Developing the Next Generation of Modular Industry Workers w/ Modern Building Systems [podcast transcript]

John McMullen

What challenges is the industry facing to bring in and train workers? I guess not just modular, but the building industry in general. What challenges are they specifically facing?

Alan Rasmussen

Well, again, I think there's a stigma against the construction industry that it's lesser than or dirty, really demanding, and there's cooler jobs to be had out there. I think our industry specifically, people think, Oh, it's just the manufactured home plan. That's boring. It's repetitive. Not a lot of excitement there. That's not the case. I think especially these commercial modular manufacturers, we're building some great products. These projects are very interesting. There's a lot of opportunity there.

John McMullen

So, what's Modern done to bring in workers and really develop talent over the past few years?

Alan Rasmussen

Yeah, this is this has been a real passion project of mine. To be kind of honest, it started out as very selfish. I'm just going to flip over any stone I can to find labors, construction workers. Our local area Salem, Oregon, the State Capitol, which is about 10 miles away, it's comprised of about eight high schools, and a very generous donor, who's a developer in town, set up a career technical school and it's a great model. These kids, they get bussed across town into the school and instead of just one hour of shop class, these students spend two and a half days at this school. So, their English classes tie to their construction program. So, they could be doing submittals, it could be reading plans, it could be writing bids. Their math class is tied to what they're doing. It could be geometry of figuring out the yards needed to pour foundation or angles for the rafters on the roof. So, I kind of got invited to check it out, and have been involved for at least four or five years doing mentoring programs, doing job fairs there, hosting tours at our factory and frankly, recruiting these students. There's also a nonprofit subsidiary that builds a house every year. So, the students get bussed out and they spend about four hours every other day out at the house project, framing, roofing, siding, doing finish carpentry doing all the phases.

So, I've been involved in that board, too and we recruit those kids. There's a great dovetail from their classroom because they're in a big warehouse space as their classroom. That greatly resembles the modular factory. So, when they transfer when I do recruit them in, and they transfer they come to work for Modern. It feels like home to them, they've been in this class their junior and senior year and Modern looks and feels a lot like their classroom back at the career technical school. When the pandemic hit, my wife's a high school principal, and I kind of knew what was going on. Kids were just scrambling, schools were scrambling like crazy, just to put some curriculum together. Kids were kind of sitting at home twiddling their thumbs, and there were some that I had just done a mock, you know, they'll do these mock interviews, to help build these their professional skills and I would tell them, I'll come in and do it, but I'm going to interview for real, I'm going to offer them jobs, and they're totally fine with that. They love that.

I had talked to him maybe a few weeks before the pandemic first hit. Then it kind of dawned on me one day I go, man, some of these kids that I was planning to talk to, and have them come on board when they graduated, or when the summer hit, are probably just sitting at home. I called a couple of them. I'm like, hey, do you want to come to work and they're like, sure. They still had some online school responsibilities and we worked it out that some days, they didn't have any, and they could put in, you know, eight hours a day. Some days, they needed to be on their computer for a couple hours and do an online class. We just had them clock out and I basically set up my conference room as a classroom for them. They would clock out and then come in and sit down in the conference room and do their school, eat their lunch, then clock back out and clock back in.

We've kind of done that model going forward. A lot of them when they hit their senior year, they don't have a full five-day school week, so I have several students right now that go to school two days a week and they work for me three days a week. Some of them go to school three days a week and work for me two days a week. When the summer hits, they're full time. So, it's been great.

Early on, I would say my station leads, my framing supervisor, finish supervisor, they were very leery of it. All these high school kids and now they'll tell you they've done such a great job at this career technical school teaching them that they prefer them. They want them on their crews, they want them in their stations. I will tell people reach out to those programs. Across the nation, they're talking about career technical schools and construction is always one that's usually prevalent in those programs and to connect with them.

John McMullen

So, you mentioned earlier the stigma that some people have against construction in general and doing that hands on kind of work. What's the feedback been from these kids who have come to work for you, who are in the factory doing real work? What sort of feedback have you gotten from them?

Alan Rasmussen

Well, they're so eager. A lot of these kids have never had a job before and if they have, it's been pretty light, maybe bagging groceries or something. So, they're really eager. They chose to go into this career technical school program. So, they're very eager to put those skills to use and make money on it. A lot of their friends that maybe some of their friends who do have jobs, minimum wage, and they're getting $5, 7, 8, 9 more an hour than their friends.

So, they're very eager to come in, work and it's kind of funny, they'll tell me they like coming and working in the factory over going to the House Project, the stick-built project site that they have for part of their senior year project. I'm looking out the window right now and it's 38 degrees and raining. They much prefer to come into the factories. It's nice and dry and they prefer that work environment. I've kind of alluded to it a few times earlier in this conversation is I think that's where we need to as an industry, highlight those advantages to come in and work in those controlled environments in the construction period.

John McMullen

So, you have alluded to those several times and I was going to ask what are those advantages that modular has over the stick-built construction, traditional construction industry? What can modular offer workers that they can't?

Alan Rasmussen

Well, first off is just the working conditions. The winter might be cold, snowing, raining, depending on where you are in the country. The other thing is schedule predictability. I've had plumbers and electricians who I've been able to recruit in because they're out in their work van and driving here and there, they don't know where necessarily, where they'll be one day or the other. In some of these big urban markets, they get stuck in traffic for an hour after work trying to get back to the shop and get in their truck and go home.

