EP188: Solving The Construction Staffing Crisis with Matthew Martin from HomeV

Absolutely. So I went to Middle Tennessee State University, went through a construction management program and launched my own home building company here in Middle Tennessee in 2006. Father had spent a career, almost four decades with national home builders. And so really grew up being introduced at a low level, you know, walking on job sites with dad and just kind of always knew I was going to be in construction. I was going to be a contractor and I was just going to continue to build homes. And, you know, the industry changed a lot. It changed a lot in 2008,2009. It changed a lot again, COVID. The world over the last 20 years is just different. And so through nonprofit efforts in Central America and specifically initially Honduras, we tapped into just an amazing opportunity that wasn't expected but impacted our business. Project D15 is our 501c3 that we started where we're an aftercare program for children rescued out of trafficking. And a couple of years after starting that. And just building a lot of confidence, learning a lot about Honduras as a corporation and an education system and people's gifting and talents in education. I had to figure out, man, how do I hire some of them? And realizing it's kind of the call center capital of... Central America, of the Americas. It's huge in this virtual assistance that has been growing that I personally had a lot of negative experience with. But on that same token, I found myself in 2021 in the boom of construction, really having a hard time holding on to people. And as a business owner and constantly feeling like I'm training people out of the industry who would just jump. As soon as I get them trained up going, a few months later, they're putting in their notice and going somewhere else. And talking with other builders that I network with across Middle Tennessee and other states as well, finding that this is not a common thing for us, but this is happening everywhere. It's just really hard to find people in the industry that are experienced, but also that stability that you need in knowing that there's loyalty in the workplace that we just kind of lost. And so HomeV was launched initially out of a need for staffing where we built a training program and multiple roles that can be done virtually that were a lot of our office jobs. But as the market has softened slightly and as the industry has continued to shift and change. It has now been one of the biggest impacts on how we've been able to lower cost and continue to keep our profit in the black because this has had a huge impact on our bottom line. And so Home V was birthed out of one need and then has continued to be exactly what we needed through the industry shifts for multiple reasons.

So the two roles that we were having the hardest time as a builder in Middle Tennessee, which has just been a huge growing market. We also operate in central Kentucky. And then we've done some things in Alabama and Florida as well. And one of the two hardest roles that we just seem to be a revolving door within our organization is on the one hand, customer service and warranty. It seems like young people have a really hard time not only grasping, but wanting to stay in that role that can be confrontational between a builder and a client, really navigating through what their warranty is, helping educate and inform and set up right expectations. and work through that customer through the scheduling and all the dynamics and the variables that come with service and warranty. And so that was a role that seemed to be a revolving door with us where it was every six to 12 months we had a new face, which isn't good for our customer base, right? And what was oftentimes happening in that role is people not just leaving, but that seemed to be a stepping stone into being a project manager somewhere else at another builder. And then the other role that was really high level but seemed to be revolving was that of an estimating position. Somebody that's coming in that's not only estimating homes the way we want it estimated, but all the fiduciary information of who you're using and what prices that you're doing and your kind of trade way of doing things. that it seemed that everybody as builders were coming in, that was a high position that our competition would put out there to grab an estimator from one company. And again, it seems like every six to 12 months, we're replacing that position during that job market. And what was difficult is... You couldn't find anybody experienced in middle Tennessee. And so what we're doing is we're bringing either kids out of college or people from out of the industry and spending a huge amount of time investing in them and training them to get them onboarded just to see them leave within three to six months of really beginning to operate at the level that you were hoping to get to. Yeah.

