Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week right here we come together, we talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. It is so good to be back with
you again this week. I'm Nicole Davis locally and nationwide.
Demand for skilled workers in the trades is huge right now.
The nation overall is focusing more on infrastructure and we
(00:28):
have a housing crisis, so we need more housing built.
Of course, the homes and buildings we have as well
have to be maintained. Trouble is, when it comes to
filling all these needs, there just are not nearly enough
trained workers to do it. Bill Rick, a company came
up with a plan to tackle that issue on their own,
and they say it is working so well. A demand
to get in is through the roof. Mich Lacrosse is
(00:49):
the CEO of Metford, Wellington's service company. Carry Brewin is
the company's people in culture managers. So it's great to
have you both on the show. Thanks for coming in
to talk about this. Mike, let's kick off by talking
about but what your company does and a little bit
more about the background.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
We've been in business for over fifty years now. We
are a commercial services business that we brand ourselves as
the Business Continuity Company, and what that means is we
really want to make sure that our business is our
customers are fully operational at all times. So if you
think about a restaurant, who our customers are, a restaurant,
a lab, a office location, we want to make sure
(01:26):
that they're electrical, they're plumbing, their HVAC, their refrigeration are
all fully operational so they can continue to do whatever
their business is on a daily basis to keep them
running every single day we have We're located in five states.
We are in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.
We have about one hundred and sixty employees and about
(01:47):
five locations.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, you talk about being in business for fifty years,
and I love your name because you know, iHeartRadio in
Boston is actually based in Wellington Circle in Medford, so
it's a very close connection. So clearly you have a
connection historically to the Medford North of Boston area.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, that's one hundred percent correct. The company used to
be called Wellington Service Company long long, long time ago,
and then then we realized that there was another company
called the same thing, and we had to rebrand it.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
So our office on Locust Street.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Right around from the corner from Wellington Circle, and at
the time the ownership changed the name to Medford Wellington.
That's where how we came to who we are today.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I've noticed in the news over the past few months,
if not years, that labor shortages are still very much
a thing in the trades. What do you think is
fueling that and is that impacting your company at all?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
One hundred percent impact our company. What's really fueling it
is that folks are aging out of their position. So
just you know, right now, i'd say the world has
a global shortage of employees. It doesn't matter if it's
in the trades or administrative jobs or whatever it is.
As you see unemployment it's rounder five. That's basically negative.
(02:57):
But you know, this has been a continuing problem for
the trades. The trades have been dealing with this for
fifteen twenty years probably, And essentially what is happening is
folks don't look at as the trades as a great career.
You know, when I grew up, my parents just told
me you're going to college, right Like, there wasn't a question.
It was like, you're going to college. Now, what's happening
(03:19):
in the market is that college has just become such
an astronomical cost for people that they can't afford it.
So how do you go find a great job that
pays really well that you don't need to go to
school for. And that's really turning into the trades. And
we think we're starting to see a little bit of
traction here in the market in the last couple of years.
But we have a lot of folks in our company
(03:41):
that are making six figures just after a few years
of being employed without having a massive amount of debt
from going to college.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, what do you think? And Carrie, we'll talk about
the training program here in a minute, But what do
you think kind of fuels that stigma when it comes
to the trades, Because you know, I was told the
same thing when I was younger. You got to go
to college, you got to get a degree. You'rre aldi
you're not going to make any money. But like you
just said, I mean, anybody working in HVAC or plumbing
or whatever, you can make a really good life for yourself.
What do you think the stigma is around all this?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You know, it's hard to say, but the one thing
that I always fall back on is our head plumber
said to me one day, It's like, Mike, how many
people want to change toilets when they're eighteen years old?
They get out of high school and they want to
change a toilet? Like nobody wants to do that. And
I think that's kind of what's stuck out there is
it's really stuck in my head of do you want
to sit at a desk all day and do what
(04:32):
I do and spreadsheets and PowerPoint and word documents and
email and all that stuff. Well a lot of people
don't want to do that either. So I really look
at this as it's a great place for folks to
use their hands on a daily basis. You know a
lot of car mechanics, the people in manufacturing working the
manufacturing floor, they want to work with their hands. This
gives people that same opportunity, but to do something towards
(04:53):
the trade versus a manufacturing or automobile industry. It's it
also gives you the ability you do things a little bit,
have a diversified career plan. You don't have to just
be an.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
H back person.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
So we have some folks that have their HVAC, refrigeration
and plumbing and electrical licenses. So once you get good
at one, you could say, well, I want to diversify,
I want to train something, try something different. This is
where Carrie and the career roadmapping is really key to
help showing our employees of you could do something different.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
I mean, even Emily and her role.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
If she called me tomorrow and said, hey, Mike, im
board of marketing, well I want to try something else.
