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Harness Roofing confronts, hurdles language barrier

By Robert Ebisch, RSI Contributing Writer
Article from RSI Magazine, October of 2007

When Harness Roofing launched an aggressive employee training program in 2006, it placed an emphasis unusual in the industry on training geared to Spanish-speaking employees and on training English-speaking employees to work with this rapidly expanding segment of the work force.

"We hired consultants to come in and speak monthly to our key leaders, from foremen on up, on communication, teamwork, and other items that affect the business," Roger Harness, president, says, "and we had to make sure our Hispanic people were being trained as well."

Harness Roofing had three employees when it was incorporated in 1987, and none was hispanic. As late as 1999, the company's Hispanic work force totaled one. By 2005, however, Harness' hispanic staff had grown to 20 percent of the total. Today the company, based in Harrison, Ark., with branch offices in Springdale, Fort Smith, and Little Rock, has 125 employees and nearly half are Hispanic.

The company had all of its pre-employment forms and testing on fall protection and other topics translated to Spanish. All safety programs are presented in English and Spanish. Since the beginning of this year, they company's 4,000-hour apprenticeship and testing program has been offered in Spanish. Two of the company's locations this year have been providing weekly two-hour classes on Friday afternoons, in which Hispanic employees are paid to learn English terminologies specific to their roofing jobs. The company's English speakers are also trained to be familiar with the exact terms being taught their hispanic coworkers.

"That's been going on just a short time," Harness says, "but our commitment to really spending some money and effort on company-wide training has shown results in improved communication, better teamwork, taking more pride in the work and much lower turnover."

Workforce turnover dropped from 75 percent in 2006 to below 50 percent in 2007, and the goal for 2008 is 30 percent, Harness says. Workman's compensation has fallen as well, reaching 7 percent of wages this year. The company's experience modification rate (EMR) has also fallen to 0.68 this year.

"That comes right off my premium," Harness says, "which saves me literally thousands and thousands of dollars."

In solving the language barrier, Harness has enlisted the help of bilingual consultants for training and of local community colleges for translation and teaching. The Center for the Advancement of Roofing Excellence (CARE) has also helped with training, Harness says, providing Certified Roofing Torch Applicator (CERTA) training in English one day and in Spanish the next day.

The national Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) is also a great resource, ha adds, with more of its material available in Spanish. This year the NRCA introduced its Roofing Industry Fall Protection "from A to Z" program in English and Spanish, and for the first time its Train the Trainer Safety Program is available in some cities in Spanish.

The focus on training geared to Hispanic employees has benefits beyond the immediate job, as well. "Anything they can pick up in English will help them in their everyday lives," Harness says. "That we're willing to spend time and money and effort to train them is helping not just to keep the turnover down but to make a happier employee."

Harness believes that extra time and money and effort are well worth it.

"I'll probably spend $100,000 this year in consulting and pay for classes plus the lost work," he says, "but I'm making money on it in my opinion by the safety and the better work force we have and better quality jobs we're producing."

Retention of clients is probably 99 percent, Harness says.

"We just do not lose a customer. We have heavy referrals, and we do hardly any hard bids. I attribute all this to the fact that we deliver what we say we will, and we can only do that if our guys are trained - not just the English speakers but the Spanish speakers as well."