67. We Were All Beginners Once

Andrea and Griff celebrate the people who make training at Hahn Ready Mix a success and take a trip down memory lane, reflecting on their own first days with the company. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome to Loaded, the Han Ready Mix podcast with Andrea Meyer and Griffin Hahn.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

How's it going?

SPEAKER_02 0:14

We're all alone on a Friday morning. All alone.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Lex, you're really missing out.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

I know. I know. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

He'll be sad.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

He's probably having a terrible time in Chicago and not not worried about us at all. No, he's he's really sad that he's not here, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

We're worried about us. We think we're recording.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

We don't know.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

That's all right, though. What's new?

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Uh things are still busy, so that's great.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Yes. It's been another good week. I was thinking, you know, there's a lot of, you know, kind of long-term projects that we're working on right now. And it's different for us. Like usually our work is very urgent and very we think about it, we do it, and it's done all in the same day. And where there's a lot of kind of longer-term exciting projects that we're working on, and it is kind of refreshing to hopefully we can announce some of those uh at some point.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

I think we probably can announce one of them that uh we're we're making a move on our ERP. Yes, um, which is in progress. Only only affects accounting, really.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

But it is a long sustained effort to get uh to turn that over. So it's it's fun for us to kind of have a different approach with some of the work we're doing in the office.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

I think it's gonna be good.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

You know, they're we're gonna be moving to uh Microsoft Business Central, and it's just gonna be a more intuitive software that should hopefully help us get better data and workflows, kind of reduce the number of different programs that we're using right now and into one.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

So we're excited. That is an exciting one.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

All at the same time that we're just gonna keep producing concrete. Yep, the whirlwind continues nonstop with that. Uh, I had a couple announcements in regards to that. One is I know we had a big focus on getting trucks clean over the winter and kind of chipped. Yeah. And you see after the first couple busy, busy months that that is kind of taken a toll on the trucks. So it's time to refresh our focus on that and make sure I know it's raining today, so I'm sure there's a bunch of people cleaning trucks, but yeah, keep keep up with that. You don't you don't want to let it roll all summer and no, it's just gonna make it that much more work.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah. I mean, you see some of the the people that keep their trucks at Immaculate, and it's it's an extra minute when they're washing down and being efficient, washing down, and they can keep it keep it clean and spending, you know, one day a week or something after we're done delivering concrete, just throwing some acid on there and and you know, refer you back to the uh truck wash episode we did, right? I don't remember what episode number that was.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Oh yeah, well yeah, Lex will link that here in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah. Uh so yeah, the if we just if you stay on top of it, it's way easier than letting all that concrete build up. It's it's gonna be a lot more work to clean it up.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Yep, along those same lines, um, we are trying to get truck weights right now. We did a bunch of chipping on trucks over the winter, but it probably is time to bring the chippers back in. Um so we're just trying to have people uh run across the scale and call dispatch with your truck weights so we can prioritize what needs to be addressed there and how soon to get them in here.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

So if you didn't didn't get to do that on Friday, definitely do it this week and let dispatch know.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yep, absolutely. Uh I had another announcement we talked a couple weeks ago about our World Cup pool. And as this comes out on Monday, the World Cup starts on Thursday. Whoa. Huge deal. Huge deal. I'm so excited. You are so excited. Just keep that's your mantra, just universe that. Uh so anyway, if you want to get in the pool, I will definitely have that linked on the show notes. Um, but uh we'll we'll throw some leaflets or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Not everyone at once. We don't need everyone stampeding in here to sign up for this, but yeah, Mark Debbler took about 30 seconds after I sent the first thing out.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Oh, he's already in. He was he was right there. Great.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Is he the only one?

