JUNE 9, 2026 #019 M.SIMPSON/P.RAGLAND/R.WHITLOW (BEST CHRISTIAN WORKPLACE)

REPLY/COMMENT 

 In this episode of Talkin’ Grit, we sit down with P.Ragland and R.Whitlow to discuss the results of our recent Best Christian Workplace Survey and what they mean for the future of Wright Brothers. More than just numbers on a page, these results represent the voices, experiences, and honest feedback of our team members. Together, we talk about the areas where we're doing well, the opportunities we have to grow, and the commitment to creating a workplace that reflects our values and puts people first. This conversation is about transparency, accountability, and taking meaningful action to ensure every employee knows their voice matters and helps shape the future of our company. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

From the job site to the office, from lessons learned to stories worth telling, this is Talking Grid. Brought to you by Wright Brothers. Here's your host, Jared Walger.

SPEAKER_05 0:13

Thank you for tuning in. No matter where you're tuning in from, if you're hearing this, you're part of the Wright Brothers family, and we're thankful for you and what you do as part of this company. And we've got a great conversation coming up today talking about the executive summary of the Best Christian Workplace survey that went on. And so we have Penny Raglan and Russell Whitlow, and we're going to break this down. And Mitchell, this is going to be a good one. It's going to be an interesting one as we're talking about, you know, feedback and improvement and everything. So why don't we just dig into this and let this conversation happen?

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Yeah, Jared. Thanks. So, guys, a few months ago we had a survey that went out and a whole bunch of y'all participated in it. Russell, how many people participated in this?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

So 456 total participants, which is 65% of the total company.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Okay, 65% of the company. That's pretty great. So the goal in this, folks, was to try to figure out overall company health. Is our company healthy? Are there things we need to work on? What do we need to do? And one of the things that we committed to you all when we sent this out was we were going to give you feedback on it. We're going to try to give you positive communication, let you know the good and the bad of what we got out of this. And you know, that's the only way we can grow. That's the only way we can grow is if we take the info and we learn from it and we we grow from it.

SPEAKER_05 1:43

Have we ever done anything this extensive before that you can remember?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Uh we've done some, right, Penny?

SPEAKER_04 1:49

It's been several years, but yes, we didn't see you.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Do you remember when was the last one?

SPEAKER_04 1:52

Probably 2016.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

2016? Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

Okay. 2018.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Okay. Hey, Jared, yeah. Take a moment. Shout out here to Penny. Penny is the first member of the right family.

SPEAKER_05 2:06

First member of the family, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

That I have been able to twist their arm to get on it.

SPEAKER_05 2:10

So at some point we're going to track Steve down. Yeah. And uh and you think? Well, maybe he's been he's been elusive. He's been elusive, but Penny.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

The microphone that scares us.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

It's the microphone.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:24

Just tape record him and not let him know it.

SPEAKER_05 2:27

Get in trouble with that one.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Probably so. So, Penny, thank you for being here.

unknown 2:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

So let's just start walking through this survey, guys. So we got an executive summary for the best Christian workplaces. And if I flip the first page, you know, they got this wonderful cover page. We flipped to the first page. And it just starts out talking about overall health. Russell, what was Wright Brothers' overall health looking at this? It says it's got a couple different categories here. It's got unhealthy, inconsistent, healthy, flourishing. Where'd we land?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Yeah, so we actually landed in healthy, which is a 4.18 out of 4.5. I want to reiterate something that you said back at the manager's meeting that said nothing is broken here at Wright Brothers, but there is room for improvement. You know, this being the first survey we've done in a decade, right? So knowing that our people want to let us know what they're thinking, give us the feedback so that way we have the tools to make Wright Brothers still move in the correct direction. Right. Right. So I think that's very important. So again, we are healthy. Things look very well for us and where we sit and what our employees think about Wright Brothers as a whole.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Yeah. So I mean, that's a cool spot to be in. We're blessed to be there. You know, I think that's just a testament for what everybody has done for this organization over the past 65 years. It's pretty amazing of everything we've done. Pretty great where we're at. So let's just run through the strengths that they laid out here for us in this summary. You know, first one here is you know, we provide life-giving work, right? People know what is expected. That was the first one in the list. Russell, Penny, you all take it away on the rest of these. What we got?

