The construction industry is taking a hit from the workforce shortage, but Vermeer Texas-Louisiana is taking action — both through its internally-developed programs and its support for the Vision 2025 program.
Vermeer Texas-Louisiana, founded in 1978, is the authorized dealer for Vermeer Corporation, with 14 locations across the region. The company provides dedicated sales, rentals, parts, and service support for customers in the tree care, landscaping, wood waste recycling, and underground construction industries.
“Finding skilled workers in today’s market is very challenging for us, as it is for most equipment dealers,” said Whit Perryman, Vermeer Texas-Louisiana’s Chief Executive Officer since 2005. “We have done a couple of things in the last few years to address this, in addition to increasing referral fees for our team members who recommend a technician that joins our company.”
A few years ago, the company hired a team member to focus on talent acquisition so that it could create a consistent point of contact for its local technical schools. That person is also tasked with attending career fairs and developing relationships with those programs, as well as helping to get the word out at schools with technical programs about the rewards a construction career can offer.
Perryman’s team also created a Service Technician Development Internship program in 2023. The program provides the ability to hire students pursuing a career in diesel technology while they are still in school.
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“We provide them a mentor technician, pay them while they are working in our shop, and help them cover their tuition costs,” he said.
In a little over a year, 20 interns have been brought into the company through this program, and several have already been hired, post-graduation, as full-time techs.
“We’re hoping that by getting them in early we can help them become a part of our team, and then when they graduate they won’t want to go anywhere else,” Perryman said.
Management is also doing a good job of encouraging growth and development in its technician pool, according to Perryman.
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“We created a recognition program that celebrates their achievements in attaining levels of advancement within our OEM’s [Original Equipment Manufacturer] certification programs,” he said. “That’s been really successful for us. We currently have over 80 percent of our technician pool with at least the base level of certification from either Vermeer or Bobcat.”
Perryman calls finding skilled workers “a huge problem for our industry, but it is also a problem in the auto industry. Many times, we are competing for the same talent. In my opinion, our industry has a lot more to offer new technicians compared to the auto industry. So many of our technicians have been able to move into our roles within the business such as sales, product specialists, or management.”
Having a strong technical background is important in helping provide solutions to customers, and it has been helpful to many of the team members who have been promoted from within the organization.
The year ahead will see the company continue to focus on its Technician Development Program. “We have identified and partnered with 10 associate’s degree programs in Texas and one in Oklahoma that have diesel tech programs producing talented technicians,” Perryman said.
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The goal next year is to get into the local high schools in the region and continue to encourage careers in the trades.
“I believe the trade programs are starting to gain momentum again as kids realize they can find a challenging, enjoyable career making great money without going to get a four-year degree,” Perryman said. “We just need to work at getting that message out, and that will be a big mission for our team in 2025.”
Technology continues to be something that Vermeer Texas-Louisiana will embrace. Telematics (an interdisciplinary field encompassing telecommunications, vehicular technologies, electrical engineering, and computer science) is making its ability to help customers identify and overcome potential service issues easier and more efficient.
“We have put a team in place to start working on this and how we can really impact the customer’s productivity,” Perryman said.
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Perryman was in attendance at the initial meeting when the AED Foundation (AEDF) in Schaumburg, Illinois, launched its Vision 2025 program. AEDF is the nonprofit foundation for the heavy equipment industry and the sister organization to Associated Equipment Distributors (AED), the international trade association for equipment distributors, manufacturers, and service providers.
The foundation is actively addressing the shortage of skilled professionals in the equipment distribution industry through expansion of its community-based, school-to-work school partnership strategy. Through the Vision 2025 program, AEDF is challenging its members to help create a strong and robust pipeline of skilled workers within the next four years. It has three areas of focus, which include schools with heavy equipment technology programs, students within these programs, and AED dealer members.
The foundation aims to reach the following goals by 2025:
- 100 accredited college programs
- 150 recognized high schools
- 10,000 skilled technicians entering the workforce
- 500 certified managers
- 5,000 AED Foundation Certified Technicians
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“Our initial goal was $5 million as an industry,” Perryman said. “Knowing that we truly have a shortage of service technicians nationally that continues to be an issue, the charge was made by the board of AED to push to raise this money, hire more people, partner with more technical schools — both at the high school and collegiate levels — and engage the dealers, manufacturers, and service providers that are all part of this great industry to help be a part of the solution.”
According to Perryman, the good news is that “we have well surpassed the original $5 million commitment, currently just under $8 million and have a new goal of $10 million. We have this saying at our company, that anyone can sell the first machine to a customer, but it’s the parts and service departments that will sell the next machines. To be successful at this takes quality service technicians, and we must be proactive as a company and an industry on how we promote the work and go find the right talent to fill the roles.”
