Creating Pathways for New Talent in the Elevator Industry: Panel Discussion with Loannie Reyes, Veronica Querales, and Bill McGrath
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Intro:
In this conversation, I talked with Bill McGrath, Loannie Reyes, and Veronica Querales about the staffing challenges in the elevator industry. We explored the need for language skills, the importance of training and development, and the creation of career paths for new talent. We also discussed cultural perspectives on work and the value of trade skills versus traditional education.
Summary:
The conversation on the elevator careers podcast, hosted by Matt Allred, explores staffing challenges in the elevator industry, particularly the need for language skills, training, and career paths for new talent. Bill McGrath, Loannie Reyes, and Veronica Querales discuss the difficulty in hiring skilled workers, the importance of internal training programs, and the potential of learning Spanish to tap into new labor markets. They also highlight the benefits of trade skills over traditional education, the need for technical training, and the value of creating career paths within the industry. The discussion also touches on the cultural perspectives and the potential of new technologies to transform the industry.
Transcript:
Loannie Reyes (00:00)
I would say if you’re willing to use your hands and get you can use your brain and your hands so definitely this is a great industry to be in. I know a lot of people that has come close to us and looking to learn I would say like try to learn some kind of trade like electrical trade or a trade that is related to mechanical and electrical.
if you are not finding or you don’t have any body that can teach you, elevators itself. And we have other people that have said like, can I go and volunteer to learn the industry? We have helped people like that too. And it’s interesting because honestly, they are open, they try it. Some say the first day I’m like, nah, this is not for me. And some of them say, I can do this. This is not that complicated. And once they try it,
they fall in love with the industry and they start trying to develop themselves and learn more and more.
Matt Allred (02:03)
Hello and welcome to the Elevator Careers podcast. I’m your host, Matt Allred, and today we’re joined by Bill McGrath, Loannie Reyes, and Veronica Querales. What brought this whole conversation about was a conversation Bill and I had just a couple of weeks ago. He was talking about teaching his whole company Spanish or the whole company needing to learn Spanish because of the need to get the right talent to tap into new labor markets. And so
Each of you has been invited to talk about this question with me. Whether that’s the answer or not, let’s just dive into it. But I want to know from each of you, and Loannie maybe you can start us off. What are some of the biggest challenges you and your company are facing with staffing?
Loannie Reyes (02:50)
⁓ yes, a lot of people in the industry are facing hiring has been very challenging because it’s a lot of people interested to join the industry but there’s not a lot of people skilled or already capable to fulfill the roles that we need them to do and that’s pretty much the most challenging and yes we do have the idea of developing people
inside the organization. However, that takes time as they progress and they learn, but we also have to hire a staff that is already trained. So that’s one of the challenges that is getting more scars as time passed. A lot of the old timers are retiring and it’s not a lot of demand of young
Matt Allred (03:33)
Absolutely.
Loannie Reyes (03:46)
people, however, with inviting people from other industries and teaching them, and it’s been working out for us.
Matt Allred (03:53)
Very good, very good. Veronica, what are you seeing on your end?
Veronica Querales (03:57)
In my end is a little bit different because I’m in the manufacturing area. So my people doesn’t need those technical skills, but I need people that have been in the field because we are assembling everything. We need to know how they work and how everything, even that it’s hard to find people because now we have another problem with the new generation. It is they don’t want to take a work in technical things. Everyone want to be a
have an influencer or different careers more technical more computer related and we need people we need welders we need people that have to paint and with all those kind of works are hard to find right now so in our way we are teaching them a career that’s our mindset we want to build a career for you guys now you start over here you’re going to learn about elevators how the elevator works we have a training center that we assembled all the caps all the entrances and show them how to work how they work so that way they get in love with the industry.
We take it to different events and activities and we even go to the jobs directly and show them how that works so they can get in love and they see that they can work but it’s a little bit hard to find people even in our industry that is manufacturing that works.
Matt Allred (05:06)
Yeah, yeah, no, I hear you. Bill, I’m curious, what was it that led you and your team to say, hey, let’s learn Spanish? Where were you out when you like, hey, this is where we need to go?