SPEAKER_04 4:26

Sustainable strategy. We they recommend, we will recommend our own services, products. I guess that means we're happy with what we do.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

And yeah, I think we're out there telling people and promoting the business. I think we're sustainable in what we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

I want to say one of the things that really stands out is work effectively as a team, considering that is number three on the list. Everybody here comes together when it matters, gets things done, and just a fantastic team. Everybody wants to support the team, which in turn, you know, supports Wright Brothers as a whole, right?

SPEAKER_05 5:01

Those two kind of points to a core value of selflessness.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Exactly. Exactly. So some other things, you know, quality products, services, and again, with a life-giving work, opportunities to use their skill sets. We have people from all over in different areas that are working for us today, from the industrial side, civil, paving. You know, whenever you get everybody's skill set together, you can really show off your talents, make an impact, teach others, and you know, get the next generation ready to take your spot one day, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

One of the things on here, top 10, supervisor cares about me. You know, we can't be a Christian organization and not care about our employees, right? And look out for their well-being and their welfare. And, you know, hats off to safety, making sure everybody goes home safe. I think that's part of part of that initiative, right? That my supervisor cares. He wants me to go home at the end of every day safe. So shout out to uh Shirk and his team for that. Penny, what do you think?

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Well, there's also the supervisor helps solve problems, which is wonderful. We need to pass on the knowledge from the supervision.

SPEAKER_05 6:11

Yeah. And so basically this list is it's it's breaking down what people have said that they love about this company. And so they're saying, hey, this is life-giving. What I do is I like that we've got something sustainable, um, dependable. I've got good people that I'm working with and working for. And it it's uplifting and it's inspirational leadership. That you know, so they're commenting when you're looking at the whole what's coming in. And these were the top 10 the uh gathered of what people have have said, okay, here's here's the good things about working at Wright Brothers, what I love about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yes, sir. And if you look on the right hand side, you see the benchmark, and those benchmarks are how we rate against other people who have taken the same survey at the same time in space, right? So whenever we're we're in 62, 67, 59, 60, you know, we're in those higher echelons because we rank that high amongst others who took this survey, and that's where we rank among nationally uh from this. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

So all good things. So, you know, before we started this podcast, Penny pointed out to me, you know, a lot of this represents our mission and core value statements, right? When you see these strengths that we have, a lot of it represents those. Penny, do you have those? Do you have those up?

SPEAKER_05 7:37

The core values?

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Yeah. I do.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

Okay. Do you care to read the core values real quick just to hit that for everybody?

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Wright Brothers is an ever-evolving Christian-owned business, steeped in the traditional core values of urgency, integrity, selflessness, and hard work. As such, we hold ourselves accountable in implementing these principles and leading by example.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

So, you know, I think it's kind of cool that you can see what the strengths are from this and you see how our four core values flow through all that. Yeah, for sure. So, you know, just shout out to everybody in the organization. Look, we're doing something right. Good job, team. I appreciate y'all doing that. It's pretty awesome that we're doing that.

SPEAKER_05 8:23

And and honestly, I'm not shocked. No. Like, you know, like when we come back with a healthy score, it's like, well, yeah. You know, because from what I've experienced personally, from what I know others around me have experienced. And even based on from what I hear in the community, the way that people talk about the company, but does not shock me whatsoever. It's like, yeah, this is a healthy company. What interests me more is that that line from where we're at to the end of flourishing, because like what it comes back to what you said, okay, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna improve, yeah, you know, we're gonna invest, we're gonna measure where we're at. You know, yeah, absolutely 100% healthy, but there's stuff that we can do better. Yeah, places that we can grow.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

So what Jared's talking about here is on the overall summary, you know, the scoring and the way the break points in the scoring is this unhealthy is 3.5 to 3.75, inconsistent is 3.75 to 4.0, healthy is 4.0 to 425, and flourishing is 425 to 4.5. Well, we're at a 418. We're knocking on the door of having a flourishing culture. Yeah. You know, we're we're right there. And, you know, in addition to the core values, I'd just like to throw out two more strengths before we talk about our opportunities. You know, here at the bottom, it talks about how we've got an effective strategy and how we also provide job security. Okay. I think that's a big deal, right? That's a big deal. And I think that is mirrored in our mission statement. Our mission statement says we are driven by excellence to build a better future. Look, we're we're looking for the future. We're a construction company, we're building, we're we're gonna find it, we're gonna make it happen. We're driven by excellence to build a better future for our clients, our people, and our communities. We honor God by leading with purpose, serving with humility, and making a positive impact on every project. So, you know, it's just it's a neat deal to see what we've laid out, what we've said, how it's mirrored in how these results have happened.

