Show me your workers & I'll show you your Company.

I am sure this article is going to hit a nerve with some. While I don't set out to upset people, I do set out to educate people though my own life experiences. Something of late has been coming more and more onto my radar. I live in a part of the world where they are able to use cheaper labour for construction. I am relating this directly to the construction industry as this is my background and my passion. Now whatever you think about this practice personally I do not want to get into this. It's not what this article is about.

What I am getting at is the mindset of the people and companies doing the hiring, the approach around education and training and the views towards their workforce. The more I meet companies in the region, the more sites I visit, the more I see the same issues that were present when I was building pipelines in the region in 2005. I won't say all companies as we know that putting everyone in the same basket is foolish at best. I watch the same high rise construction project daily and see the professional nature of the operation and it shows in their workers.

I think I will start with my own experience directly related to this that ended up in a trip to Karachi, back when it was the training ground for the Taliban! I was an Pipeline Equipment Manager for an International Construction Company. As it is in the industry, it starts with a phone call, "hey we need you to head to Azerbaijan to demobe some equipment. We'll send you to our Gulf office to meet the team and get an understanding of what they need from you. It won't be straight forward but you know the drill." So off I went and landed in the Gulf right at the start of summer, lucky me.

After meeting the team and visiting some of the sites in the Gulf it was apparent that there were some significant challenges right here before we even got to Azerbaijan. The first week was literally spent getting my head around all of the projects in hand, the state of the equipment, the quality of the maintenance team and finally the production of the projects. Just from the equipment and maintenance perspective alone, we had some serious issues. Equipment on site was not in acceptable condition for the project to be successful. Untrained maintenance personnel and unacceptable maintenance support (vehicles and workshops).

What hope did the projects have if you could not get the basics right? The construction side was in similar shape. One project in particular, a 30" pipeline had a welding repair rate some 16 times acceptable level back where I first learnt to Pipeline. Of course I was young, vocal and had a deep desire to see projects succeed so I let it be known what the problems were, from what I could see, and what needed to be addressed. You can imagine the long term expats took exception to this and dug their heels in. Who is this young punk and how dare he say this.

I heard every excuse under the sun. "Chris you have no idea about these workers, it's what we have to work with." "You are crazy if you think you can change this." "Hahahaha, you have been here 5 minutes and all of a sudden you are an expert." I heard it all, excuses, personal attacks, trying to send me back. I will point out that the majority of all of these comments came from people sitting in the air conditioning, as it was simply too hot to get out and visit the sites in their view. I had 3 advantages; I was in the field everyday, I knew the equipment and I understood people.

I started training the mechanics assigned to me. I would take them out in teams of 3, start with a machine and start training them on not only the maintenance but the safety. I ran the line everyday with the guys and educated them on the equipment and what is expected of them. The next obstacle was getting the repairs done of an evening. I again was met with all kinds of resistance from the expats in the safety of their AC office. "Hahahahaha good luck, they are afraid of the Boogie Man." "They are lazy, they don't work at night." I was even told that "they can't see at night, they are just blind as a bat."

Serious as a heart attack, this is what I was up against. As a people watcher, I decided to observe the workers and their ritual to work out why. I could only think of advantages, cooler temperatures, no interference from production, cooler equipment....and the list went on. You can learn a lot from observing and working 12 hours in the field, travel each way to and from the camp, then doing all your nightly chores which included your own cleaning of clothes and alike. There was simply no time left to do anything else. If you were to work into the evening, it would mean sacrificing something.

I convinced 4 guys to stay back with me the first evening. There was much resistance, of course but they were starting to trust and open up to me. No one else had looked after them so why would I? That evening we got an abundance of work done. I supplied them food and drinks and when it was all done I gave them the rest needed for them to perform their tasks again the next day/evening. Once I had their trust, we could achieve greatness. We ended up with a split shift and really started to give the construction team what they deserved to build their projects.

While all of this was going on, the facts still remained with the construction side and in particular, the welding. One of the other recruits from Australia, a young hot headed punk like myself, was trying to get his head around it all. Again the major issue was not culture differences or anything like this, it was trust and leadership. What he had worked out was some of the welders were quite simply poor in the eye sight department. He imported some "cheater lenses" from Australia and you would swear people thought he had made fire for the first time. This brought the repair rate down somewhat but still no where near enough.

The question I kept asking myself was why? Why can't they weld? Was it education? Was it the heat? Was it something I was missing? As you can tell by now my trip to Azerbaijan was a long gone memory and by default I was now part of the furniture in the Gulf so to speak. Meeting after meeting we were addressing the same issues. One meeting they must of had enough of hearing me and decided it was time for a "recruiting drive." Being naive to global conflict zones certainly had its advantages, let me tell you. "Chris, you're going to Karachi." OK cool, wheres that? "Pakistan." OK cool.

I had no idea it was the training ground for the Taliban at the time and to be honest, I did not care. I could write a book on my short visit there, a great adventure as I like to say. There was even a shooting which we had to quickly get away from. Ah the memories. I was told by the agent back in the Gulf that I would be amazed by the state of the art welding facilities I would see when I was there and I would be even more amazed by the quality of their welders. I was certainly amazed, I will say that. We were greeted by the welding team at the facility. I am supposing that because they had electricity that should be deemed state of the art.