Bill McGrath (05:18)
Well, it kind of started, you know, I live on the Jersey coast and a lot of home building going on. It seems like the Jersey coast is going through a new transformation, right? And a lot of the trades are Spanish speaking people. you know, it got me thinking, but me, it’s hard to communicate because I don’t know how to speak Spanish, right? So I’m trying my best, but…
Matt Allred (05:43)
That’s it.
Bill McGrath (05:47)
Then we just brought on an employee. And when I took him out to dinner, he has broken English. But I told him, I said, you know what? I’m going to get my company and my staff to start learning this. And I’m going put it as one of my rocks as the CEO here.
And what I mean by rocks, my company runs off the EOS system. So that’s how we talk. And I showed him my example in the garage. I figured it out. And he was blown away. And I believe that’s an untapped market, right? Because a lot of people, if we can’t communicate both ends, because some people are like, you know, and this is my belief, they’re like, English is the American language. OK.
But, and we talked about this, Matt right? But I believe Spanish is also the language, you know? So it’s an intermix, right? And probably 20 years we’ll have half English, half Spanish all interlingled in, right? And we’ll, in whatever that language will be called then, right? The new American language, right? So, and that’s where, and my team’s having fun with it.
Matt Allred (06:51)
Yeah.
Veronica Querales (06:56)
Vanguard.
Matt Allred (06:56)
We call it Spanglish, it’s already here.
Bill McGrath (07:05)
They are there they have to do five to 15 minutes per day I’ve been trying to do it in my car because I had the way I have it set up because it talks back and forth to you Everybody’s on the same program So and it’s really cool. So it’s and plus I think to as talking to Edwin It’s a sign of respect to right because they’re forced to
Matt Allred (07:15)
nice.
Bill McGrath (07:31)
to learn English, And we should, especially when it comes to the safety aspects of our industry, that we need to be able to communicate each way.
Matt Allred (07:41)
it’s interesting as we kind of got into this topic, I was doing a little bit of research and came across, obviously I think we all know that baby boomers are retiring faster than we can replace them. They’re a huge generation. And so not only do we need to pull from new generations, but there’s smaller generations too. And then, you know, there’s also something I came across, which is like we’re…
we’re not having children fast enough to like replace our population overall. So we kind of need to import some people because otherwise we won’t have a country. We’ll just all kind of vanish or something like that. So there’s a lot of factors kind of playing into this. And so I think it’s important to think creatively and I love your idea of, let’s learn some different languages. Now, one thing that I think Loannie you had mentioned, bringing people in house, but is there very much support
I mean, you know, there used to be a lot of like technical colleges around here. It seems like a lot of those have kind of gone away and even high schools, right? When I was in high school, there were shops and there were, you know, industrial arts programs. A lot of those have kind of gone away. Do you have, do you feel like there’s any support for, you know, for this type of work or do you feel like you have to do it all in-house?
Loannie Reyes (08:59)
I would say yes. The reason is basically like I mentioned before to you. Before we had the D &D open a school here in New York City, you mentioned to me that I think that they closed probably because they don’t have enough people enrolling. Probably it was that because the idea was to develop more mechanics.
Matt Allred (09:18)
I was told, I don’t know why, was just told that…
Mm-hmm.
Loannie Reyes (09:28)
You see the schools they’re not focusing in creating more blue collar jobs. Like it’s only a couple of schools doing trades like electricity or they’re doing HVAC or things like that. But they are not, there’s non-school focus, 100 % in elevators. Or they do mechanic for automobiles. They do
like electromechanics, so they’re college and schools that they’re doing that kind of training. But Focus 100 % in Elevators, not the only organization that is the union. And the union is limited to the amount of people that they can hire every year. So they are not producing enough mechanics ready for the industry. So the non-union companies have to start developing internally their own kind of like training and schools, which is great.