SPEAKER_05 10:53

Right. No, that's fascinating.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

So flipping the page, you now we get to talk about opportunities, opportunities, you know, where we can do better. So, you know, look, nothing's broken, but we have talked about how we need to improve, how we need to invest, how we need to measure, and that's how we're gonna look at this, guys. We're gonna improve, we're gonna invest, we're gonna measure. And if we don't understand it, if we don't see it, we can't do anything about it, right? So, first one, Russell. What what do we need to do?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

So most of these were that everybody wants to know how are they doing, how are they performing? You know, talk to me about my progress, bring me in, set me down, do what you gotta do. People want feedback, they want to know what's good, what's bad, and how can we improve and invest in me so that way it can be measured and give that feedback to uh our employees.

SPEAKER_03 11:45

Yeah. So how are we gonna combat this, guys? You know, for the supervisors starting here in June, we're gonna start with our annual reviews. We've revamped them a little bit. We're gonna be talking about that more here in the next little bit, but we we need to be real about our annual reviews and we need to give real feedback. Nobody likes doing a review, Jared. Can you believe that?

SPEAKER_05 12:15

Yeah, it's shocking, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:16

It's shocking. You know, nobody likes it, but we all know that we need it. So all of us, I would just say this. We need to we need to stop, we need to invest in it, and we need to be real with one another about it. Yeah, yeah. Not fun.

SPEAKER_05 12:33

No, but there's always areas of improvement, and sometimes we don't even see that.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 12:38

You know, but if you can get, you know, another good, honest, you know, critique that's focused on not tearing you down, but like, hey, you know, you need to think about this, and you know, this is just something I've seen. You know, I I would want that to be like, you know what, I yeah, I missed that. I didn't even realize that, but that's a way I can get better. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

100%, dude. 100%. So then, you know, I'm gonna jump in here real quick. Uh, when I'm looking down this list of 10 things, you know, communication comes up one, two, three, four times. So four out of the ten is talking about communication, right? And in that communication, you know, do we listen to employee suggestions? Do we involve employees in decisions? Do we seek suggestions from employees? Do we encourage to innovate and experience, you know? And, you know, look, we we knew out of the gate that we got to work on our communication, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:45

It did help that the lady at Vest Christian Workplace said everybody has that.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

Which we're all terrible at it.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Right, right. Every company across the board, everybody got hit on communication. So it's not just a right brother.

SPEAKER_05 13:57

Because 90% of the world's problem could probably be solved with better better communication. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 14:02

But we still want to try.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

We got to try. And you know, Penny, we knew that last year when there was the transition between, you know, Steve stepping into the chairman role. You and I talked about this. We need to work on communication, right?

SPEAKER_04 14:22

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

This is not surprising that we've heard this.

SPEAKER_04 14:26

Which is one of the reasons you started this, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Which is one of the reasons we're on the podcast today. Because, you know, look, guys, we want to communicate. I mean, we want everybody involved. You know, this is a this is a family business. We're tight-knit. We want everybody to know what's going on.

SPEAKER_04 14:42

And we want people to realize they can call in and ask questions.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Absolutely. Absolutely. So well said, Penny. So communication. Look, we got to work on it. We know we got to work on it. It's just one of those things. But we're making progress. We're making progress. So then the next thing up was different things regarding compensation, right, Russell? Yes, sir. So which piece of compensation do you want to talk about first?

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Let's talk about pay first.