So, the schedule predictability, being able to tell their family when they're going to be home, being able to volunteer their time to coach their son or daughter's sports team. They like that. They like having that predictability. I have a electrical apprentice who's newly married, she's looking to start a family soon. She worked a couple of years in the traditional stick-built world as an electrical apprentice and she didn't see a path to be able to be a mother and do that career at the same time, just because of those factors that I talked about. She loves it here at Modern, she loves having a set, schedule predictability, and still be able to work in this and a very well paid a skilled trade labor job, and we're happy to support her in that. So that's awesome.

I think those are just some of the things that we need to as an industry and these companies in these industries, keep that in mind when you recruit these people. There are some great advantages.

John McMullen

So, based on what you're doing in the community, Modern, and what you've seen elsewhere, what ideas do you have that might help other manufacturers and builders bring in new workers?

Alan Rasmussen

Well, touching back on that career technical school. I would do these job fairs, or do these mock interviews, and with the work safety rules in this country you really can't have anyone under the age of 18 in your factory, swinging the hammer, using the nail gun or using the saws. It's like these students were eager to work, but I'd have to ask, hey, when are you going to turn 18? I could hire a few to clean and sweep up, but that's not going to set them on fire for the trades.

So, I started talking to a few of our contacts in the local Oregon legislature. They said, well, we can do an Oregon law, but it'll be superseded by federal law. I got talking to the Bureau of Labor and Industries here in the state of Oregon that has a child labor division, and it goes, hey, what you need to look at is this in the federal work safety law, there's something called a Student Learner program. We looked into that, and it's this collaborative between a school and the student is in some sort of CTE program. Maybe it's not as robust as what Salem Kaiser Public Schools is doing here in Oregon, but maybe it's just their one period shop class or whatever.

You have a document signed by the school, the guardian, parent, the student, the company, and they're an employee of mine, the work comp coverage is mine. By doing that, you can bring in students that are under the age of 18 and those restrictions on being in that setting, and what they call a hazardous work environment, you can be in that setting. You can use the tools.

So, I've been able to bring in labor that before wouldn't even cross your mind. They've been able to work in a collaborative with what they're doing in school and still meet the federal work safety laws. So that law, that path is out there. I encourage other modular companies to look at that and work with the local schools and those students.

John McMullen

Very cool. I learned something myself, so I'm glad we had this conversation. To the workers themselves, what's your pitch for working in modular construction?

Alan Rasmussen

Well, when I talk to people, talking to a perspective client, or even a client, what is this building we're building? One fun little phrase I use is, this is adult Lego building and we work fast. Their speed, it's changing every day. There are new and exciting projects, not every project is the same. So, one project to the other, we build those buildings a different way, it's a different set of Legos. As a child, you get bored playing with the same Lego set over and over. We get a great variety every day. Again, some of the advantages I've already mentioned, to just the schedule predictability, that work family life balance that can be achieved, and still work in construction. Much safer. In our factory, in most factories, roofing is by far more safer job tasks than it is out on a site-built construction project. We want you to come in and work and definitely go home to see your family. This industry is just safer. It's not as demanding and working in the environments. And it's fun.

John McMullen

So, it's almost at the at the end of this interview, before you go: Tell me what's going on at Modern. What's on the horizon for 2022?

Alan Rasmussen 

Well, we got some exciting stuff. I'm sitting here in our conference room chatting with you and I'm looking at a big set of plans in front of me, but a lot of swing space for schools. One I'm looking at the table here, it's going to be the school, it's a rural school district that needs to expand. They don't necessarily want a village of double wide classrooms. They can't quite afford stick-built construction, that's booming in costs. So, their five-classroom addition is going to be built with modular. So, we're going to tie it right into the existing school building. It's going to match the existing architecture. Those are the projects we get excited about. We're pretty heavy in the education industry and providing them solutions that don't necessarily have to be the double wide classrooms. They get pretty excited about that and have a few others like that per school district. So, I’m looking forward to it.

John McMullen

There's a great need for those education projects. My sons right now are in double-wide classrooms. Their school has gotten too big and they're doing that for the time-being until a new school can be built.

Alan Rasmussen

Yeah, that's the conversation we have with our school districts. There's something in between there, take a look at that and think long term solutions utilizing modular construction.

John McMullen

So, one last thing, I was hoping you could help me hype up MBI’s upcoming World of Modular in April. We're going to be back in person in San Antonio on April 25 through the 28th. I know you've been an attendee for a long time. Why do you and Modern keep coming back to World of Modular?

Alan Rasmussen

Well, I mean, this year, especially back in person, that should sell in itself. It's going to be big, it'd be nice to see everybody again. San Antonio, Texas in April will be nice and warm. Those from the northeast, up here in the northwest, and especially our Canadian members come and thaw out per se but it's always just a good time to catch up. We're a small niche industry, we're growing, but there's a great fraternity and it's always good to see the other people in your industry and learn from them, just chat with them, support each other. So, it's definitely worth the trip down and we really look forward to seeing everybody down there. As a board member, this is a this is a big piece of MBI’s budget every year. So help come support us so we can keep doing great things for you guys.

John McMullen

Well, thank you, Alan, I really appreciate you being here today. I learned some things and I'm looking forward to seeing you in April in San Antonio.

Alan Rasmussen

Alrighty, John, looking forward to it.

John McMullen

My name is John McMullen, and this has been another episode of Inside Modular: The Podcast of Commercial Modular Construction. Until next time.