SPEAKER_00 4:01

No.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

But there's not a lot, yes. But I know we have soccer fans, and even if you're not, it's a fun uh way to kind of be invested in the in the tournament.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

All right, maybe I'll take a look.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Would be it would be really fun for me to beat you at that.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

No, that that that's no, it would not.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Uh the final reminder that I have today before we get started is we had another incident where a customer tells a driver about their callback. And we need the drivers to remind the customers that they need to call dispatch with their callbacks.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

That's uh essential to the process. The drivers just have so much going on, and I know you're trying to be helpful, and they say, Hey, I need another yard, and you say, Okay, and they assume that you're making that call and that another truck is on the way. And that's not how it works. So please just let them know you want to help them out, but that they have to call dispatch and make that call.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah, there's just a lot more details that dispatch is gonna ask for than just not just the the volume, but you know, sometimes it's a COD person and we don't know if we've collected or not on on you know extra yardage. And you know, if they have some special chemicals that sometimes they're variable throughout a pour and people are changing dosages, like we just need to have an opportunity to talk through all those things with the customer. And and yeah, it could just be a five-second call, but um, it just that's right. That's just the process is how it works.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

So great. Well, we do want to talk about training today, but I had a couple cool stats I was gonna kind of quiz you on.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Oh, okay. You're gonna quiz me. All right. I did not prepare.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

We'll see what you know. Uh so every month we kind of take a look back at a bunch of different things, you know, yardage and the stats, what mixes we're using, what customers are doing, and kind of evaluate that on a month-to-month basis. And one of my favorite things to look at is what's happening in quality control. I think they're sometimes under the radar, and it's probably better for Lex that he's not here while we're talking about it. He'd probably be embarrassed. But I do appreciate the work that all of those guys are doing, and it's cool to see it kind of accumulate over the month. So I'll tell you first that we did over 140 quality control tests that were documented. I know we do a lot of, you know, slumps on site and different things, but the the tests that we're doing at the plant that get documented are there over 140 this month. So I think that's that's great.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Good progress. We're heading in the right direction with that. Which plant do you think had the most quality control tests this month?

SPEAKER_00 6:32

I'm going to say the river plant.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

You're right. There were 52 tests at the river plant this month. Um, and that takes a lot of extra coordination there because it's it's not right outside the door.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

The the batch uh room is upstairs, and yeah, we talked through all that stuff last week.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Even the, you know, doing the moistures and getting materials, it's just such an up and down process. It requires a lot of communication. And I just want to acknowledge the effort that that takes and appreciate the people that are doing it.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

What about uh rejected loads? Do you have any info on the top of your head about rejected loads?

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Like how many we had?

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Yeah. He's reaching instinctively reaching for his phone to check.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Uh producer Lex is calling me because we tried to call him to figure out how to turn the recording on without. We don't need you, Lex. Now we don't, yeah. We hope. Um let's see here. In the month, how many loads? I'm gonna guess we had eight rejected loads.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Oh, I'm gonna break your heart. Yeah. We had 16 rejected loads in the month. Some of them were, you know, small loads, little things like that. Uh the biggest areas of concern were truck breakdowns. I think that's always, you know, kind of uh hard to get around that. Um, and then a couple driver errors, which is also, you know, we've got new people and people getting back in the swing of things. So that's um kind of the downside there. But the highlights, um, we didn't have any loads rejected due to any quality concerns, like that's slump and air and things like that. Yeah, that's that's really good. Also, shout out to plant maintenance, no plant-related breakdown rejected loads. So I know they're always excited and uh proud of that accomplishment. So I think that's really good.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Great, great.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

All right, let's talk about training.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Yeah, so I thought it would be we've talked about a lot of different groups of people on here and and and the trainers, you know, specifically the driver trainers are part of the driver pool, obviously. But I think that that task is the real kind of unsung heroes of the company. And so we want to sing that song, I guess. So you know, training is one of the most difficult and important jobs and tasks that someone could have. Because now we're not just talking about our own performance, we're talking about influencing how other employees behave, the processes they follow, the uniformity of what we can offer our customers. Um, and and and really it sets the stage for if the trainee is going to be successful here or not in a large spot. It's like if they are well trained, they're set up for success. If they are not well trained, it's an uphill battle, right? So I want to kind of celebrate those that are doing it and and reiterate how important it is and and thank them for doing that and kind of talk about what how we go through that process and yeah, all the all the bits of that.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

So true. It's uh incredibly challenging and difficult thing that we ask people to do, and we kind of cycle through different trainers, and you know, I I totally get it how people can get, you know, tired of tired of doing it. You know, it's a pretty isolated job where you're working on your own and having someone else in your space for day after day can really be grinding. So I love the people that are doing it and welcome back anyone who wants to get back into it anytime.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Well, we certainly there's definitely times where people come to us and say, you know, I've just trained five people in a row and I need a break. I need a break. And we get that, and we want to, you know, we want to accommodate that as much as possible. And we don't want to burn people out because we have had people that were great trainers that just said, I just did this too much and I'm just I can't do it anymore. So yeah, it's it's um I'm I'm sure it can be frustrating. You could have a a trainee with a ton of experience that it's pretty easy, and you can have a trainee that needs a you know, needs a lot of help. And so that is uh it can be very variable, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. But what what in your mind, what makes a good trainer?