I mean, I love it. We start teaching our mechanics. We have internal training for the electrical trainings. We teach them elevators, mechanical stuff. And so we are doing our own training in-house, but it’s basically developing internal mechanics. And that’s why the demand out there is not much. If we were having kind of like a, kind of
maybe these schools or school can be exposed mostly outside to high schoolers or people in so they can see these as an alternative that would be amazing but at this moment there’s not much support other than the trainings in the union and developing mechanics in-house while you are basically training them teaching them as they are helpers or apprentices.
Matt Allred (11:14)
Sure.
Kind of bringing them up from the ground up, right? You gotta, you know.
Loannie Reyes (11:18)
Exactly.
And reality is that not all mechanics or all helpers are willing to learn. Some of them want to stay as helpers for life and some of them want to grow. But that’s the reality of the industry and we need to deal with it.
Matt Allred (11:25)
Hahaha
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, Veronica, mentioned something interesting about creating careers. You’re not just a machine operator. You’re not just doing this one skill, but we want to really develop you as a person. Is that what I’m kind taking away from that?
Veronica Querales (11:49)
Yes, that’s my mission is I own and I’m not only manufacturing products. I want to build people to so that’s one of my main missions in my in my life. I take it personally and if I can go back to build comment about the the barrier language in our case is a little bit different because we are in Miami almost all the population over here speak Spanish and for me practice in English is hard is really hard. So and find people that speak English harder.
Matt Allred (12:17)
Ha ha.
Veronica Querales (12:19)
We implement vice versa. We are bringing people that spoke both languages, the younger generation that just graduated from high school that they know both language perfectly fine and they switch with no accent. And we are practicing the meetings in English and we are trying to, even the emails and everything, are making sure that people have couple of peoples there that we do everything in English so we can integrate to the culture of United States because we feel like
It’s right here in Miami. It’s not like United States. We are Latinos all over here and we speak Spanish all the time. So that’s one of the how we can integrate us to the culture of United States, how we can be better serving our people, the United States as a community. And for me, for us, it’s been a challenge. OK, let’s do all the meetings. Every single meeting, need to, everyone speaks Spanish, but we need to practice the classes and the meetings in English all the time.
Matt Allred (12:50)
Right?
Veronica Querales (13:17)
And emails, the internal emails, we do it all in English, too. All in English is the only way that we can practice the language. So and all the names, we have the names in Spanish for the parts. No, we say all the parts names in English. No, I don’t want to hear nothing over here in Spanish for the parts, the name of the part. So we’ll talk in all the same language. That’s the little things that we are doing in our company to integrate. But yes.
That’s one of the things and of course I want to build people too. That’s my passion. The way that I can do it is like a guy that graduated from high school and I offer him, I have kids and they are in high school and they say, I start talking about our career, what you do, elevators and what do your parents do, elevators. And they see as an option, say, this is a great career, it’s amazing, you can have a future.
We talk about my parents and they see the kind of life that we live and we start preaching because we are being a successful family as we are for generations, we have been in elevator industry and we are being successful as I understand for me successful, but they see and they copy the path and they can join you, even the friends they can join you. Yes, and we start like building that and see it as a career. Maybe some of them are now
that start working with teach them and other companies in big positions and I’m so happy because I see that we build the people. We give it an option. not anymore like a singular career. We build people.
Matt Allred (14:51)
I love it. I love it. And what I’m hearing is, you know, that the old saying, you know, you can give a person a fish and feed them for a day, or you can teach them how to fish. And that’s what I’m hearing is teach them how to fish in that they can see a bigger vision, right? This is again, when it’s a career, it may go beyond your company, right? But once you’ve given them tools, they can go work for just about anybody, right? They can go, you know, maybe they start their own company at some point, right? That’s, one of the beautiful things about this industry is it really does
Veronica Querales (15:03)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Allred (15:20)
give people the ability to create their own thing, right? Awesome.
Loannie Reyes (15:25)
I agree with Veronica what she said. We do the same thing. We teach our guys, even we have a couple of guys that came from Europe, from Thyssenkrupp from Otis, but they don’t speak English at all. So we were teaching them the parts we were making sure, okay, you call this this way, but this is the way that we call it here. And so we were teaching them, although we speak with them in Spanish, we make them write their tickets in English and we tell them, hey, write in Spanish.
put it in Google Translate and just copy paste it in your ticket. That’s not a problem. And another thing that we do also is we teach them like in the classes, like, okay, you call this part this, we call it this way. And we always emphasize on so they can learn. And at the beginning, they are a little bit not too receptive, but we explain to them, hey, you’re gonna be with us, we want you forever. But if you wanna go to someplace else,
Veronica Querales (15:56)
you
Matt Allred (15:56)
Right?
