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Quality sure we know exactly what we are going to look at when we walk
out of the trailer. We must know what it is supposed to look like,
what size it is, what the finish is, and more. On a larger scale,
this also applies to all portions of what we do as a company. This
with Trey Griffith means the folks coming in may not have pumped water, so they
Director, Quality don’t know whose scope that needs to be in; or this tech pulls a
detail and issues it on a drawing, not knowing the ramifications
of their actions. We must lead each of our teams to operational
While recently attending a presentation, I saw some interesting excellence, and that starts at the foundation of what we do. Don’t
facts about the labor shortage that we have all heard about. In forget the fundamentals.
construction, employment rate is near an all time high at 7,594,000
people. That’s just 132,000 short of the ALL TIME high. The
unemployment rate is also extremely low at 5.4%; the all time
low is 3.2% from September 2019. This is the labor gap that we
have all been talking about for the last year or so, which I know is
nothing new. Most recently, the Associated General Contractors of
America (AGC) and Sage Construction and Real Estate surveyed
more than 1,000 contractors for their 2020 outlook. After compiling
8 responses, they concluded that the construction industry will
continue to grow, while 8% of construction firms reported they are
having issues finding craft positions. As you can see in the chart
to the right, worker quality is the top concern of the contractors
surveyed. That’s a big deal.
So why is this important to Quality? One of the things that I have
been talking about lately is fundamentals. We need to get back to
the basics of what we do, like pulling the tape and knowing our
documents. We must get on this now! As you can see, the labor
pool right now only has less experienced folks or “worker quality”.
When we have new people come into the workforce, we will need
to show them the basics of what we do. It's important to make

Field reached his one- you would expect, building in
Chris Moreau just
Africa has many differences from
year anniversary
working on a project in the U.S.,
Focus with Gray at the and Chris has several memorable
end of February,
experiences from his time on
but his career in
“I was in the middle of the
construction began those projects.
26 years ago. With all this time and experience behind him, Chris jungle in Sub Saharan Africa
believes a person should never stop learning and taking in the sitting in a thatch roof mud hut
opinions of others. with a village chief negotiating
“Being set in your ways about how you do everything can the price of sand for concrete. CHRIS MOREAU
leave you behind the eight ball before you know what happened,” In Cameroon they do not mine Senior Site Manager
said Chris. “Adapting to change in our industry is crucial.” sand the way we do here. People
Speaking of change, Chris’s move to Gray was from a general literally swim in the river, dive
contractor he spent 15 years working for. In that time, his roles down to the bottom, scoop up sand in a bucket, come back to
grew from Project Superintendent, Senior Project Superintendent the surface and then dump it into a canoe. Once the canoe is full
and then Operations Manager. He came to Gray as a Site they pull it ashore and shovel the sand it into a truck, then repeat.
Manager III and is currently working on the YKTA project in The chief would not sell me sand unless I agreed to a price
Huntsville, Alabama. increase during the rainy season that I initially would not agree
“I know it sounds cliché, but I especially like Gray’s core values to. He then explained that the river is much higher, deeper and
and how they are more than just something we say,” said Chris. faster at that time of year, which it makes it much more difficult
“[The core values] are actually the true culture of the company, for his villagers to reach the bottom and retrieve the sand. After
and that’s pretty rare in this industry. Gray has more than lived up watching the process of the villagers filling a canoe and then the
to what was talked about before I came to work here, and that’s chief showing me how high the water would be during the rainy
all someone can ask for.” season, I agreed to the increase.”
Chris has done some interesting construction work during his Experiences like this show how important it is to listen to and
career, namely a stint in Africa where he helped build two U.S. gather all the details from everyone we work with. We’re glad to
Embassies – one in Camaroon, the other in Sierra Leone. As have Chris on the Gray team.