SPEAKER_02 10:51

A good trainer is patient. That's a that's a big one because it's not something you learn on the first try. It's sometimes the 10th or 12th try when you finally uh make it make sense. I think I think they're also really calm. Like you can't overreact when someone is driving and making you uncomfortable. Uh, if you panic and yell, then that makes everything worse. So you have to be able to just stay calm.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Which I think is a good, a good driver to begin with, but especially important for a trainer.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah. I'll add to that, I think thorough, right? Oh, yeah. So like I I really like the idea of it kind of being a stream of consciousness, right? So everything that a trainer is thinking as they're showing how they do something, um, just speak it out, right? And let them know, okay, I'm looking at I'm looking at this to my left, I'm looking at this to the right, I'm worried about where that car is going. I'm, you know, when I'm looking at my load, these are the things I'm doing, and and just being overcommunicating, you know, everything that that's going through your head. Yes, yes, exactly. Uh, and I think that that's that's a really important because if if you just show and you don't explain the why you do things or the how, the methodology, the thought processes, it's it's not gonna have the impact. It's not gonna have the it's not gonna stick.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Yeah, yeah. And when you and when you watch our really good drivers, it looks easy. You don't you don't know all of the things that are going on in their head and all of the things that they're doing if they don't tell you right. And then you try and do it, and yeah, it isn't easy.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Yeah, yeah. What about uh the other side of it? What makes a good trainee, do you think?

SPEAKER_02 12:34

A good trainee is a good listener, um, is interested, right? So there's times where you're not driving as a trainee and you're in the passenger seat and it's easy to grab your phone or read the newspaper or whatever, and you really have to be engaged and paying attention and like shadowing your trainer the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, I think you know, there's a lot of times the training period is uh about two weeks, you know, in a truck with somebody. And that's that's such valuable time, right? That that is you're not gonna get that back necessarily. It's your opportunity to ask any question because there are no dumb questions. It's right. And nobody's gonna expect you to know everything about the job. So it's your time to pepper the trainer with the you know, everything that that you want to know or think could help your job.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Yeah, I think it's also tricky as a as a new person, you want to appear confident. And I I just always think it's so awkward when someone's listening to me on the phone. You know, I'm talking on the phone and someone else is listening to me, and it's almost embarrassing, or like I want to cringe about how I am when someone else is watching. And I think that would be hard as a trainee to like, or even when I'm driving and someone is a one of you guys, a professional driver, is in there with me, and I'm thinking, you know, are they paying attention to how when I turn my blinker on or when I do whatever?

SPEAKER_00 14:00

When you said you guys, you gestured out, but hopefully it wasn't at me because that is definitely professional driver. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

The other people that work here that are extraordinary. Yes, it makes makes me self-conscious. So I think as a trainee, you have to just kind of get over that. Like no one's judging you. Yeah. We expect you to make mistakes. It's okay. You just talk through it.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

You know, fake it till you make it is a cultural thing in the world, in society, right? And um, but it it impairs us, right? We we can't be our best self if we if we're just thinking we have it all figured out or trying to make it appear like we have it all figured out. When we're doing something new, there's gonna be a lot to learn. So much to learn for sure. I also think uh a good trainee needs to be brave enough to do the things, right? You know, not afraid to let's I'm gonna unload this truck this time. You know, you've seen it happen. If you if you spend the whole time watching, you're never gonna learn by doing, right? And all of us learn differently. Some will learn the most in the classroom, some will learn the most by watching, and some will learn the most by doing. So you got to do all three of those things, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:07

So so I think there's a there's a certain amount of bravery with willing to just jump in and yeah, and I also like when people say what they think they're going to do, like I'm thinking about going in this way, or I'm thinking about asking this question, or I see this thing, you know, asking, talking through it as the trainee and asking for feedback before you do something, I think is a good way to learn too.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All right. I'm gonna ask you some questions about, you know, uh when we began our careers, right? So I'll answer these questions too. But uh just some I think it's important to highlight that like we all needed to be trained, we all needed to learn. Nobody comes out of the womb sprinting, right? We all have to crawl before we can walk and then and then learn to run. When you started with you could either say your first job or or hear, you know, what about the industry or this job surprised you?