Loannie Reyes (16:23)
You need to prepare yourself. You need to be ready for other opportunities. And it’s important that we are not teaching you this just for us, it’s for yourself. And we always encourage that with all of our mechanics, our helpers, that the growing never stops. Technology is changing constantly. They need to constantly be growing and learning something new. And that’s one of the things that we love about this industry.
Before many years ago it was carbon-copper contacts, now we’re solid state. It’s like everything changing constantly. Now, eventually we’re going to be with AI and all these things integrated within the elevator programming. And I’m excited about it because you’re never stuck. You never get so bored because it’s something always the same. No, you always have a new challenge and the opportunity to grow.
Initially, a lot of people are not receptive to that, but then once we make them understand, hey, there’s opportunity to grow, so go ahead. They go for it and they love it. They embrace the career and then become, they see this as an opportunity as a career.
Matt Allred (17:34)
Yeah,
And I see it as two things. One is you got to build the vision. Some may never want the vision, right? They may want to stay helpers or they may really embrace it. So that’s awesome. Now, Bill, you and I talked a little bit about, I’m just going to throw it out there. ABC was bringing up some apprenticeships, as I understand it, to kind of help with this whole staffing issue.
Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Bill McGrath (18:06)
Yeah, so I don’t know if you guys know this, ABC New Jersey, I was the chair of that board for two years and I was the past chair for two years. And once I was coming off that, they rolled me on to be the chair of the trust. And what that is, is the educational side of ABC.
So in New Jersey, me and Samantha work hand in hand, close day to day. And now we just purchased, by October we should go to settlement. We just purchased a 150,000 square foot training center. Samantha is really excited because crazy high ceilings we could fit full elevators in there. We’re going to have HVAC, electrical.
Matt Allred (18:47)
Wow.
Bill McGrath (19:00)
welding, we have CDL training, we have from every aspect. And this was always my dream and me and Sam build it together. And we’re really excited about it. South Jersey Elevator. We just hired a kid last week. Well, Bill Jr. Did out of their reach out program, ABC’s reach out program and his name’s Minaj and he, he was going through their electrical.
And of course who I am, I get the first phone call, right? You might want to look at this guy, right? You know, nepotism does run the world, right? But this kid is blown away, blown away. And the second day he showed up for work, he went to the hardware store or whatever, bought himself a broom and trash bags just to make sure with his own money. And Junior’s like,
Matt Allred (19:32)
Nice.
Bill McGrath (19:54)
Dude, turn that receipt in. You don’t have to buy brooms and trash bags, but I love it. Like that is, you’re going to rock out. And he’s working with Edwin, who’s our, you know, Spanish speaking guy who is a complete rock star. I mean, it cost me a Morton’s dinner to get him over here, you know, and to pull him over, but he loves the culture. But saying that, that’s where ABC, cause
I’m a high believer in the marriage philosophy. I was union at one time. I look at each of them. Hey, everybody has a choice of religion, right? I don’t judge what sides you’re on. It’s all about the industry, right? But this is where we’re opening it up across for everybody to have that spot to get even from elevator training, even though NAEC has the book training, right?
Loannie Reyes (20:52)
Mm.
Bill McGrath (20:53)
And the certification,
ABC, openly admit it. We don’t care about any of that. Our thing is to make sure that they are state-complied and they get their right hands-on training and the proctor center is correct. So there’s no BS we’re going to be having a high caliber training center and
New Jersey’s the first one to have an elevator training center in the country. And the other 68 chapters are watching to see how that goes. So think about it. 68 chapters, us as industry leaders looking for workforce, right? This thing goes right. There’s more chapters than there is states in our country.
Matt Allred (21:25)
That’s awesome.
