A Chair for the Weatherization Contractor

Let’s face it: We’ve all spilled a cup of coffee on our shirt right before we walked into an important meeting or a customer’s home. We’ve probably shared a very similar reaction with a few explicit words. If you’re like me, you probably carry a Tide stain remover stick in your pocket next to the pens and smoke sticks. That Tide stick is used for what’s called a spot source treatment. This allows you to quickly get that spot of coffee off your shirt before you walk into that appointment or the customer’s home, ensuring that you look professional and you’re not a hot mess.

As an industry, weatherization has been addressing workforce development in the same way that the Tide stick addresses coffee spills. There are many disconnected spot source programs sporadically popping up without direction, guidance, and, oftentimes, benefit. The lack of synchronicity in workforce development (in an already workforce-crippled industry) is exacerbating our existing problems. We need our efforts to be aligned, thoughtful, and collaborative to truly build the next gen workforce.

According to Lightcast and “The Rising Storm” report, 62.5% of Americans are currently working across all industries. Over the past decade, this number has continued to steadily decline as an entire generation ages out and embraces retirement. This movement towards retirement and the resulting reduction in skilled workforce is known as “the silver tsunami.” Put simply: We are facing the retirement of an entire generation that is leaving a gaping void. When this stunning factor is combined with an increase in population, all of the sudden the weather people start to get excited because they are seeing the merging of storms in a way that is beyond rare (insert “The Perfect Storm” film imagery in your head here).

As the population grows, so does the demand for basic needs in housing. With an exponential increase in the population, Lightcast predicts that an additional 6,000,000 tradespeople will be needed—in addition to what’s already needed now—in less than 10 years. Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that there’s not enough tradespeople right now to meet our current demand. If you don’t believe me, I’m going to challenge you. I want you to call your local HVAC contractor, tell them that your cooling system is broken, and ask how soon they can get to you. On average, the response time is a minimum of two weeks, if not three to four. Contractors are at an all-time high in demand and they can’t keep up. This problem is even more severe for weatherization and energy efficiency contractors due to limited resources and staff.

I made the big move from working in the field as a crew lead and energy auditor to working in the office with Earth Forward Group, tackling workforce development and program design. One of the  discoveries I made during this change is: We are working to fix an industry that is competing with all trades. This may seem like a blatantly obvious statement and, yet, the reality of it has huge implications.

Play along with me. In your mind, go back to your senior year of high school. Assume that you’re a student in a shop class and you’re deciding which trade you want to embark into for your career. You have plumbing companies, home builders, electricians, and HVAC installers standing in front of you, offering you jobs because they can’t hire quick enough. At a minimum, they’re showing you a potential to earn anywhere from $80,000 to $120,000 in your first year as an 18-year-old, recent high school graduate. Then, the weatherization contractor walks in. This contractor is tired, probably pounding a cup of coffee or an energy drink (which may be their eighth cup of the day), covered in foam sealant and cellulose.  They say, “Hey, come work for me, I’ve got a great opportunity for you, but I can only pay you $40,000 a year. I can’t pay you what all those other folks can, but I can give you a job that is far more rewarding and meaningful through changing lives.” Which one would you choose? Now, by no means will the salaries that I’m suggesting be 100% accurate everywhere in the country, but they’re probably not far off from what I’ve seen working as an energy auditor, a field tech, a manager, a quality control inspector, and a director. So, the real question at hand is: How do we make the change that we need to see at this point?

I believe the solution is primarily centered around the economics of weatherization. Ultimately, you have to peel back the layers to understand that there are a plethora of immediate things we need to address to get to the end goal. First, let’s look at what’s outside of the control of contractors: demanding program goals, financial constraints due to pricing limitations, budget, and competitive markets. These factors play huge roles in establishing limitations on the contractor. They can only hire the quality employees that they can afford to pay. If they can’t be competitive, then they can’t win the proverbial race to get to the new employees before the other trades do. Can contractors do better? Can they have some say in the control of this situation? The answer is yes. This is not a rubber stamp solution for all contractors. Some are large businesses run like corporate machines, while others are very small operating with as few as three to four employees. Solutions will look different for all organizations.

Let’s assume that budgets can’t change and pricing structure remains the same. In this environment, the contractor is stuck in a holding pattern and is left to get resourceful. This is not the end of the world! After all, we’re weatherization professionals. So, let’s come together and face this challenge by getting creative and doing what we’re great at. How can we save money and reallocate it as an organization? Let’s look at one place of business expenses that we have some control over: the dreaded go-back work resulting from those darn inspectors. But wait a second! Who is in control of the inspection result? Is it the inspector or the contractor? If your program has a good inspection team inspecting the right way, you’re only getting actionable return items based on the program standards, policies, and procedures. Let’s own up to this and the mistakes we make. After all, we’re all human. Mistakes happen and they’re a great place to learn.

