Secrets to business success

Masonry Construction, April, 2004

Rewarding and Challenging Employees: For Profits in Masonry (RACE) is a book that should be in the hands of every masonry contractor, block producer, and construction company owner because it provides a roadmap to reinventing your organization. Damian Lang, president, Lang Masonry Contractors and EZ Grout Corp., explains his successful RACE system for improving employee productivity and company performance.

Lang estimates that the average productivity in the construction industry is 40%. "Would your customers pay for a complete day's work if they knew you were only productive for less than 1/2 that time?" he asks. "If we could get productivity up to 60%, that increase would improve the bottom line by 50%," Lang continues.

His method is both a philosophy and a system to find creative ways to make employees want to do more. The author starts by abandoning traditional pay practices and looks at other approaches for success.

His RACE system has five basic elements: people work for themselves, what gets measured gets done, everyone must feel responsible for the success of the job at hand, any incentive plan must be simple and easy to understand, and the more closely the rewards are tied to the results, the more effective the reward system. As Lang points out, "Although the RACE system is designed to help a business grow and increase profits, it is focused on helping employees, since they work for themselves."

Lang doesn't stop there. He covers the impact of safety, incentives and quality, production fundamentals, involving foremen and field employees, creating motivation, prevailing wages, how to get started, involving office personnel, and how to maintain the system.

Completed samples show a foreman production time card, how to find the percentage the foreman earns for the day, how to figure a quarterly quality incentive, safety incentive calculations for field employees, and the cost of a lost work day to employees.

Does his system really work? There's a resounding "yes" from Lang's employees. They like coming to work, the company treats them fairly, and there is room for advancement. Employee opinions matter and they have pride in the finished product. The system Lang describes gives you the best of all worlds --happy employees, satisfied customers, and a successful business.

Rewarding and Challenging Employees: For Profits in Masonry is published by Hanley Wood and available online for $39.99 at www.wocbookstore.com.

For information on quantity orders, contact Norma Ciaglia at 630-7052573 or nciaglia@hanleywood.com.