Loannie Reyes (21:31)
Mm-hmm.
Matt Allred (21:39)
For sure, for sure. Earlier today, I spoke with a gentleman who’s on the residential side and they’re having every bit as much trouble, if not more, because residential is growing like crazy, but there’s so much lag because they can’t find people to install them. They can’t find people to inspect them. You can sell them all day long and there’s a lot of baby boomers that are retiring and, I want to build my dream home and I want the elevator inside.
and oh yeah, you’re gonna have to wait for years perhaps to get it installed because we’re really struggling to build those, to find installers. So I think what you’re speaking about could really address that issue as well.
Bill McGrath (22:22)
Yeah, and we also believe too, and it’s about the culture too of your company. And it’s hard to create that culture because it’s the hardest thing to keep everybody happy, right? So that’s where I believe I know a lot of residential companies in my territory and the guys are just, they’re beat up. They get low pay, beat up. Over here, we have a whole other different type of culture and
that’s where they love it. Plus, we have a commercial division. So if these guys or women go through the right stages, now they can be promoted to the commercial side as they’re going through their apprenticeship program. So we show them the path of life here. But on the other hand, I seen an article yesterday or the other day. However, it was a 22-year-old talking about Gen Z.
How they only want to work four days a week. But they also want to complain the cost of living every day. But they don’t want to work, you know, so and this 22 year old, he already owns two companies that are worth $20 million. But he said, I gave up friends. I gained 80 pounds. I went through mental and physical abuse of driving my companies. But now at 22 being a millionaire, you know,
and that’s where I don’t know how we’re going to get that driving force. We can learn every language in the world. We could do this. But how do we instill that you have to work? You have to give effort to anything you’re doing, just like you do in this podcast, right, Matt? It ain’t like you just woke up, got a microphone, and look how cool I am. You’ve worked at it. You put some effort into this, right? The same as your business, your business, anything we do.
I don’t know where that was lost.
Matt Allred (24:17)
Yeah, yeah, it’s a good question. Good question. And well, you know, finding the right people with the drive. But is this where they want to use that drive?
Bill McGrath (24:27)
But I’ll give you another example. My wife had her old high school friend here. She hasn’t seen her in ages, right? Her and her husband are here. First time I meet them. And they started complaining how their one son’s not sure what he wants to do. He’s going to go to college, but he’s not sure what he wants to do. He doesn’t know if college is for him. And they’re saying, you know, you have to go to college to make a good living.
Now, you know, my wife, she combated right away because me, I got to keep my mouth shut because big, you know, because then they’ll get the other version. So and she goes, well, that’s not true. My husband never went to college. He was a tradesman. And you’re eating and drinking in our house. You know, and they were like, yeah, but your husband had to work hard. We don’t want our children to work hard.
Matt Allred (24:59)
Ha
What? We don’t want our… Wow.
Loannie Reyes (25:23)
is an
Bill McGrath (25:23)
But see, my
mouth was open as wide as your mouth. was like, if Navi had the choker leash on me, then I was…
Loannie Reyes (25:29)
is the misconception.
Veronica Querales (25:32)
you
Matt Allred (25:35)
Wow.
Loannie Reyes (25:36)
That’s the reality, it’s the misconception that people don’t understand that this industry, this career can make so much money and they don’t have to end up with the loan that they have coming out of college. Because that’s the funny thing. You go to college, you spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars with zero experience. And then they start you with a minimum salary.
Veronica Querales (25:50)
Exactly.
Loannie Reyes (26:04)
with a huge loan debt. In this career, you start making good money. You learn the industry as you progress. You can make more more more money. And people don’t realize that you can make the same amount of money that a professional and within the same four years that they are doing university, we do it in the trade field and we develop and become as valuable as that without the debt.
Bill McGrath (26:33)
Yeah, yeah.
Loannie Reyes (26:33)
the school debt the student loan.
Bill McGrath (26:37)
Friends of ours daughter has to move back. She just graduated nursing school, got a nursing job, has to move out of her apartment, move back with her parents. And her parents, I was like, well, why is that? And they’re like, dude, don’t you understand? She has $100,000 in loans. She can’t afford that.