Like we could go and show her all the different
careers that we have and try and you know, guide
her through our career progression to hopefully move her to
something in the near future.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Well, let's talk about that program now, because Carrie, I'm
super interested in this. When did you all decide that
you were going to kind of, you know, take the
bill by the hands and create your own career program
for people who want to get involved.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So this came about probably about two years ago. Now
it took a long time to put into place and
roll out, you know, going through the year each year
with people you know coming up to us with questions
and how do I move up? How do I become
a manager? Is there anywhere else forward, I can go
from here where I am now. So putting that all
(06:13):
together it lays everything out for everybody to see. It
helps with retaining employees. You get these really good, talented
people in here. You want to keep them and you
want to keep them happy. They don't want to be stagnant.
They want to grow and we want them to stay
here to grow with Medford Wellington.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
So how does the program work?
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Then?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
If somebody wants to get involved, but they say, look,
I have no idea what I'm doing. I couldn't change
a toilet if I wanted to, or I don't even
know how to use a wrench, how do they find
you and how do they get into this program?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Well, that's actually the training program excuse me, run by
our VP of Technical Services and Training and Career Development.
So for HVAC specifically, you can come in with absolutely
no experience, you know, we bring everyone in, We put
together a hiring event night and we conduct formal interviews
(07:04):
and then it's a four to six four to eight
week class. You're in the classroom half the day, you're
out in the field the other half the day with
experienced technicians here learning hands on and then after that
the training never truly ends, but you have so much
in such a condensed amount of time. You've got a
(07:24):
little bit of a leg up after that eight weeks.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, and then then you enter the career roadmack part
of it, which is what I really appreciate, because you
might decide, well, I mean, I have this training and
it's okay, but I want to spread my wings and
go try something else. So how does that part of
the program work.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Absolutely so, even say at the end of this training program,
if one of the apprentices says, you know what, I
really really am interested more in the electrical part of this.
I think I'd rather become an electrical apprentice. So we
have an opening. We see what they need in order
to move into that first electrical tier apprenticeship, and you know,
(08:00):
and we go from there. We have everything mapped out
so we can bring them through everything that they would
need to do in order to make that their career.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Now that has got to be so rewarding, not just
for you at Medford Wellington, but you must see that
too in the people coming through the program, because, as
Mike and I were talking about just a couple of
minutes ago, a lot of young people want to find
a career that's going to last. And these days, frankly,
you can't always guarantee that any sort of career path
is going to last. But these are skills that these
people are going to have for a lifetime.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
It is in the trades.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
There's job security in the trades.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I mean, we're.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Always going to need plumbers, electricians, you know, construction workers.
You're always going to need that. Society is always going
to need it. The more skills you have, the better
off you are. You know, we have someone here in particular,
he actually went through a little bit later in life,
wanted to completely change careers. Came in, he had to
(08:57):
be a plumber, got his plumbing license within five years,
and now he's going for his refrigeration license as well,
and he's back up to making you know, really really
good money in a very short amount of time.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Well curious, it is really important.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
But also if you think about the industry that we're in,
and you hear everything in the news about AI is
taken over and robots are taken over and all that stuff.
AI and robotics can't really take over this industry in
the near future. You know, if you gave me, you know,
a cell phone with a robot telling me how to
do something, to turn the redge and change the toilet,
(09:35):
you still actually have to have a license to do it.
So like so, like you know, having manufacturing and robots
coming in and taking over the jobs and people losing
their jobs, we don't see that happening for a very
very long time because of the regulations that are out
there that you need licenses.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, that's true. And then people who might be eventually
losing their jobs because of AI and because of all this,
they can now find their way to the trades. Because
I'm assuming this is not just for young people, right.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Oh, absolutely not. This is for anybody who's interested in
starting a career in the trades.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I mean, Eric's starting a book thirty something, yep.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, I mean we have certainly people that are starting
late in their twenties and early thirties that just realized that,
you know, I may not have made the right career
move early on, was restarting, go through this apprentice program
and find a way to make a great living in
the trades.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah. People my age, you know, I'm in my late
thirties early forties, and there's a lot of us out
there who are concerned about a lack of resources for
retirement in regular normal, quote unquote office jobs and so
on and so forth. So it seems to me like,
not only are you getting skills that are helpful in
all sorts of different areas of life, but also this
could be a really good way to set yourself up
for retirement, even if you're coming at it a little
(10:48):
bit later than most would.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
I totally agree, and you know, step in if you
want carry. But you know, that's where finding a great
company that is growing that ultimately has great benefits. You know,
we have a four one program. We help people retire.
We pay for folks in their truck, we pay for
their uniforms, we pay for some of their tools. There
are some companies out there that can do that, and
there's other companies that can't. You know, some of the
(11:10):
small mom and pop shops you come on board, you
can't really get training, you can't get tools. All that
stuff's paid for by yourself, not through the company. But
if you find the right company that's willing to invest
in the folks for the long term, they're going to
help you support yourself and get to that. You know,
that retirement that you ultimately want to by earning a
good living as well as having a great retirement package.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
So, Carrie, how popular has this program been? You say,
you said it's been around for about a couple of
years now that it's really been enforced. How popular is
it so far?
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Well, so we've just started this specific one this past year. Okay,
so we're about to go into our second round. It's
extremely popular my email and my phone. It's just NonStop,
it truly is. Because word of mouth gets out there.
