saying maybe to everything my employees asked, even stuff that didn't make sense in the moment, when I started saying maybe to everything they asked, oh my God, the capacity grew. We have to try to build that capacity. And in doing so, it feels sort of miraculous. It's a mindset shift. It's a mindset shift that a lot of people are doing in the roofing industry right now.

Heidi Ellsworth:
The inclusiveness of all people within the roofing industry and within our companies and being able to provide the training in their own language, in your first language. So I don't care what language it is, but in that first language, to be able to bridge that gap is so incredibly powerful. Susan, I would really love for you to talk a little bit about the tactical of, okay, you've found Eduardo. You need it. You're going to start this. What were some of the things that you really had to do to prepare for this? And maybe kind of caught you by surprise.

Susan Degrassi:
I'm going to give you a checklist. So when your company invests in training, I don't care what it is. It is a partner that requires active participation from your HR team. Someone who believes in it, champions it, makes sure that it happens. So the steps, when you're doing this, are first, all the organization. Getting it on the calendar, the discipline of making sure that they don't cancel things. Obviously, it was taught in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. So I needed to introduce to Eduardo, a trainer, kind of a train the trainer that would be his partner. That was our safety manager. We needed someone to run the IT component, so the trainers could be focused on the actual training that they're doing. Materials, handbooks, all that structure, and probably most important, we fed them every time breakfast that makes, because part of this is the team bonding that occurs with this small group of 13 people, right?

Susan Degrassi:
And these men got very tight. And one of the joys, I think when you're looking at people, remember that old book, Please Understand Me. Well, that's what this is all about. What do they want now? It's not what I want. What do they want? And that is as simple as they didn't like the egg wraps I ordered for breakfast, which were nice and healthy. They wanted the McDonald's, 2000 calories worth of breakfast. And so, you know what? I'm not their mother. We gave them the McDonald's, right? And so the outcome then ends up. You just get a better product. You see it through to the end, stop and evaluate, talk to your trainer. Eduardo and I talk regularly about how things are going, what he sees, I get a lot of feedback from him.

Susan Degrassi:
There are things that your employees aren't going to want to do. They're very uncomfortable with somethings, remember its brand new, like the whole 360 concept. Tell me how doing lots of resistance to that. If you do the whole process, invest about six months, at least, for your group, right. Start to finish, you're going to end up with what it is you want. So I'm just excited to find something for them, right? Like any gift, it doesn't have to be about what you want. If you're giving someone what they want, it just feels really good.

Heidi Ellsworth:
That's great. I love that. I love that.

Charles Antis:
It means so much to them. It means so much to them and that feels so good. It's like, we used to give him a Turkey. I know, I didn't know. I'd worked so hard to bring in a hundred turkeys. It took me about 12 years to realize that's really not what we need at Thanksgiving. There's something better we can do. And I love it, that we're listening. We have capacity to listen today because we suddenly thought that we could.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. Eduardo, I would love for you to kind of close us out on, how do you know, kind of... How has your experience been with working with Antis and how can other roofing contractors take that step to start working with you or someone like you?

Eduardo Figueroa:
In not with all the companies happen, this much communication that I have with Susan and Charles now. And I think that's important because we have to give feedback each, like how is the group doing? What they're learning, do I need to report something? The feedback from the participants so I can go back to them. So we need to work as a team, everybody to build a better workforce. And so that's important. The communication of the trainer is me or whoever is the communication with the management to see how it's going. And also the involvement of management in that training, because it's not looking, just give a training. I ask always, get involved in the training, at least ask questions. Here are the materials in English. If you don't speak Spanish, but follow up. Just ask them, how are you doing? Are you applying these? At least, do you have any questions? Can I help you? So that will make more effective, that training for everybody. So that's another important thing that we have with Antis, is that communication. That helps a lot.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Eduardo, you're on Roofers Coffee Shop. We've put all of your information on there. There are free videos. There are ways to get started there. You can actually take your crews, your management team, and the folks that you want to lift because it's going to lift the entire company and you can have them watch some of Eduardo's, what he's doing, how he's doing it. You can get feedback. And then of course, from there, it's easy to get to. I can't tell you amount of content that Eduardo has on his sites and there's multiple sites. Everything from management, soft skills, training to entrepreneurship, there is just so much there that is all in Spanish, but also in English.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Thank you, Eduardo. Thank you for what you're bringing to for our industry.

Eduardo Figueroa:
Thank you, Heidi.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Thank you. Thank you, Charles and Susan, as always for being the leaders, the thought leaders, everything, you guys are just an inspiration. Thank you so much.

Susan Degrassi:
[inaudible 00:21:18]. Bye-bye.

Charles Antis:
Thank you.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And thank you all for listening. Thank you for being a part of it. This is what we bring to you at Roofers Coffee Shop. You can find all of our special webinars, our podcasts, which Eduardo will be on a podcast. Charles has been on a podcast. You can listen to all of them under the read, listen, watch initiative on rooferscoffeeshop.com. I'm Heidi Ellsworth. Have a great day and we'll be back soon.