Matt Allred (26:53)
my gosh.
Bill McGrath (26:54)
And it blew me away driving home $100,000 as a young kid. Man, for nothing.
Matt Allred (27:04)
Give that girl a wrench and teach her how to fix elevators, Bill.
Veronica Querales (27:07)
Yeah.
Bill McGrath (27:09)
She’d be making a hundred grand a year.
Loannie Reyes (27:10)
Trust me,
I have to tell people the money that we make as a mechanic and they are like, where do I sign? How can I learn? It is, it is. And it’s sad, but it’s true. And the problem is that this industry is being secretive for so long that, and it’s being so quiet that people don’t realize how enrich and how much opportunity is within.
Bill McGrath (27:13)
Yeah, yeah.
Veronica Querales (27:18)
Mm-hmm.
Bill McGrath (27:19)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice.
Matt Allred (27:37)
Right. Right.
Loannie Reyes (27:37)
So it is
It is funny, but it’s a cruel reality, but it’s a funny reality. The opportunity is right there.
Matt Allred (27:45)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, and Veronica, you mentioned your family’s been at it. How many generations, may I ask that?
Veronica Querales (27:53)
Now it’s entering to the third generation. Third generation.
Matt Allred (27:55)
Nice, nice. as a family, you’ve
been in on the secret, right, that Loannie’s talking about. It’s like, for a long time, it seems like if you’re in the family, you know. If you’re not, you’re like, what? Elevators? Are you kidding me?
Veronica Querales (28:07)
Yes. But
we have, yes, exactly we have so many, I say my dad kids because we say.
Bill McGrath (28:09)
I’m the guy that fell into it.
Veronica Querales (28:16)
So many people that come and say, I see in so many positions and everywhere, because my dad, when he was alive in Puerto Rico, all my cousins, all my cousins work in every single company. And you can mention on all the cousins, because they were poor at that time in Puerto Rico. And my dad was the one that step up as a family and say, OK, I’m going to build this career. He started working in Westinghouse. And he gave an option.
Loannie Reyes (28:29)
Yeah.
Her dad is very well known
Veronica Querales (28:40)
Yeah, and he started with
Loannie Reyes (28:40)
in the Puerto Rico Yaks.
Veronica Querales (28:41)
options to my family members and all my cousins because they don’t want to be on the streets and all his kids also have a career and my cousins my So many friends from everywhere that I know I am so happy because you see a lot of people in the industry I have a spice everywhere But it’s like that and in different countries in different countries in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic and
Matt Allred (28:59)
Yeah.
Veronica Querales (29:07)
Everywhere Venezuela we have so many people working in the elevator that start with my dad and nowadays spread all over it and it’s you’re given an option because my a lot of kids graduate from school the first two years they’re lost drinking and living the life of their time
And until they decide they want to study and pay you know a lot of money. So some of them are my, my, my cousin, even my son, my son is in the college right now. And he’s, they say, you’re going to study something technical because I don’t want to pay anything like that. So no, mommy, I want something technical to help you because he’s into the company. Like, like Wilson, like 300%. And, but I want to create a fund because that worked for me, at least for me work. And I,
engineering and I was creating my path to create something solid for me but it’s not for everyone not for everyone it’s not the same so I’m agree 300 %. My husband we study and then he’s finished in the elevator industry too and he’s a great mechanic. Elevators are great
Matt Allred (30:13)
Well, and I think honestly, that’s part of the reason I want to have this conversation because not only are people retiring out, not only are certain people, and I don’t think it’s whole generations, right? But certain people just don’t want to do this kind of work. And yet, if it’s unknown to everybody that hey, there are some amazing careers, some amazing jobs, some amazing people, even more than you would realize, right? If we can just get that word out, that those who are most interested and most qualified and
you know, maybe they’ve got all kinds of skills, but didn’t really know? Well then, hey, here we are knocking on your door saying, hey, there are opportunities here for you.