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Everything here surprised me. Um I had worked in really like much bigger companies, much bigger offices when I came here. So I didn't know the first thing about even like how to work the fax machine. I didn't know um like some really basic, embarrassing stuff. So I think um that one of the keys to my success here has been to not be afraid to ask dumb questions. Like I don't know what I'm doing, and I say that when I don't know what I'm doing, and I just ask the questions and I I want to learn. So yeah, I guess that was it. A key takeaway from me was to just like I can I guess they call it eat eat the frog or whatever, like ugh I don't I don't know, so I'm gonna have to ask someone.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Yeah. You know, there's a there's a definitely a wisdom to that, right? Like that like I was just saying earlier, if you if you try to make it seem like you know everything when you clearly could it's not possible, uh it just it it it reflects the opposite of the way people you know you're you're trying to uh if you take that tactic.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

So what about you? You I wasn't here when you started before my time.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah, so I would say uh a couple things, the chemistry of what we do, right? And the the science behind it really, I didn't know that before I started at all, and I thought it was way simpler than it was. And I and that's the part that I learned that was really interesting to me because it was something we know to grab onto. Um this has definitely improved over time, but I think the way, especially we would get interacted with by customers when I started was quite jarring for me.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Painful.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Uh yeah. I mean, just you you show up and get you know, mf'd the moment you walk on a job every single day. And that was uh yeah, that was that was difficult and an adjustment for me to make because I was not used to that for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

So I've heard stories though that you were willing to do whatever they put you up to.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

I I think so, I hope so. Uh but yeah, it just was yeah, it's just a totally different, yeah. I was thinking like, oh, it's a business, it's gonna be really a professional, you know, our with our customers. And and that no, that's not how it works. But I do think that that has improved, you know. I think there's a maybe a generation of concrete finishers that there was like a a point of pride, like this is how we're going to always treat our suppliers. And a lot of them either we've won them over or they're, you know, have retired, and there's a a better way. So yeah. Okay, next question. What's a mistake you made early on that you can laugh about now?

SPEAKER_02 18:54

I had a lot to learn about being flexible. Yeah, and they had you guys had asked me about this in the interview. You know, you were very clear to question how rigid I was with, you know, following rules and and making rules and policies, and that you wanted to reinforce that this is a a family business and that we, you know, give everyone chances and we listen to explanations. So I knew that coming in, but I still was surprised at times, even just interviewing people. You know, I was used to talking to people on the phone and setting a time for an interview, and I was missing out on great people because they found another job somewhere else faster. Yeah. And so I had to adjust and like when someone walks in the door, I'm gonna bring them in and interview them and have them start tomorrow. Like there was not a rigid set schedule or plan for anything, and I just had to adjust and go with the flow and make things happen as they happened.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Yeah. The funniest mistake I made was definitely I made a number of them driving. So that was very topical.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

If only we had the camera footage from the oh gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

I mean, I might have tilted on this before, but there was one where we were doing crane and crane and bucket, and it was the old tag axle trucks you could stand on the back fender, and uh I didn't have the the chute all the way over the the bucket, and so a little bit of concrete was spilling out the side, and we were kind of at an angle, and I unlocked it and to try to pull the chute over, and it was full of concrete as I'm discharging, and it very slowly just pulled me completely off the truck because I weighed like 130 pounds at that point. So I kicked my foot back to try to stop the truck unloading and I hit it into full discharge. So I'm hanging hanging from the back of the truck in full discharge, uh, concrete going where it's not supposed to.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

And uh everyone laughing?

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Everyone was laughing at me. I was just ready to get screamed at, and they were too busy laughing about what it was.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

They couldn't even be mad about what an idiot I look like.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

That they couldn't even, yeah. So that's definitely one. You know, I made a lot of mistakes early in my career with mixed designs or make small errors on a submittal that make something they're not something necessarily I laugh about now, but I guess I understand it's it's part of the learning process. So I'm at peace with them, I should say, yeah, rather than laughing. But yeah. All right. What's one thing that finally clicked and made things easier?