People hit a lot of employees, referrals, which is what
(12:01):
we love, a lot of people that work here referring
other people to come seek out employment here as well.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Hearie, how many? How many applicants do we have? Just yesterday?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
So just yesterday, I mean not even the full day,
it was a little bit over fifty people reached though.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Oh my gosh, yeah, do you have enough courses going
to handle all that demand at this point? Fair?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
We don't have enough trainers, we don't have enough managers,
we don't have enough structure. We've built a business to
have a great ability to take on some number of
that fifty, but the demand out there that what is
really exciting for us is that demand to be in
the trades really wasn't there a few years ago, And
(12:48):
now we're seeing what we built and speaking to folks
like yourself is really starting to drive them. We're starting
to get a lot of the right applicants, which is great.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
But yeah, we're.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Gonna bring We're gonna call all those fifty folks back,
going to talk to them, and we're going to be
able to take the best of the best to move
into our training program.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Phenomenal. So what's the plan for the future, I mean,
kind of keep this going? Do you want to expand
the program? What comes next?
Speaker 4 (13:10):
I would love to expand it and keep it going.
The folks that we're bringing in, and it's truly making
the tenured employees here happy too. We're, you know, in
creating our own workforce in one way, it's really it's
it's been. It's gone over very very well with our employees,
(13:33):
our current ones and the new ones.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I think our goal is to try and do this
type of training program twice a year, okay, And you know,
so the numbers are probably going to be somewhere in
the fifteen to thirty range of how many new apprentices
we get to bring on just for that portion of
our business, but we're very much a growing company. We're
also looking at doing potential acquisitions. We've done two acquisitions
(13:59):
in the life last year, which gives us more ability
to hire and train more and continue to keep our
path of growth going forward. So you know, all those
things kind of are the economy of how we build
a business that continue to grow and prosper and ultimately
how we can continue to grow into a much bigger
(14:20):
organization in the future and provide more career opportunities for
our employees and provide better support for our customers.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Well, you mentioned, yeah, you cover a pretty decent size
area at this point, so you're going to need the
people to get this done. And by the way, when
it comes to this training program, do you have to
live near bill RICCA or here in Massachusetts or is
anybody in your service area eligible for this.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
This particular one. It's more convenient if you're in Massachusetts
or New Hampshire, okay, because our classes themselves take place
in Medford, okay. But when you're in the field learning,
you could be all over the.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Place wherever you're needed that day, right exactly, So I mean, Mike,
I mean, you've been involved with this company for quite
some time. Obviously you've got a deep connection to it.
How do you feel about watching this unfold? What does
this mean to you?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
You know, it's really important to myself, and I'll say
the stakeholders of this business is that we're able to
speak to younger folks and talk about how you can
really build a great career in the trades.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
You know, we don't.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
We're not saying that going to college is the wrong idea.
We're saying is it's just not for everybody, sure, And
what we're trying to do is build that mentality with
in I'll say, just the general population that the trades
aren't a bad place to be. You can build yourself
a very very very good career and ultimately be able
to support a family and have children and that whole thing.
(15:48):
It's really about making sure that the world understands that
the trades are a great place to work in is
really what's most important to us.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
I think they're very well respected careers and it's been
an uphill jour almost to get there.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah, just you know, like I said before, that's not
what it was when I came.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It's just it's just different these days.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's a sea change for the better for sure. And
let's really kind of nail that down because Carrie again,
anybody who wants to get into the trades, you could
be a woman, You can be a little bit older,
you can you don't have to be just like a
young man to do this right.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Absolutely, yes, anyone who is interested can apply.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Phenomenal And we do.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Have a few women in the trades that are part
of our team today.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
We do. We have an HVAC technician, electrician. It's very exciting.
It's growing there with the seeing more and more women
in the.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Trades, and that's what I love to see. So if
people want to get involved in this program, they want
to be part of the fifty I guess each day
calling you about this, how can they get a hold
of you and how can they connect to find out more?
Speaker 4 (16:51):
So I like when they just email me or call
me directly because I can walk them through the entire
process school over all the benefits with them, I know,
and really dig into it with them. The email address
is absolutely the easiest. My email addresses cabrow and at
Medford Wellington dot com. Bre Wio.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Okay. You know, Mike, if people want to just find
out more about your company and the resources you have
and what you can offer, how can they get a
hold of Medford Wellington.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, I would have them reach out to me as well.
My email address is m Lacrosse so Emas and Michael
and Lacrosse fell just like the sport at Medford Wellington
dot com. We also have the one hundred number and
our website that I encourage people to go on and
check out. There's a lot of great information out there.
I would also check out our social media where you'll
see a lot of posts. You'll see a lot of
videos of our technicians and our folks talking about working
(17:41):
here and what it's like to be in the trades.
And I think a lot of people will get a
great idea of what it's like to work for a
great family operating business like ourselves.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Mike and Carrie. It's been a really good conversation. I've
learned a lot. Thank you both for your time and
happy New Year.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Thank you you as well.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Have a safe and happy and healthy weekend and stay
warm if you can it's rather cold. Join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ news Radio on iHeartRadio