Loannie Reyes (30:51)
It’s funny that when you said that because it reminded me, my husband and I studied accounting. Our bachelor degrees are in accounting. So how we become elevator mechanics. And the funny thing is it was through his brother. But the funny thing about that is that when we started the elevator industry, my husband’s like, I don’t know if I should go in becoming a mechanic because I don’t want to dirty my hands. That was the first concept I started.
And because it gives the impression that you hear mechanic and you feel greasy hands, dirty, but reality is that that is not like that. It’s not like a mechanic, automobile mechanic. Yes, you’re going to find equipment that is going to be a little bit dirty and everything like that. But most of the time, if you’re doing a good job, you maintain your equipment clean. And it’s funny because a lot of people see me when I was yesterday doing an inspection in Manhattan.
And the guy was talking to me and he was like, hey, are you gonna get on top of the car? And I’m like, yes. Are you gonna get your hands dirty? I’m like, no, I have gloves. Your nails are gonna broke. And I’m like, no, don’t worry. I have everything under control. So it is funny because people think about elevators and they feel like this is a dirty job and it’s not dirty at all. It’s not a job that…
You are all the time full of grease from top to head or anything like that. No, it’s blue collar job, it’s a technical job, but it’s a beautiful industry that I really love and I’m passionate about.
Matt Allred (32:30)
And honestly, that’s some of the magic. And honestly, it’s one of the reasons I love doing these interviews because there’s so much passion around people loving what they do. And I don’t get that in other industries. mean, prior to this, I used to recruit in a lot of other and work in other industries. And it’s really hard to describe that to anybody. But if they know just how passionate people get, I mean, I interviewed a guy recently, right? 46 years, no plan to retire. Why? Because I love it. This is what I love to do.
Veronica Querales (33:00)
You
Matt Allred (33:01)
How do you describe that? You know, it’s like you can’t know until you actually get in, right? You have to take that leap of faith or whatever it is and try it.
Loannie Reyes (33:11)
Mm-hmm. My niece. She was working for a law firm. And I told her, like, come, I need you in the office. I need you to work for me in the co-compliance department. I’m like, I don’t know nothing about elevators. And I’m like, no, come, I’ll teach you. And now she’s like, I love it. Auntie, I love it. I want to be there. I want to do this. And sometimes she’s calling me at 8 o’clock, and I’m like,
girl, get a life. And she’s like, no, Titi, I love it. Titi is Auntie. It’s like, love it. I want to be, I want to fulfill this. I want to complete this. I want to do that. It is, it becomes passionate when the people start understanding it’s exciting for her. And I that’s what I see about the team work that we have. Our teams start getting excited, loving it. It is amazing industry.
Veronica Querales (33:35)
Yeah.
And when you see,
And when you have people like that with that passion, at least for me, nourish my soul, nourish my soul. let them take a decision, let them take mistakes. What is convenient? Nothing is going to happen. You look at my case, my son is starting and I have a, what is going to happen? We do a mistake, he do a wrong quote or something.
Bill McGrath (34:04)
Mm-hmm.
Veronica Querales (34:17)
It’s not a hard food situation let it then let let them nourish that passage because at the moment if you start putting rules and rules and rules and rules Maybe they lose that passion at least that’s like, okay, let’s do it and nourish that. One of my people in my office They’re always Veronica any how you how you he she’s so attentive with everything that you I said She called me at 8 you girl is family time go and spend time with your family. I don’t want to hear no because I need to find out this
information and you can wait. Go into your family and…
And I love to see that she’s, I give this opportunity to her. She’s a stay at home mom in the house and she can work for home. And she’s, my God, never no one gave me this opportunity, Veronica, to work from home and it can be a present mom. And I can work in the industry and you are giving me a career. I was thinking that I’m gonna work in a retail store for all my life because I don’t have a degree because I have kids. And she’s so grateful because we have the opportunity to grow people and know our people.
what are the things that they do good and we can make it happen. We make the magic.