That was, that was exactly what was happening in our market is, uh, someone would, would wave, you know, maybe sometimes the difference of even a thousand dollars a month, which is a big, I mean, that's a lot of money, you know, and you know, they're, they're, they're finding them on LinkedIn. And, and there was a lot of, you know, what I call poaching right happening between builders. And what was happening on the one side of the spectrum is I had my managers. not extending the management capital that they used to in investing because there was almost between my upper level guys, what I call my key players, they were having a hard time really showing all the cards because it had built an expectation over three and four and five years of the growth, housing growth and housing boom. that had been taking place, they had a hard time really trusting and hoping that, and it's not the development of their skills, but specifically the fiduciary information. And so there's a couple of things that they wanted to stay close to or relationships that they want to stay close to. Because at the same time, what was happening in the middle of Tennessee was not just poaching of employees, but man, we had a huge labor shortage, right? There was material shortage and coming out of COVID. And it was, so there was a lot of that going on. that was also expending a lot of management capital. Now on the flip side of that coin, we're also dealing with a lot of individuals we're bringing in out of the industry that were just not high performers. They weren't going anywhere, but it was the management capital being taken, keeping them off Netflix, keeping them off their phone and doing things that are distracting their work time. that was expending a lot of management capital, that when we brought in a trained, dedicated team out of Central America working in these roles, well, in the workplace in Central America, they don't bring a phone into the office, right? They got lockers outside. The professional culture there is drastically different. And so, you know, we found the productivity level as well, not only the stability, but the productivity level was a huge game changer.

Yeah, well, as I started doing it, there's a few buddies of mine that are also contractors and as well as some subcontractors, some flooring companies, cabinet companies and other guys that were experiencing some of the same things I was. And they said, hey, man, you know, we'd love. we'd love to get in on this and, you know, help me find somebody that, you know, maybe it's doing cabinet design or flooring design or estimating for them or customer service or, uh, you know, back office accounting, things like that. They were really having a hard time finding people as well. And, uh, I mean, even getting people to show up to an interview sometimes is, is very difficult. And so we began working with them and it was, exceedingly successful. It was successful for us. It was successful for them. And at some point we go, you know what, we should, we should, this is helping people, right? We should exploit this. But before we did that, we go, we really need to do a better job training and create a training program so that. All the hurdles that I personally had to overcome, training myself, the months it took, as well as some of these other companies that I've been working with for a decade or longer did as well. I don't expect everybody to do that, right? So we built a training program with a guy named Edsel Charles. Edsel is, man, he's been in the industry almost 50 years and very connected with the NAHB guys. And he has an organization called Market Graphics Research, which is. kind of a competitor with Metro Study. And he's a housing economist and really influential, especially in the Southeast. I forgot how many states he covers, but I think it's 20 or so different states. He does national housing forecasting. And Edsel, very connected as well with the National Home Builders, helped me build a training program for 13 different key roles. within the housing industry. So obviously, you know, service and warranty being a huge one, estimating, purchasing assistant, online sales, and, you know, data clerk, purchase order processing, marketing and graphic design, and so on and so forth. That isn't just training in general in the job, but specifically in the residential and commercial construction industry. And so it's about a three-week crash course that every individual, despite their background or with their education, we bring them in and we put them through the training so that when one of our clients is considering interviewing somebody and onboarding them, they already know what the NHB standards are, right? They already understand kind of the fundamentals from a foundational standpoint of the business to where you're not having to teach them what a two by four is, right? But they're coming in with with some basics that are easy to build upon. And, you know, how are you running your business specifically? How do you do things and focus the training efforts there as if you're hiring somebody with some basic knowledge within that industry? Gotcha.

I did use VAs in the past or I attempted to, which failed miserably. And we never imagined ourselves doing something like this. But when we set out to open and launch project D one five, and we had been all going on about three years of doing that. And it got to the point we were really dreaming and being imaginative about expanding our nonprofit and what we were doing in Central America. In November, we're expanding out into El Salvador, which we're really excited about. And we were looking for a means, some motivation from a friend who also has a nonprofit in Honduras, created a similar concept where he has a coffee farm. And this coffee farm that he has. is the main source, the main funder for his nonprofit, which is called Children in the Mountains, where he brings clean water and clean energy and education to children in rural and remote areas within Central America. And this coffee farm is the number one funder of what's happening. And talking to him, he said, you know, you really need to figure out what are some things that Honduras offers. that can become leveraged for the financial benefit for what you're doing on the nonprofit standpoint. And so that was really the idea when we began. Well, that happening at the same time, and it was really a God thing of those two coming in aligned and seeing what it's flourished into today is one of our now number one funders of what we're doing with Project E15, a 501c3. So 100% of the profits that we make from Home V goes towards what we're doing in ministry and nonprofit work and humanitarian aid in Central America.

