SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL & STATE
‘Best position we’ve ever been’
 Giving employees
satisfying work
is key to avoiding
employment
problems
By ERICK PETERSON
and SUZANNE ROIG
EO Media Group
HERMISTON — Not
every company is feeling the
employment pinch equally,
according to some local con-
struction companies and at
least one economist.
People at N.W. Crane Ser-
vice Inc. and other companies
say they are not having the
same problems with staffi ng
as in other industries. And
when they do have personnel
issues, they are not related to
the pandemic.
“We’re blessed,” said Ryan
Karlson, logistics manager at
N.W. Crane Service in Herm-
iston. Though he credited
much of his success to luck,
his company’s achievements
in hiring and maintaining
staff seem to be more than a
fl uke.
First, he said, crane busi-
nesses attract a special sort
of person. Karlson’s company
employs 12 crane opera-
tors and drivers. Karlson is
himself an experienced crane
operator and knows a thing
or two about this type of
worker.
Crane operators, he said,
are excited by the challenge
of their work. Often, prior to
beginning their careers, they
looked up at cranes while
doing other construction, and
they wanted to get behind
the controls of the huge
machines.
This desire, he said, is
sometimes hidden deep in
their hearts. When they fi nal-
ly talk to an employer about
crane work, and they learn
about the opportunities, they
are excited. And when they
get a job, often they do not
want to leave it.
Being able to offer
employees a challenging,
fulfi lling and enjoyable job,
then, accounts for part of
N.W. Crane’s employment
success. This is not the end of
the explanation, however.
A major reason Karl-
son has been able to foster
loyalty is because he offers
in-house certifi cations, which
employees appreciate.
Certifi cates are important
for crane operators. Many
work sites, including ones
owned by Amazon, allow only
certifi ed workers. And many
employers, Karlson said, re-
quire employees to fi nd and
Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group
Workers with N.W. Crane Service Inc., of Hermiston, unload parts of a crane while assembling it Monday,
Sept. 27, 2021, at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, Washington. The crane service is among
several companies that have managed to avoid the staffi ng problems plaguing other industries as a result of
the pandemic.
pay for their own certifi cates.
He said he suspects his
employees appreciate their
training, but also other perks.
He offers insurance and va-
cations. Depending on their
experience, a new driver can
earn $20 to $22 per hour. His
crane operators can earn $23
to $40 or more.
These are nonunion jobs,
but Karlson said employees
can benefi t from not being
union members. Union em-
ployees, he said, might have
to wait years before they can
receive crane training. This
is not the case for his work-
ers — they can start training
right away.
Turnover, then, is low,
according to Karlson. His
workers appreciate their
jobs and the benefi ts of their
labor, so they work well, but
this is not all. They did not
just start working hard when
they joined his company;
they started as good workers.
Karlson relies on pre-
employment interviews to
screen potential employees.
Even if he has to do inter-
views by Zoom, rather than
in person, he likes to be able
to look a potential employee
in the eye. He said he tries
to fi gure their abilities and
their character. If he thinks
an employee will be a good
fi t, he said, they usually are.
Karlson said his com-
pany is “in the best position
we’ve ever been,” and this
is during a pandemic when
many other companies are
struggling to retain or to fi nd
employees.
N.W. Crane has experi-
ence in worker relations,
which Karlson attributed
to its humble beginnings.
The company grew as part
of N.W. Metal Fabricators
Inc., a company owned by his
father, Kerry Karlson. His
father was doing well with
metal fabricating, but he saw
the need for cranes. When
he started operating his
own crane, more and more
employers approached him
for help. He added a second
crane, which led to more.
By 2005, the crane side
of the business was large
enough to justify a separate
business, and N.W. Crane
Services was born. It began
operating on its own prop-
erty, separate from the
fabrication company where it
started.
A family operation that
has developed since Ryan
Karlson’s father fi rst came
to Hermiston with his family
in 1986, the companies treat
their workers like family,
and that approach has “gone
a long way” to inspiring em-
ployees to stay, he said.
Having experienced work-
ers is vital, Karlson said,
because their jobs are no
small feat.
He has nine cranes. The
smallest weighs 40 tons. The
largest tops out at 550 tons.
He recently had this big-
gest crane on site at Lamb
Weston. It took 15 semitrail-
ers to move the crane and a
60-ton support crane to put
it together. Taking it down,
after the job, takes his staff
5-1/2 hours of coordinated,
skilled and diffi cult work.
“They’re amazing,” Karl-
son said of his employees.
draw works, which often
requires raising prices to
offset these new costs. A job
that paid a minimum wage
of $9.25 an hour in 2016 now
pays $12.75 an hour, accord-
ing to the Oregon Bureau
of Labor and Industries.
For the past fi ve weeks, EO
Media Group explored the
effect of the labor shortage
on businesses, industries and
workers young and old.
The Oregon Employment
Department reported that
the state regained nearly two
out of three jobs lost in spring
2020 when government
mandates restricted or closed
business operations. A record
level of job openings were
reported in April and June
in Oregon and across the
country. Businesses reported
98,000 job vacancies at any
given time between April and
June.
In addition, there were
about 32,500 Oregonians
between April and June who
said they couldn’t work be-
cause of child care concerns
or health concerns related to
COVID-19.