SPEAKER_03 15:13

Let's talk about pay. So today, you know, we're trying to be more structured and more consistent when we're talking about pay. You know, I realize that everybody's not here working every day just because they want to, right? I don't know anybody that does that. Do you do that, Russell? Every day. Every day. You're here because you love it. That's it. Yeah. I'm here because I get a check.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Well, that helps.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Yeah, that helps. So, you know, from a pay perspective, let's let's have this conversation in two different pieces. All everybody that's in the field that is one of our craft members that has a real trade that you guys need to be proud of, you know, operators, carpenters, concrete finishers, welders, guys out there on the paving crew, you know, all of you guys that are working by the hour. What we are trying to do here at Wright Brothers is we are looking at the Tennessee DOT prevailing wage rates. And every year for federally funded projects, there is a survey that's done that has uh DOT rates in them, and we can see what the percentage raise is in these various positions. And by knowing that percentage increase, then we're able to go in, we're able to adjust your pay scale. So we're trying to make sure that we're competitive with the industry. We believe that we are because we've got live industry data that we know what's going on. So last year in 2024, we made an adjustment to hourly employees in April. This year we've made an adjustment to hourly employees in February. And Penny Russell, our goal is we're gonna try to do that February from here moving forward, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yes, sir. That's exactly what we're gonna shoot for. Every year we actually per Steve Wright. Steve Wright set this up. He he wants to make sure everything's going to be up and up for all of his employees.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

And for the record, Steve has been on the Tennessee DOT prevailing wage board for I don't know, years, right, Penny?

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

I don't even know how many. If we ever get Steve on the podcast, maybe we can ask it. We can get Steve on the podcast. But so, anyways, you know, the goal is to keep up with what everybody needs to get paid, to stay with the industry. And as we look at the wage rates around the Southeast, the state of Tennessee really has done a better job of keeping up with the prevailing wage than anybody else, any other surrounding states. Well, I know why that's the case, I don't know, but there's been people that have tried to make sure we get the wage scale right. So, you know, over the years, I've seen the wage scale jump dramatically. Okay. You know, Jared, when I was a kid, the first job I had, I was working for my dad in the shop, and he paid me as an unskilled laborer, and I got a whopping $4.25 an hour. Times have changed. Times have changed.

SPEAKER_04 18:46

So got paid.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

A little bit of whining here. I get it. But you know, laborers today, what what are they getting paid, Russell? You know? Well, it depends.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

I don't want to say one thing or another. Ballpark, anywhere between $18 to $22 an hour.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Yeah. Starting. So starting out. I mean, look, you know, 35 years later, I mean, look at how much that increase is. Right. Four and a quarter to 18 to 22. I mean, that's crazy. Right. That's crazy. So, you know, look, guys, we recognize the world's changing fast. We're trying to keep up, keep up with wage rates. We're we're doing it on a yearly basis, and we're using industry data that's out there to try to stay in line where we need to be. So that's the hourly folks. So with the salary folks, you know, look, we gotta we gotta do our annual reviews, we've got to talk about where we're at, we gotta figure out how we can improve, how we can invest in ourselves, and we've got to measure what we've done. And then we have wage increases for the salary folks, and that happens in August. We've done that for the past several years, right, Penny? Yes. And we've tried to be pretty consistent with that. We have tried to have our yearly reviews more organized. We're getting there, guys. You know, we've I don't know, Penny. Well, we've had three, four, five different kinds of yearly reviews.

SPEAKER_04 20:19

Oh, yes. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

I mean, we've done we've done everything.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

None of them were actually spread out and actually all done. So we're getting better at tracking them and making sure they're done.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

Yeah. So, you know, guys, we're going to make this effort over the next little bit. You're going to see it here in June rolling out. We got to do our yearly reviews. And hey, you know, we can't we can't modify the salaries, clean everything up until we get those reviews because we gotta we gotta keep working on ourselves. So so Russell has put together this review that you're gonna see this year. It's based off of however many different options we gave you that we've used over the years, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Yeah, I um I took about 15 different forms that you guys shared with me, pieced it together, put together what I think and hope is the best course of action for us to take so that way you can be looked at, reviewed, you know, commented on, so that way you can get in. Everybody can put in their future goals, where they are, where they want to be, things like that, and then score it accordingly from the employee perspective and the supervisor perspective, and then use that matrix to you know calculate pay and how you want to progress.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

Yeah. So moving on, next thing in comp that came up was paid time off, right? Yes, sir. PTO. You know, when we started joint venture with Archer Western, those guys kept talking about PTO this, PTO that. And I finally got Jeff one day. I was like, what are they talking about, Jeff?