SPEAKER_02 21:22

I think when I accepted that the business comes first, like getting concrete out the door is our number one priority every day. Like I would come in blazing with a great plan to have everyone in for a meeting or we're gonna do this at this specific time. And when I just accepted that you're never gonna be able to plan on doing something at a time, it will always be the busiest day of the week whenever you think you're gonna do something. When I just like we're gonna see how the business goes, and then we'll get the rest of this stuff done. That was a big difference for me.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Yeah, that's a good one. That's something that I think anybody in a non operational role that comes into this industry, yeah. Oh, it'll be easy.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

We'll just send everyone from A drug test today.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah. No, we won't. Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

We might not send one person today.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yeah. For mine, I think when I started, I assumed that everybody else had this some knowledge that they secretly had that I didn't have, that they knew the best choice and and solution to every problem. And that I was like, gosh, I don't have that. So my opinion isn't worthwhile because I don't know what the secret sauce that they have. They don't know. It took me a long time to figure out that nobody has the secret sauce.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

That we are all figuring it out.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

That it is, um, you know, certainly you you leverage your experience, uh, experiences that you've had, but nobody, you know, at times my job and your job to present certainty, right? And so that's part of the role, but nothing is certain ever. Like it's just not. So, you know, we we make our best theories and action plans and we work through them. But it took me a long time to figure out that, oh, we are all kind of flying by the seat of our pants and and just doing the best we can. And that means you make mistakes sometimes, and that's okay. But there's no there's no secret sauce that gives you all the answers and and you could be, you know, with 100% certainty, you know, you've made the right decision or the right choice.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Yeah, that reminds me of another thing I learned early on from your dad, actually, which is funny because he's he can be kind of hard now on uh, you know, how many people are on vacation on a given day. Yeah, sure. People being late or, you know, stuff like that. But at the very beginning, he was pretty influential on me and and teaching me to be compassionate with people and to understand like everybody is facing a lot to just get in here on a given day, uh, especially with a you know variable schedule and what time they can get here. And everyone has so much going on at home. And I was you know pretty rigid at first about my expectations, and he probably regrets this now that he made me more flexible with people. But he was right. I I needed to get to know people more and understand more about what they were facing and help them do what we need to do here.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Yeah, absolutely. No, he's always been good at that. Well, I think that that's a we've we've filled up a lot of time. I want to give a shout out to all of our trainers because uh in an underlying again past, present, future, yes. Um, and you know, I some of the guys that are doing it now, and this may not be a fully inclusive list, so I apologize if we miss somebody that also is is helping with this. But you know, Brian Woods, Anthony Spraggins, Kelsey Tingle, Derek Robinson, Jason Schaefer, Dave Four, Oscar Gonzalez, Aaron Casas, all of them are doing training. And I just want to thank them all and anybody else that's doing it as well, because it's it's so important and it it sets the stage. We've mentioned it before, but another thing we're going to be doing soon is uh filming some training videos. And so the hope is that we can bring more perspectives into a kind of a video platform where we can start people off at a higher a higher point, right? So they they really understand what a job site is like before they go to their first job site.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Yeah, and more base knowledge when they get with a one-on-one trainer.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

So hopefully the the time with the trainer can be more productive. Yeah, so we're we're gonna be working on that. I'm very excited about that. Yeah, I just want to say thank you to all the people that help. And even if you're not a trainer, there's still kind of a duty of mentorship, right, for all of us. That if someone is new and if you see them not doing something right, help them out, you know. And if you are new and you're in your first season getting started, you know, take those, take that advice, right? In the spirit that it needs to come, that it's it's they're trying to help you, right? And don't think that people are like nagging on you or trying to make you feel bad. It's just we've all been there. Yeah, it's just about that sometimes there's a better way, and and if you can use the experience of others, then that's a great thing.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Yeah. Let us know if you have any great stories about when you were in training or a trainer that you worked with. Uh, we would love to hear it. I know I actually I did some write-alongs at first too. I got in with uh Tim Bausch and uh Jody and Jamie that in the ag haulers. I spent some time with them too, so I'm sure they have stories.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

All right. Thanks for listening to Loaded the Han Ready Mix podcast. We'll talk to you again next week.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Thanks so much.