So we do focus mainly on children who have been rescued out of trafficking as an aftercare program. The children that we receive are with us on average seven to nine months before they get to go back home. And if they get to go back home, if they have a home to go back to, if not, then we do do permanent childcare and housing and really creating a family unit. Beyond that, we have 15 permanent children with us currently that will age out with us that we've essentially adopted in as family. And we'll continue to be that for the rest of their lives. Have an amazing team down there that focuses not only on that side, but then on the other side of things for the specific traumas that come with children that are rescued out of trafficking scenarios. And however, we do participate a lot with other organizations that are focusing on children, homeless children, widows, and who are really doing a good job in various parts of all of Central America. really doing a co-op effort of making as big of an impact as we can. You know, as a home builder, one of the things that we've always gotten involved with is just homelessness period. And I think that has been a natural in the heart. When you love providing a home, you understand the burden of someone not having something. to call it home. And that's the part of

That's right. Now we haven't hired anybody that we've, that we've helped. However, we are one of the number one best places to work in Tegucigalpa. We pay significantly more. I mean, it's not a good place to work. Most of Central America isn't. A lot of what we consider third world countries are not great living conditions. They're terrible hours. They're underpaid. Everything is a struggle. And what we do is we create a great working environment. We pay more. than our competition significantly. We're paying a living wage. And because of that, nobody leaves, right? We have huge stability in over two years, we've had zero turnover. And so we have the confidence that when we are bringing someone with a client, that not only are they going to kill it, they're going to do a great job, but our client doesn't have to worry about them jumping ship.

Exactly. Exactly. Perfect.

That's exactly right. Time zone is huge. They're working when you're working, but anyone that's doing what we're doing, specifically the small business, and I don't know anyone who's doing what we're doing, how we're doing it, but other VA-type companies, most of them are in the Philippines or India or much, much different time zones. Let's face it,2 a. m. and 2 p. m., you're getting a different kind of worker, right? The headspace they're in and the amount of energy and focus they're able to give. A second big component is the fact that, you know, we're talking about virtual assistants and remote work, but I am not a believer in work from home. That's not been a big thing. You know, we have people here at my office working when they're there. And so none of our back office, none of our clients, team members. that they're working with at HomeV actually work from home. So they're remote, but they're actually in a workspace. They're within a corporate office building with on-site managers there to assist each client. And so from the time zone, as well as the fact that they're here on site, I think are huge game changers compared to a standard virtual assistant company.

Yeah. So. When we're onboarding a client who sends us what we call a staffing request form, and this is after a first initial consultation meeting, they'll say, hey, yeah, I'd like to interview some people. And so they send us a staffing request form. And in that, they're sending us... the job title, the job description, but also any, any software they're going to be working in. And, you know, for a lot of builders, they're using builder trend or pro build or pro core, you know, something off the shelf. Sometimes they have their own internal system, right. That they've built. And as well as, you know, secondary and third party ones. Well, when, when we're training up, when they hire someone and we're training somebody up to start working with that client. We're going to get them Builder Trend certified or ProBuild certified or whatever that is. We have access to their training programs. And so they're coming in not only proficient in our training program that we're building the building blocks of whatever role they're going to be doing in the industry, but also very proficient in that CRM program or that specific software program that they're using. which really allows them to hit the ground running. And what we also see, I would say the most common thing that we see is we see organizations, builders who are utilizing one of these, but they're not utilizing it to its fullest extent. Oh yeah. And I think the guys in leadership, they would like that more. It's just not everything's gotten embraced. And when they start working with someone from our team that gets assigned to their team, they see that that is an initial game changer and they begin getting the total value of whatever CRM program they're using.