SPEAKER_04 21:49

Well, our vacation plan actually started as vacation because we wanted to everybody to be purposeful and actually take time to rejuvenate themselves. So actually take time off. So we called it P um vacation to start with on purpose. Then we added the PTO. But that was that was 10 years ago. And even then I was like, okay, if somebody's taking off, don't tell Robert. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

Yeah, don't tell Robert paid. So, you know, one of the things that we're trying to figure out, and everybody just needs to recognize look, we have grown from a small family company into a big regional enterprise, and it seems like overnight, right, Penny?

SPEAKER_04 22:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

You know, we're trying to figure out these benefits and what we need to do and trying to figure out how to be competitive with the industry. And quite frankly, that's one of those things we're looking at right now, right? Yes, sir. So do we have a great answer for you what PTO is going to look like in the future? We're working on that. And, you know, we hear you loud and clear, guys. We hear you light and clear. We understand it's something we got to figure out, and we need to do a better job of defining what our benefit package is associated with PTO. So thanks for the clear communication. We hear you. We're working on it. And we hope to give you some feedback on that sometime here in the future. And then the next one that came up from a compensation perspective is medical plan. Wow. Medical plan. Jared, do you like doing anything associated with the medical industry in America right now?

SPEAKER_05 23:29

No.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:30

Flat out, no. Flat out no. Painful. It's complicated. It's it's it's all the things you don't want to have to deal with.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

Well, I mean, it's all layers of terrible. I mean, any way you peel the onion and the layers of it, it's just bad upon bad upon bad. And, you know, Penny, you've had a front row seat here at Wright Brothers looking at the medical plan throughout the years. Yes. And, you know, the costs, have they ever gone down?

SPEAKER_04 23:58

Never.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

I mean, it just continues to spiral out of control.

SPEAKER_04 24:02

Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

What was our do you remember what our percentage increase was on the medical last year? It was double digit, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 24:09

Oh, as the company explains. Yeah. Yes. Okay, yes. Yes. It was it was bad. Wasn't it like I don't know if it was 12%?

SPEAKER_03 24:17

Wasn't it 12%? I don't know. Something like that. We need to get Melissa to ask her that.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

But you know, she can call in and tell me.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

She can call in. We can phone a friend and ask Melissa one of these days. But you know, it it never goes down, okay? And we've tried varying things to try to beat our health insurance down. You know, we are now part of a captive insurance plan for our health insurance.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

So what does that mean? It means that to a certain extent we're we're self-insured and with a group. With a group, and we're trying to, you know, manage the cost. So instead of somebody making a big markup off of us on selling an insurance policy, we're keeping that and we're trying to manage cost instead of paying somebody money.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Yeah. The best way for us to lower cost is for us to all be healthier.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Well, and which is easier said than done. And I mean, look, that's one of those things we've talked about. So maybe we do need to figure out how to have a health strategy here at Wright Brothers to for all of us to do better.

SPEAKER_04 25:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 25:28

But there are no easy answers with health insurance in America today. Right.

SPEAKER_04 25:33

No.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

They just ain't.

SPEAKER_04 25:35

That's what I was gonna point out though, like for our plan too, we the company pays, they pick up 70% of uh the cost. So when you look at a check and you know it's bad, it's that's 30% of what it cost.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just it's just a lot of money no matter what any way you look at it. Do you remember how much our total plan costs? How much did we pay for medical either one of y'all remember that?

SPEAKER_04 26:00

How much no, it's like four million something or five.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Yeah, I should we should have got that number if we got on here. I totally forgot about that, but I mean it's a big number, it's more than what you think. And you know, guys, look, we're trying to figure it out. We're constantly shopping it, we're constantly trying to figure out how to lower it, but it's just a bear.

SPEAKER_04 26:22

Yeah, and I want to remind everybody real quickly of some of the things that they can do to help save, because we have the HSA, the health savings account, where people can defer money into their into their own account. It is their account, it's like a little credit card, comes to you, it's always in your account. We can't do anything, we don't move anything out, but we can move stuff in. And we do a dollar-for-dollar match, $600 every year.

SPEAKER_05 26:45

Which is an awesome thing.

SPEAKER_04 26:46

Right. So when you do have to go to the doctor and you do have to pay $50 or whatever it is, you already have that money in your HSA. You didn't pay cash on it. That's lowering your um taxable income. And that's and it's a thousand if it's if you have family coverage. So that's a wonderful thing. And you can put up to, I think it's like $4,000 in there a year. So if you had a because high deductible health care means high deductible health care, it's really for the large events. So at least you'll have coverage for that. But then you have up to whatever you've got in there in the HSA for sure. And we also have a teledoc, which is a zero cost to anybody that has our health insurance plan. So they can use that at any time and call these.