Matt Allred (35:25)
That’s awesome. So
we’re kind of getting close to our time here and I just want to end with one question to each of you and that is on one hand, we’ve got seemingly a shortage, right? We need people and sometimes, hey, you happen to have the skills, sometimes maybe you don’t, right? And so there are obviously people we have to turn away and say, yeah, that’s just not gonna work. What would you say to…
maybe to somebody who wants to get into the industry, what could help them? Sometimes it’s who you know, right? That helps, right? But maybe they don’t know anybody, but are there ways that maybe they could start preparing themselves? If they listen to this and get all excited, what would you say? Bill, let’s start with you.
Bill McGrath (36:14)
To get in, mean, I do tell people that this trade isn’t for everybody because it’s not.
But I also tell people, young people, that if you’re looking for a job, go to Walmart. If you want a career, come here. like I said earlier, I’m not really banging on the kids anymore. I’m more banging on the parents. Because just as my example I gave earlier, because if the parents don’t want their kids to work hard, it’s an uphill battle that we won’t win.
That’s where I’m at with that.
Matt Allred (36:51)
Yeah,
thank you. Loannie?
Loannie Reyes (36:54)
I would say if you’re willing to use your hands and get you can use your brain and your hands so definitely this is a great industry to be in. I know a lot of people that has come close to us and looking to learn I would say like try to learn some kind of trade like electrical trade or a trade that is related to mechanical and electrical.
if you are not finding or you don’t have any body that can teach you, elevators itself. And we have other people that have said like, can I go and volunteer to learn the industry? We have helped people like that too. And it’s interesting because honestly, they are open, they try it. Some say the first day I’m like, nah, this is not for me. And some of them say, I can do this. This is not that complicated. And once they try it,
they fall in love with the industry and they start trying to develop themselves and learn more and more. I would say yes, always try to, if you don’t have a school built, by the way, congratulations for that, that school that you’re opening, I love it. I’m excited. I’m looking forward to send people there. looking, I always tell them like, if you don’t have any body that can teach you, at least learn electronics or mechanical skills, develop something in that area.
Veronica Querales (38:08)
Yeah.
Loannie Reyes (38:20)
because once you have at least a base, it will help you to grow faster. So we have people that because they have that base on electricity or mechanical, they develop so fast that in two years, two years and a half, they already becoming mechanics because they’re working fine. They’re able to fix elevators left and right.
And that’s something that I always encourage everybody to do in that area if they have to learn something.
Matt Allred (38:54)
Awesome. Thank you. And Veronica.
Veronica Querales (38:57)
For me, they need to learn, if they’re a crafty person and they like to use their brain, you can work in everything over here. So in my case, they have to be can be technology-wise, can be with their hands, using tools. If you are that, you can open the, you have, my doors of color is open for you guys. Because we have engineers in this place that make design. We have people that do assembly. We have,
people that work with wood so many areas that you can fit in we have marketing team that if your tech these kids from graduate from school that they are very knowledgeable in marketing they don’t even know and we are open doors for that So it’s more than like I say we are here you if you want to work first of all you want to work and you are Crafty for me is like the best option that you can do you in you’re gonna succeed in this industry
Matt Allred (39:50)
That’s awesome. Those are words of wisdom. I’ve said this before, but my dad was a school teacher for like 33 years, and then he was on the school board, and then on the state legislature out West where I grew up. And he used to say to me that college really only works for about 20 % of the population. And so he was trying to change state laws to get more funding, if you will, for not just trades, but the arts and other things that aren’t just college.
And so I think there are definitely a lot of people that will find deep satisfaction. And I think that’s part of what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the joy and the passion is there’s a lot of deep satisfaction in working not only just with your hands, but wherever your gifts are, right? If you have that gift, then come, come work here, right?
Veronica Querales (40:36)
Mm-hmm.
Exactly Exactly That’s great.
Loannie Reyes (40:42)
Yes.
Matt Allred (40:43)
Awesome. Well,
thank you all for being here. I appreciate all of your time, your insights. It’s been a real pleasure.
Bill McGrath (40:50)
Thanks, Matt
Loannie Reyes (40:50)
Thank you.
Veronica Querales (40:50)
Thank you, Matt.
Matt Allred (40:53)
Thank you, have a great day.
Veronica Querales (40:55)
Take care.