That's right. That's

Yeah, we have ran into roles or ways of doing things that we haven't done. And, you know, with that, we give them just we have a basic fundamentals of the industry that we put them through. And with that, you know, there's some roles where we're working and looking to the client and going, hey, you know, you're you're really going to have to spend three, four weeks training this person. In some cases, we do those weeks at no cost. Because what's important to us is that our clients aren't having to pay to significantly train in those areas. And so those are when we've run into those very unique situations, we make it really easy for the client or at the least inexpensive for the client to overcome that hurdle. Because what we know is, is while we've had zero turnover with any team member, with any of our clients. We have almost zero turnover of any of our clients and almost 90% of every contractor that is onboarded with us is growing their company with us, which means if they started with one, if they started with three or however many, within 12 months, they are adding more. And they see this as a scalable way that they can scale their business, which is really exciting once they understand that the asset that this really is. Oh,

That's right.

Exactly. You know, we have, and I love that you mentioned that because, you know, we do have clients that have 150 plus employees and, and they're, they're they have a lot of staffing with us. But we have contractors that they're going, man, you know, I have one employee and I'm just not big enough to do something like this. And we go, no, we're we're exact. We're actually a better fit for you than we are the guy with one hundred and fifty. And when when people on board with us, because we have we have a lot of small contractors that have, you know, one person with us and that person's wearing multiple hats. Right. And so they're learning multiple job descriptions. And because we're geared towards the small business, I get that, right? I remember when there was just two, three of us running and we're all doing five different things. So I tell them, you know, the best thing about us is if you don't have that training program yet, you don't have that job description. Well, you're going to do it like you would everyone else, just like you said. But now you have someone on your team that has an administrative type background that has the. capability to start writing their own job description, start putting their own training, based on how you trained them, they just created their own training program. And which is something we did with our organization when we were growing it. I remember looking at my team, I'm like, there's five of us now. And we've been here and doing this too long and we've grown and but we can't come hire HR just yet. And so everybody's going to spend the next week and they're going to write their own job description. and they're going to write their own training program and their own standard operating procedures. And I remember our first round didn't look great, right? But we got some stuff on paper. And we have just boilerplate blanket standard forms that are helping the small contractors also get organized. And in having people equipped to go, hey, let me write your job descriptions out in a way that you can see it and easy and wrap your head around it and standard operating procedures and things like that. We can work with wherever that builder is at any given time and help them build something meaningful that lasts over time.

Right.

Yeah, I think that there is a lot of that in our industry, as well as a little bit of a stigma. Right. That comes with our industry. And that stigma starts not virtually, but here at home. You know, and that question of Hispanic trade base and, you know, the things that we hear in the rumor mill of people hiring people that aren't legal, et cetera. The first is, is this virtual assistant services as a hundred percent legal, right? Number two, you really have to look inwardly and say, is this best for my business in America? Is this going to help me grow my business in America? Is this going to help me serve more customers in America? And quite frankly, for me. This has grown my business to the extent that I have hired more staffing in America. Because while there are some things that you can do remote, you cannot do all things remote, right? And so this has made me a better employer by being a way that I can grow my business. We're saving a significant amount of money. We'll say position to position. But what that has allowed me to do is pay my people here at home more. Right. And so I am a more competitive employer because what I'm saving here. Right. I have almost less to zero turnover over here because I haven't changed what I'm paying in salaries. I'm able to pay my key players here more, have more competitive bonus programs that I wasn't capable of doing before. And so if you look at it as a silo of just, well, this is hiring a company that provides service in Central America, comparatively to going, how does this work for the overall program? I see it as a greater benefit when utilized appropriately. And when you've had the kind of experience as an American employer, especially in the entry-level type jobs, an administrative assistant, that was a role we were trying to hire for. I remember when all this was happening, we had 12 people set up to interview. 12 people called in advance to confirm the interview appointment, specific time scheduled for them to come. Four of the 12 showed up. Four of the 12 showed up. And then we made a hiring decision that day. First interview, not something we normally do, but there was one that stood out so significantly because You know, we weren't super excited about anybody, but there was one that we were and it was really competitive. And we were afraid if we don't give her a job offer, she's just going to jump. Right. She's interviewing other places. We give her a job offer. She accepts it. And then the day before she's supposed to start, she lets us know she's not coming. Yeah. And so, you know, in first, so a lot of these roles, I'm going, I don't know if we've replaced anyone, you know? Yeah.

Yes.