SPEAKER_05 27:28

Which is super helpful.

SPEAKER_04 27:29

Yeah, which if you have you think you have some kind of allergies or whatever going on, or then you can call them. If it's not, I mean, if it's emergency room, go to the emergency room.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

Yeah, but I'll tell you right now, do not I'll tell you right now, I'd much rather use the teledocas to go sit inside a doctor's office forever. Right.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

Right. Because usually they'll call you back in like five minutes.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

Yeah, it's it's it's pretty quick.

SPEAKER_04 27:51

Yeah, it's in a think you need to go to the emergency room, they can tell you.

SPEAKER_05 27:55

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

Kind of like with our Ocumed.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:58

And then we also have a preventative wellness. Don't everybody forget this. You can get $100 from us if you go get your preventative screening, which is covered under the health plan at zero cost, as long as you don't mention some other problem you've got. So go in there for your pre-screening and don't mention your your other problems and or don't let them turn it into that.

SPEAKER_05 28:19

So tell everybody how that that works.

SPEAKER_04 28:21

Well, if you go and you you will will get a receipt. We don't want to see the document of what what they said. We don't need any of that. Just send us the bill or where they they'll give you a receipt that you it didn't cost anything, and then send it to us and we'll give you a hundred dollars gift card.

SPEAKER_05 28:37

Yeah, that's and that's just just to go to the doctor.

SPEAKER_04 28:40

Right.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

Which we should probably be getting checkups anyway. Right.

SPEAKER_04 28:43

Because if you go to the preventative, you're less likely to wait until it's reactive.

SPEAKER_05 28:47

So you're telling me I can get free money for just doing something that I should do.

SPEAKER_04 28:51

Right. And if you have a bad deal, if you have one of our critical illness or the accident policy, they also I think pay fifty dollars each or something. So you can end up getting $200 for nothing. That's that's a pretty good deal. I didn't know that. It sounds like a good day, rain out day thing to do.

SPEAKER_05 29:06

Right.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

So medical guys, we're sorry. We gotta work on it. We all gotta work on it collectively. We all got to work on taking better care of ourselves to look, we're in this together. We gotta we gotta try to be healthier to lower our overall costs. So, last big thing that I see on the opportunities is it says, you know, it's talking about talent. Do we effectively reward top performers? Do we recruit and hire capable employees? So those are the last two buckets in the opportunities. So top performers, you know. So the deal with the top performers is we have a yearly review, right? We have a yearly review. We need to be open and honest with one another and we need to talk about it. And then as far as hiring capable employees, look, guys, we want to hire more people each and every day. You you see somebody we need to hire, we've got the rewards program, we've got the rewards program, Penny. You want to tell everybody about that?

SPEAKER_04 30:07

Oh, yes. If you if they need to put your name on the application, yep, and somehow make sure you get that in there at the beginning that somebody's referred you. And it's $250, I believe, for a craft worker, $500, and then it goes up to a thousand. So after after somebody's been there 90 days, and of course, it's better to know the people you work with, and if you already know them and they're qualified, it'd be great to work around people you already know.

SPEAKER_05 30:34

Yeah, refer those people, and it's like a hiring bounty.

SPEAKER_04 30:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 30:38

Yeah, I mean, great stuff. Not a bad thing. Great stuff.

SPEAKER_04 30:40

We have a recruiter, but she needs help.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

She needs help. We all need help. So flipping the page, it's just talking about, you know, breaks down the various teams. I just want to give a shout out to four different teams that ended up with a flourishing score. You know, we talked about that. The company as a whole, we got a 4.18, which was healthy, but there were certain teams that got a flourishing score. So the estimating group, 4.41, they were leading the way. Leadership team, civil east, and contracting with a 4.25. So, you know, those four groups, good job, guys. Appreciate everything you do. Flourishing score. Flipping the page again, we've got some open-ended comments. Open-ended comments. And I'm just gonna read these out. And anybody wants to comment on them, please comment on them. So, what makes your organization a great workplace? Number one, people, two, Christian values, family atmosphere, good leadership, learning and growth opportunities. So that's cool. That's cool, you know. That once again, that that ties in with our core values and our mission statement.

