Water Well Journal
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1330849
"When you understand the cost of running your business, you can make decisions as to how you want to move forward," Pitz says. "I would say that the cost calculator today is every bit as important because the whole dynamics of our way of life are changing. We need to be able to know: What can I do? What are my costs? Business always comes down to that." Utilizing the cost calculators, Pitz says, forces business owners to be involved in their business. "If you're running a business today, you need to be involved. It's very easy to say, 'Ah, I gotta go to work,' and you put off doing the admin of it, and your business fails," he says. "The cost calculator, I believe, is the strength of going forward." Brock Yordy, a global drill trainer, consultant, and contrib- utor for an industry magazine, agrees with Pitz on the need to be considerate when asking the employee to work beyond their normal schedule. "As long as we can say this job's critical, there's not a lot we can do, I need you to come," Yordy says. "Hopefully, we've gotten the employee who has a great attitude and trusts you and says, 'No problem, boss. I'm up for doing it.' "But if we have a terrible environment—and then add to it working late or early and it's cold and muddy—those employ- ees don't last. We have to define our expectations and then realize that we're not treating our son the same way we treat our employee." Yordy also believes that attracting and retaining the next generation means operating in a safe, smart, and efficient manner. The industry's image can be a recruiting tool. "Knowledge makes experts. Knowledge makes profes- sionals," Yordy says. "I don't want to be a dumb roughneck. I want to be a groundwater professional who is a member of NGWA and part of my local association. "When you're in the grocery store and a woman goes, 'My well's bad; we're just trying to find the cheapest person to get the well going,' you can go, wait, this should be as valuable as carpet, painting, or a car to buy. "To do that, we need to educate our customers and we have to be knowledgeable. We have to show up and act like sur- geons (when drilling). We should be as surgical as someone who works on someone's spine." Stay Engaged with Employees With the nature of the industry, Jessica Alexander conducts a variety of engagement surveys to keep pulse of the employees who work at Cascade Environmental. "We do engagement and exit surveys, as well as 30- and 90-day post-hire surveys, to understand where our turnover is coming from and how we can reduce it as much as possible," says Alexander, director of talent acquisition for Cascade, a provider of environmental and infrastructure drilling, site characterization, and remediation applications nationwide. Cascade, with 37 offices nationwide, has its drilling crews on the road for up to 10 days at a time. The travel and long hours working in the elements can take its toll. "I think the No. 1 hardest factor for us to get over the hump is you're traveling on the road and away from your family a lot," Alexander explains. "Obviously, we have to service our clients, and at some point, we can't do anything about the travel. But we can always try to identify ways to do better in our scheduling and help our operations leaders understand the challenges, scheduling in advance, and those sorts of things." Alexander, a 10-year Air Force veteran, sees companies excel in soliciting employee feedback, but oftentimes the feedback gets filed away, never to be analyzed. "I think actually reviewing the feedback and maybe doing a quarterly report or a biannual report to say here's what our survey results show. What are some action items we can get out of this?" Alexander says. "I think that's really important." Conducting stay interviews is another way to help reduce turnover. In the 2018 Water Well Journal "People at Work" column, "Stay Interviews Help Retain Talent" (waterwelljournal. com/stay-interviews-help-retain-talent), Alexandra Walsh 30 n February 2021 WWJ waterwelljournal.com HOW TO RETAIN EMPLOYEES from page 29 Tim Yoder, CVCLD (right), president of Yoder Drilling & Geothermal Inc. in Sugarcreek, Ohio, is grooming his fourth-generation son, Mitch (left), to run the company when Tim decides to retire. Photo courtesy Mitch Yoder, Yoder Drilling & Geothermal. Bergerson-Caswell Inc. in Maple Plain, Minnesota, has seen the benefits of conducting stay interviews with its employees. Photo courtesy David Henrich, CWD/PI, CVCLD, president of Bergerson-Caswell.