The welding team beggared belief. I am talking 60 year olds with coke bottle thick glasses. I'm a big believer of never judging a book by the cover but there is no way they could handle the heat let alone the riggers of welding in the desert. From the moment they tried (and I use that very liberally) to set up the pipe, it was apparent that they had no idea about pipe welding. The other thing that was quite apparent was the misfortunate electricity going out when they were trying to weld. I started to get quite annoyed that my time and the companies time was being wasted like this. "Mr Chris, come, come......it is too hot out here for you, come into the office."

I said, in no uncertain terms, to stop wasting my time and I was here to test welders, mechanics, operators and drivers for recruiting. I was not here for anything else. When the power went out, my interpreter said to come in the office as there was nothing we could do until the power came back on. Once in the office, I was asked to just sign the papers as these were very good welders and I had nothing to worry about. Well anyone that knows me knows that is certainly not what you should say to me. Australian Equipment Manager Chris came to the party abruptly and with great force! They were shaking, I was shaking with anger and they were calling me all kinds of names in a language I certainly could not understand.

I spoke with my driver and interpreter and we made a plan to find diesel welding sets. We let the recruiting company know that were were postponing the welding trial until we had secured the right equipment. We moved onto other tests like mechanics and drivers. In a day we had secured the use of diesel welders at an engineering facility. Before anyone asks, no it was not safe and downtown industrial Karachi was a place I was truly scared for the first time. As soon as we arrived at the facility and I saw the NEW welding crew a light bulb went off in my head. I knew exactly what was going on.

The new welding crew were gentlemen in their mid 30's, fit, wearing the welders infamous polkadot hats and denim shirts. These guys looked and breathed pipelines. Suffice to say the gig was up and the guys were amazing welders. Truly world class. This was my issue all along. Just because someone comes from a different country or a different background does not mean you cannot do a job. The issue was the corruption and greed of the recruiting agency looking after friends, family members and so on. Over and over I was told "this is not Australia you know."

I knew from our own company that some of our best welders and side boom operators were from Asia. I had just cottoned on to the gig that was allowed to go on for years and years. The usual method of recruiting was to head to the various cities, spend 2 nights there, sign off, have some celebrations and head back. No sense of pride, no sense of achievement and certainly no ownership when it all went bad. Just the old, "well it's just the way they are you know." I ended up extending my time in Karachi by a few days to get the job done correctly and I did it to the best of my ability.

The abuse kept coming even when I landed back at Gulf HQ. The resident recruiting manager that was supposedly making all the necessary arrangements for me and my trip in country was trying to belittle me at a debriefing meeting. Suffice to say I wiped the floor with him and his incompetence of an epic proportion. The thing to understand is the cultures. When you understand what makes people tick, you have a greater insight into addressing problems. When you are dealing with cultures where lying is second nature to them, you need to act accordingly and change your approach.

Anyone with a position of authority, it is up to you to train your workforce on everything from safety to what is expected of them. Lead your people and educated them for the future. Future you will thank you for it as well as the people coming behind you. I did nothing extraordinary or amazing. I just did what the company asked and deserved of me. I always believe that my crews over the years are a direct reflection of myself. How they worked, how they interacted, how they helped and how they respected. It was something I had to learn and I made some mistakes over the years, that is for sure. But this is what growing and personal development is all about.

On any road at anytime of the day or night there are "professional drivers" here in the Emirates that have been hired with one task; to drive. This is either a car, bus or heavy vehicle. If you have hired a professional driver and they drive like a maniac, that is on you not on them. If I visit your job site and I see people working in an unsafe manner, wasting fuel or doing the job wrong, well you guessed it, that is on you. If you have production issues, cost blowouts or constant equipment downtime, that is also on you. It's a long road to achieve greatness but it is not impossible.

It is your duty to educate as much as it is to find the best candidate for the position offered. If you are using a recruiting agency then hold them to account. Trust is earned and if you don't want to upset anyone or it's easier to keep the peace and just go with it then you are only laying the foundations for failure down the track. I have worked with unbelievable welders from Pakistan, a spread Boss who could cut it with anyone around the world from India and side boom operators who are the best of the best from Thailand.

Passionate people dedicated to their jobs are everywhere, it's only a matter of finding them. Training people is non-negotiable. It's your duty for not only your production but for their safety and yours. There is no excuse if you ask me. Sure there is a lot to learn with new cultures but it is about first understanding the individual person. I could not work out why my mechanics would continually do something I told them not to. Until I got fed up one day and asked why. The reply was gold, frightening, but gold. "Mr. Chris you just yell and scream when we don't do what you say. See that man there, if I don't do what he says, he will stab me in my sleep!"

What I did not understand was their chain of command. I must respect their culture if I have any chance of getting the best out of them. Working in parts of the world with cheap labour is not easy, however having a part in the development and growth of people is life changing for not only them, but you. After months of training and developing the maintenance team and giving them the tools to do their job properly, it was time to say goodbye. It was a very emotional time and many of these grown men were sobbing. It was heartfelt and truly inspiring to know you had that much of an effect on them.

Don't accept poor performance. Don't tolerate lies. Don't stop in your pursuit of project excellence. We all have the power within us to build greatness but it starts with our own attitudes and what we are willing to accept. Managing people is a great responsibility and a roll you should have great pride in. Don't be foolish enough to blame the workers for there are no bad students, only poor teachers. Pride and respect goes a long way in the construction industry. As always Oryx Consulting is here to help you with your projects. We are passionate about helping you Build a Better Project.