EO Media Group asked
regional economists Christo-
pher Rich and Gail Krume-
nauer to project the economic
outlook for their areas and
Damon Runberg, the state’s
Economists: Prepare
economist, to comment (ON)
for headwinds to
Oregon’s future economy.
temper growth
Their answers have been
To say it’s been a tough
edited for clarity and brevity.
year to be a business owner
Q: What is the eco-
would be an understatement.
nomic vision for Oregon
The rise and the fall of
COVID-19 cases, risk levels going forward now that
that opened and closed busi- the initial impacts of the
nesses, new safety protocols pandemic-related shut-
downs are behind us?
and a severe labor shortage
A: Krumenauer: I think
have forced many business
owners to rethink and retool the general, common theme
their operations. Some indus- is that we’d all hope to see
continued recovery and/or
tries — such as health care
economic expansion, but we
and leisure and hospitality
— have been hit hard by the have already seen higher
pandemic and a lack of work- infl ation in recent months.
ers. Other industries haven’t It’s due in part to worker
wages rising, in part to
felt a thing, economists say.
higher demand (this summer
In response, small busi-
for things like air travel and
nesses have raised wages
accommodations), and also in
and bumped up benefi ts to
As Umatilla County schools restart, so do COVID-19 outbreaks
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
UMATILLA COUNTY —
The continued surge in new
COVID-19 cases in Umatilla
County is beginning to take
a toll on the local education
system.
On Wednesday, Sept.
29, Blue Mountain Com-
munity College announced
it was putting its Pendleton
campus under quarantine,
moving all classes and
services online through Oct.
13. The BMCC campuses
in Hermiston, Boardman,
Milton-Freewater and Baker
City remain fully open.
In an interview, BMCC
President Mark Browning
said college leaders made the
decision after a staff member
tested positive for the virus.
“It’s the safest thing to do,”
he said.
According to Browning, the
staff member got tested after
learning they had been ex-
posed to someone who already
tested positive for COVID-19.
Their test came back positive
on Sept. 28, despite being
vaccinated and asymptom-
atic. Browning said it is Blue
Mountain’s only confi rmed
case, but the college wanted
to quarantine the campus to
prevent any further spread
and sanitize its facilities.
The county’s two largest
K-12 school districts have
avoided a large-scale return
to distance learning, but they
still are feeling the impacts of
COVID-19
In the Pendleton School
District, Superintendent
Chris Fritsch said the district
is experiencing an uptick in
students in quarantine after
Round-Up week, which the
district has typically granted
students and staff as a day off.
In a Sept. 28 interview, Fritsch
said 125 students were in
quarantine, either because
they had tested positive for
COVID-19 or because they
had been exposed to the virus.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity issues weekly reports on
outbreaks in schools, and its
most recent report from Sept.
22, documented eight Pendle-
ton students and two staff as
contracting COVID-19 since
the start of the school year.
Still, Fritsch said he thinks
the beginning of the school
year has gone well considering
Pendleton started its school
year as COVID-19 was peak-
ing around the state.
“You’ll love the work we do. I guarantee it.” - JR
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part to shortages in supply
chains that are reducing the
ability to produce as many of
certain goods as people want
(microchips and cars are a
good example of this).
Q: Where is the econo-
my headed?
A: Runberg: As recovery
and/or expansion continues,
there are some longer-term
facts that are going to come
into play, creating head-
winds for growth. Those are
lower net in-migration — the
primary way we grow our
workforce — and ongoing
or increasing retirements.
According to the Current
Population Survey, there
was a 4.5% increase in those
65-plus who were not in the
labor force in 2020. That is a
big jump, roughly 2 million
people age 65 and older are
out of the labor force nation-
wide. The big picture trend is
clear that the retiring of the
baby boomers has begun and
it is one of the factors in our
tight labor market.
Q: Will businesses have
to continue to pivot to
stay ahead of this current
labor crisis?
A: Krumenauer: As for
businesses pivoting, or rather
continuing to adjust their
hiring strategies, yes. I think
they’ve already been incred-
ibly innovative in changing
their business operations due
to COVID, and in trying to
hire more workers when the
labor market is so tight (lots
of job openings, relatively low
unemployment, and some
workers still facing barriers
to taking jobs).
Q: What are some of
the things employers
are doing to encourage
workers to return to the
workforce?
A: Krumenauer: For one,
employers have raised wages.
Those wages have risen by
more than 2% in Oregon over
the past year. Three out of
fi ve offered health benefi ts,
and half offered retirement
benefi ts. One out of 10 of
employers offering health
insurance, and one out of fi ve
offering retirement benefi ts,
cited worker hiring and
retention advantages related
to those offerings. Half of
Oregon’s private fi rms of-
fered paid holidays, and half
offered paid vacation days.
One-third offered at least
one of the following: fl exible
work schedules, production
or performance bonuses, paid
professional development
training and life insur-
ance. Some employers have
relaxed experience require-
ments.
Employers also are
layering help wanted signs
with other efforts such as
referral incentives, signing
bonuses, posting with online
job boards, and working with
recruiters outside of their im-
mediate geographical area.
Eastern Oregon outlook
by Christopher Rich: “The
largest uncertainty in East-
ern Oregon’s regional outlook
is currently COVID-19. Prior
to the pandemic, the region
saw prolonged job growth
beginning to slow due to a
tight labor market. One of
the largest concerns employ-
ers voiced was a need to hire
workers and a lack thereof.
Industries at the top of the
list were health care and
social assistance, manufac-
turing, retail trade, leisure
and hospitality, and trans-
portation. Total employment
reached a peak of 70,570 jobs
in October 2019 and the av-
erage annual unemployment
rate for the region had fallen
to a low 4.7%. The January
through August average
unemployment rate for the
region was 5.3%.”