Skilled Craft Employees

Almost every sector of the economy has been affected by the tight labor market, and the construction industry has been especially hard hit in two ways. One, recruiting the numbers of crafts people necessary to build the volume of projects is becoming increasingly difficult. And two, the skill level required to finish technically demanding projects, DPR’s specialty, continues to rise. Finding the right people for these jobs is a big challenge.

DPR is meeting this challenge head-on. Putting its core value of ever forward to work, DPR, for the first time, is placing recruitment ads in regional newspapers to help find the skilled crafts people it needs. But while ads can attract a greater number of qualified applicants, keeping good employees requires much more, and DPR is leading the industry in providing opportunities for its crafts people to grow and take on leadership opportunities.

Throughout DPR there are examples of employees who began their careers as craft people and have since taken on leadership roles within the company. Thor Michelson, in San Francisco, started working with DPR as a carpenter, became a foreman and is now a top superintendent at a site where he once worked as a carpenter. Rodney Spencley served as a superintendent, foreman ironworker and schoolteacher before putting his more than 21 years of construction experience to work as director of DPR’s safety programs company-wide. Jim Dolen is another DPR employee who seized the opportunity to excel. Jim began his career in the construction industry as a carpenter and through more than 25 years of semiconductor, healthcare, pharmaceutical and office projects has gained the unique leadership skills essential to running a complex building project and a company. Jim is now one of DPR’s three executive vice presidents and a member of the senior management team.

Thor, Rodney and Jim are just three stories among many at DPR, where crafts people have taken on leadership roles. In future issues of this newsletter, we will share other employee success stories that have made DPR a truly great company.