SPEAKER_05 32:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

And then, you know, we've talked about a whole bunch of this suggestions for improvement. What do we need to work on? Better communication. Hey, we're here today, we're talking about that. We want to talk and communicate with you guys better. But remember, communication's a two-way deal.

SPEAKER_05 32:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:22

Communication's a two-way deal. We we can talk, but we need to hear what you guys think too. Penny?

SPEAKER_04 32:26

And also, most you all get a check stub emailed to you every week. And we try to use that as a communication piece, but we don't know how many people actually ever watch look at that.

SPEAKER_05 32:37

But if you could start looking at that and see what you and don't forget about the memos attached to it, you know, the the PDFs that are coming through. Yeah. Take a look at that. It's all information. Well, you know, and with this this whole you know tool, the podcast, I I appreciate the fact that we're having you know these open conversations, you know, talking about the c the company, talking about these results. I mean, you know, you didn't have to come in here and say, hey, here's here's where we're at, but you know, having this open conversation about it. And if you're listening, hey, go ahead and and learn something and include that in the conversations and what you're saying to the other guys around there. Well, where'd you hear that? Where when you well, listen to the podcast. Tell them to hop on the podcast because we're talking about real stuff for the company every week. You know, it's a it's a tool for communication, and that's what we're we're trying to do is get the insider stuff, the good stuff out there to you guys. So, you know, less and less guys out there are saying, you know, I don't know what's going on. Well, if you want to know what's going on, you know, tune in. Tell somebody else to tune in as well.

SPEAKER_03 33:43

Yeah, great point. Great point. Next thing that was a suggestion for improvement is it's those compensation pieces we talked about, you know, medical PTO pay. You know, we've talked through that. We hope everybody will accept that, hear that, and we're gonna try to continue to be transparent on that as we continue to work on that. Next one that says equipment and tools. I kind of scratched my head on that one. You know, Russell, you and I dug into that a little bit. You know, look, guys, I think we've got some of the best equipment in the business, but I would say that we need to do a better job of taking care of it. And I would really, really ask everybody to think about that. You know, we're you're gonna hear me continue talking about that more. You're gonna hear the leadership team talking about that more because we just bought some more equipment this year because of everything we got going on. Penny Russell, maybe you guys can remember. I mean, it was uh it was an equipment package, wasn't it like wasn't it 15 pieces of equipment, 20 pieces of equipment?

SPEAKER_04 34:54

It was it wasn't it 15 million?

SPEAKER_03 34:56

Yeah, it was fifteen million dollars. I don't remember how many equipment it was fifteen million dollars, and you know, I think it was twenty pieces of equipment. That sounds right. It's just mind-boggling about how much this stuff costs. I mean, uh Jared, if you remember the conversation we had with Touchstone and Wendell a few podcasts ago where we were talking about, you know, Robert's manifesto that he sent out to everybody. Yeah. And he was talking about, hey, take care of the equipment. Yeah, he's talking about the air filters.

SPEAKER_05 35:31

Talking about the air filters, the machine can't breathe, it can't run, you know, simple things.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

And if you just you you look at what the equipment cost back then versus what it costs now, it just it's hard to wrap your hands around it.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

And it's just it's it's painful to me that we abuse some of this equipment and just don't take care of it. I mean, I mean, this stuff costs more than the first house I lived in. Right. And we're just we're trashing it.

SPEAKER_05 36:01

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:03

I don't know. We we I think that's a that's an accountability piece for all of us. You know, a lot of this equipment and stuff, guys, it's only as good as how you take care of it. Yeah. So please, I'm asking you to, please take care of the equipment. You know, you got a tool there, a very expensive tool. We need that tool to work so you can get paid every day. Right. So please please help us with that. And then the last piece, it says training opportunities. So, you know, it says up in one spot, it says, hey, we do a great job of to having learning and growth opportunities. And then down another spot it says we need to provide training opportunities. Kind of cuts both ways, but you know, our training for Wright Brothers, Jared, you know, we're doing so many things. Yeah, and we're growing exponentially.