Well, and one of the things I hear often too is going, you know, well, your business model is profiting. off of paying low wages. Yeah, I was gonna bring it up. And I respond to that and I say, well, my first thing I'm going to say is 100% of the profits go to nonprofit and this is not a high profit business model. I promise you, number one, we're making very little margin each person. So it is a volume operation. And the second is this, is you don't need to compare the United States economy and the Honduras economy. For me, you can compare where we're at in Tennessee and California, right? Or New York to Oklahoma or some of these states. We realize that, well. The economies of scale, of currency, of cost of living is drastically different, which is why I love to go back and remind them we're paying very well a living wage in Honduras. For them, yeah. Right. For them. For them. And it is different than us. And it is almost double what the average pay there is. So we are very proud of what we do, the jobs we're bringing in, the employment opportunity. And when people begin to also challenge or question, well, you know, what is the treatment like? You know, we invite them. Come look. Come talk to them. Let's get them on video. We'll give you a tour of the office. You can start meeting some people. And because it's really information that's needed at that point. Yeah.

Yes. Well, I tell people all the time, if there's one thing that I would love to just spend an hour and teach you as a contractor, as a business owner, as a key player, is if you get an assistant that can maximize your calendar, maximize your schedule, and I say it this way, keep you doing the things that make you money, right? Keep you doing your main thing. And anything that's not you doing your main thing, putting that and make that someone else's main thing, that is a game changer. You talk about tripling your efforts. You know, so many times we think, you know, man, we need another project manager. And you go, do you? Do you need another project manager? Or can you, if you got a really good project manager and they're amazing, you go, man, you know, I wish I had two of them. Well, sometimes you can duplicate them from taking the paperwork away, taking the busy work away. and get them doing double of the thing that they do best that you're really paying them for. And then what does that look like at every level? Which is oftentimes why those CRM programs aren't being operated to its fullest. People are too busy doing their main thing. They don't have enough time to really organize it, even though we know the value that really is when we take the time to do it.

That's right. Well, unexpected, unexpected blessings with our organization that we see our clients share is we do have a heavily Hispanic trade base. And so, and we have a purchasing assistant that's out of Honduras, but is operating as a purchasing assistant. And not only do they overcome language barriers, but there's a connection and a relationship that's built that I wasn't able to build at that same level. right, which gives a better level of performance and a longer lasting relationship, which has been huge. Productivity, as I mentioned earlier, is huge. And we train down there just what value means. You know, we tell people that the hourly wage is a lie, right? No one pays you for your time. They pay you for what you produce in that time. And that's a fundamental. culture builder that we employ. And one of the things that we typically hear first within the first few weeks of them working is the shock that they have or the impression that they have when they hear someone come to them and say, hey, I have finished everything that you've had me to do and I have four hours left. How else can I add value to your organization? And getting in hearing that obviously from an employer, that's, that's music to our ears. We're going, Oh my goodness. When's the last time that's happened? When's the last time it's like, you know, it's, it's as crazy as thinking a country or a state can balance its budget. Right.

Or them coming back and saying, you know, I have more time. Give me more to do.

Absolutely. Easiest way to find us is Home V. And that's B-I-Z. All of our socials, all of our other contacts, and all of our information is there. First questions we get asked is, am I paying an international company? No, we are stateside. We're based out of Nashville, Tennessee. You are paying an American company, right? But we are a service provider. There's no W-2s. There's no insurance. You're not hiring anybody. You're hiring a service. And we are training up somebody to provide a service as if... it's a staffing solution. We are on all the socials. We put some good content out when we can just to help any of the imaginative. And our first meeting for anybody interested, no obligations, let's just talk, right? And we like to jump, we'll jump on any of the virtual chat tools that you like, whether it's Google Meet, the Teams, to everything in the middle. and really eager and willing to help you troubleshoot on whether or not this could be a solution for your organization.

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, well, I love that you asked that. So I'm actually rereading Seven Habits. And I know that's probably one that's been mentioned before. And it's my third round on it. And it's one of my favorites. And the thing that I love about it is I'm constantly gleaning something else. powerful, powerful book and constantly going back and figuring out how do I, how do I continue to operate at a hundred in all areas?