The reality that contractors are facing is that go-back work costs a lot of money. Without getting into details, the cost of a go-back approaches nearly $2,900 for four hours on a job site. Assuming that over 12 months, you have to go back to a minimum of 50 jobs, the total annual cost can exceed $145,000. This means, we found a huge bucket of money to reinvest into the team each year. If you’re a fan of John Tooley such as myself, you understand the carrot and stick method is not worth anything. Do not use this “bucket” of funding as the motivator for movement or the mechanism for change. This only leads people a few steps before they realize they can’t actually reach what they’re walking towards.

So, how do we motivate change? Start with a conversation and be real with your team. Explain to them the dilemma faced in this cost and explain the willingness to reinvest the regained capital back to them. You invest in them, they invest in you. Now, what about the company that recoups this funding, but doesn’t reinvest into the team? You’ll read my response to those folks below.

At the end of the day, the only way we build a solution is through working together. As weatherization contractors, we’re exceptional at being creative and solving problems nobody else is willing to do. Let’s get together and solve this one, too.

Another discovery I’ve made in my new position is that there is hope in conversation and advocacy. As an industry, we need to really challenge the way that we think about weatherization and energy efficiency. We need to think about how we value the weatherization contractor. Are we supporting them financially so that they can support the communities they work in? Are we establishing financial equity inside of the industry as well as outside? These are the things that we strive to do for our customers every day in income-qualified weatherization programs all over the country.

The question that I think we’re not asking ourselves is: How much more can those contractors take? How can we shift the focus of our daily conversation on justice and equity to squarely within our industry? Currently, the only option for  the average individual weatherization professional is job hopping to achieve a meager raise. Weatherization companies hate this because they invest so much time and energy into an employee, only for that employee to go to another company just to make a few more dollars per hour.

Let’s be real for a second though. Put yourself in that technician or that crew leader’s shoes. They are working in some of the worst conditions out there. These aren’t new home construction sites and are often very unpleasant working conditions that they spend 8 to 12 hours a day working in. Do you blame that person for trying to better themselves and attempting to achieve more financial stability, equity, and justice for themselves and their families? Do you blame them for trying to put more food on their table? The challenge is: Are you part of the solution or are you part of the problem? I really feel like this is the question we all need to take a deep hard look at inside of ourselves and in our businesses.

Fair pay is just as important as fair trade, and it’s crucial that we take the hard (but necessary) look at why these conditions exist. We need to build an understanding of the weatherization economy, and understand that we have all been operating on grocery store pricing, which promotes the competitive market to eliminate its ability to grow in a financially stable way. If you’re the person in the suit or behind the desk running and growing that organization, you’ve really got to ask yourself: Am I giving back to the people that give everything for me? Am I helping those that need help or am I just in it for myself and my own benefit?

Although some of the latter will exist in this industry (as they do in every industry), I do genuinely believe that weatherization organizations are comprised of individuals who view their role as a humanitarian before anything else. I have heard so many stories of individuals who ended up in this industry by accident, only to choose to stay because they felt something in the work more than just a need for a paycheck. I believe this to be the only explanation as to why contractors choose to stay in weatherization and not go to private operations to make a lot more money. It really is a privilege to work beside those folks who embrace the challenges and dig through them to help their communities.

To those wolves out there taking advantage of people… don’t worry, we see you, and you can’t hide. You’ll be found out, and this group of amazing people won’t accept your presence.

I believe the way we solve our industry’s pay issue and get over that spot source treatment approach is determined by economics. We must be able to pay better to attract the next generation of employees because we are up against the entire trades workforce that is far more competitively compensated. If we can set the economics back on course, we stand a chance to build a workforce pipeline that is beyond needed in green jobs and energy efficiency. We can make the change; we just have to come together and solve the problem at hand.

The goal of this article is to shake up the way that we think and to start the conversation to promote change. I have a saying that has always rung true in my career: The only consistent things in weatherization are challenge and change. It’s challenging because of the housing stock, the financial constraints, the limited resources, the complicated processes and requirements, and most importantly, it’s genuinely hard work. It’s always changing because we do it better every day as we apply science to building a home and treating it as a system. We follow the science when it tells us there is a better way. This is uncommon in the home building and retrofit worlds. To a huge portion of general contractors and trades professionals, building science is quite frankly “voodoo” that no one trusts. Don’t believe me, listen to the Building Performance Association’s Chief Policy Officer, Kara Saul Rinaldi, testify before Congress at a hearing entitled “Building the American Dream: Examining Affordability, Choice, and Security in Appliance and Buildings Policies.” All I can do is shake my head and wish I had the opportunity to put some of the folks asking questions on the spot by having them prove their ridiculously unfounded statements.

It’s time that we take a moment to pause and bring a chair to the table for the contractor. They have a lot to say, and we need to listen because it’s the only way that we keep this industry from imploding on itself. We’re doing great work, and we can do it better if we value those with the tools already in their hands. Contractors are the ones who deliver these programs. They build them from the ground up while navigating consistent change and challenge. I’m convinced if we support them by providing the necessary tools, support, and equitable compensation, we can then build the future pipeline of next generation weatherization professionals through becoming a competitive trade within the trades.