SPEAKER_05 36:56

It comes down to, you know, okay, give us the feedback, what do you need? Yep. And then also give us the time to be able to get there and get you trained. We we have to be able to, you know, when it comes to training, there also has to be the the ability to sit down and make equality, you know. So, you know, what do you need? What are you looking for? Let us help facilitate that. And then when it's time to facilitate it, we got to have the time to be able to do it. That's right as well. That's right. And it's gonna it's gonna take, you know, everybody working together on that.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

That's right. And I mean, you know, look, we have a fabulous LMS system. Shout out to Chris Calandrino for everything he's done there. Shout out to Ashley for helping to make all that happen. You know, like with everything in this organization, is it perfect? No. Has it come a long way? Absolutely. Yeah. Do do Chris and Ashley want feedback a hundred percent. We want to try to train people, get the information in front of the people that they need. But hey, communication. Yeah, it's a two-way street. We provide it, we also need it. So, you know, with the things we talked about today, guys, you know, it's not always fun to talk about our shortcomings. It's not fun to talk about where we're at, but hear me clearly on this. We're gonna work on it. You know, we're gonna work on it. It's one of those things we said we were gonna do this year. We're gonna improve, we're gonna invest, and we're gonna measure, and that's where we're at. You know, next year, year after that, we're gonna do another one of these surveys. We're gonna see where we've gotten to. Soon we've seen see if we've improved some. Right. We're gonna measure it. But, you know, thank you to everybody that participated in this. Thank you to Penny. Thank you to Russell for administering this, making it happen. Not an easy process to get all this together.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

Next time we project 98%.

SPEAKER_03 38:57

Next time we want 98%. Yeah. I hope we get that.

unknown 39:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:01

Well, and what I love, you know, is the fact that, you know, there's efforts toward measuring, you know, yeah, and systematically improving. And you know, and it takes an investment, you know, because it it takes time and effort and money to, you know, to inspect and break things down. And, you know, while I'm I'm not shocked that, you know, we have a healthy rating, we all know we want to get to flourishing. And you know, when you think about the word flourishing, it's growth that has a result usually based on a favorable environment that it's in. You know, a tree that's flourishing is usually near an ample, you know, source of water. You know, if you're thinking about how we're gonna flourish as a company, well, a great start is the fact that the the president of the company doesn't shy away from getting in a microphone and just saying, hey, there's stuff that we got to work on and talking about things. You don't find that everywhere. You know, creating an environment of open communication, you know, other ways to flourish when you're talking about the environment, let's put this back on anybody listening. How can you create a great environment where you're at, what site you're on, the crew that you're with every single day? You know, let's own it ourselves, each and every one of us. Asking myself, what can I do to create a a favorable environment? If we're all doing that, if we're all trying to make the environment that we work in better, it's gonna make it better for everybody, which means we're gonna flourish because it's primed for growth. Yeah if we've all got that mindset of like, all right, you know what, today I'm gonna make something a little bit better. I'm gonna do something to make it a little bit better, make it a better day for somebody that's that's with me to work with me, doing something that's a little bit extra, doing something that you know is gonna is gonna help. You know, if we have that mindset, that meter is gonna go towards flourishing.

SPEAKER_03 40:59

That's right. That's right. Good word, Jared. Good word. So, Penny, Russell, y'all got any parting comments, anything before you get off the podcast here?

SPEAKER_04 41:09

No, I guess we are very thankful for the comments, and we do want everybody to, you know, call in, you know, if you have questions about any of these things, they're kind of complicated. The benefits for sure. So always call in and ask. We're here. We'd like to talk to you anytime.

unknown 41:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

Yeah, part of the human resources is in its in its words, you know, it says resources. So let us be a resource for the employees of Wright Brothers and you know, assist you where we can. Right.

SPEAKER_03 41:36

Yeah. Good word, guys. Good word. Well, Jared, with that, I think it's time to wind this one up.

SPEAKER_05 41:41

Yeah, it's wind it up. And and you know, if you have feedback, we want feedback, you know, the questions and all that, don't forget podcast at wbccci.com. Hit us up, let us know what you think. And as we're wrapping this up, thank you for listening in. Remind somebody about it, tell somebody about it, go back to the catalog and uh listen to episodes that you might have missed. But until then, have a safe day.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

That's gonna do it for this episode of Talking Grit. Thanks for listening, and thanks to everyone out there putting in the work day in and day out. If you liked what you heard, be sure to follow the show and share it with someone who knows the value of hard work. We'll catch you next time right here on Talking Grit.