POWER TO THE PEOPLE Cianbro Corp. named U.S. Contractor of the Year

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With millions of dollars in construction contracts, thousands of owner-employees, and massive jobs under way up and down the Atlantic seaboard, you’d think Cianbro Corp. executives would tout their skill at bridge-building, or their expertise in metal fabrication or oil rig retrofitting.

They could point to a massive dam reconstruction in Maryland or repair work at power plants in Pennsylvania. They could brag about a liquefied natural gas facility in Maryland, a piping project at Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., or, closer to home, the Piscataqua River Bridge that links Maine and New Hampshire, or Bangor’s canal project at Kenduskeag Stream.

But they don’t. Instead, when you sit down with company executives, they quickly steer the conversation away from rebar, pipes and boilers towards their people. What they talk about are their 2000 workers.

“We are a service company with multiple assets,” President Peter Vigue said this week. “But without our people, we have nothing.”

Vigue said that national recognition has come to the company because “our people make that happen. We have created an environment of teamwork and trust, one that allows people to grow within the organization.”

Vigue experienced that ethic firsthand. Thirty-six years ago, he began as a laborer with Cianbro. “As the company grows, people can grow, but the company cannot grow without the people.”

Cianbro (pronounced chin-bro) was founded by four Cianchette brothers – Carl, Kenneth, Ival and Alton – and is rooted in the merit-shop philosophy that each employee can succeed based on hard work, skill and determination. Headquartered in Pittsfield, the company’s maintenance shop and one of two fabrication facilities are also located in Pittsfield. Almost 300 people work at the Pittsfield sites, with another 1,700 at locations in Connecticut and Maryland.

Last week, Alan Burton, vice president of human resources and safety, was in Las Vegas to accept the 2005 Contractor of the Year Award presented by the Associated Builders and Contractors, a national association representing 23,000 merit-shop construction firms across the United States.

In presenting the award, ABC President Kirk Pickerel said “What was once a small, family-owned business is now an employee-owned company that has developed an entrepreneurial spirit, a devotion to honoring its commitments, maintained an understanding of the rights and responsibilities of ownership and emphasized the importance of attracting and retaining the best people.”

Burton said the company was particularly pleased for being honored for the depth and strength of its people.

“It really is all about ‘What is the legacy you want to leave?’ That is what the [Cianchette] brothers did so well. We do focus on running a company but more so on creating a legacy.”

Cianbro’s name has become synonymous in the workplace with safety, wellness, volunteerism and community spirit.

The company’s intense safety program is rooted in a question Vigue was asked in 1987 at the funeral of a Cianbro worker who died when he fell from a bridge project in Connecticut. Although the company was cleared of all responsibility, that worker’s 9-year-old daughter walked up to Vigue and asked, “Why did you kill my daddy?”

Deeply affected, Vigue vowed to go beyond national regulations and develop a successful worker-safety program. He immediately shut down all Cianbro job sites and began a step-by-step review of all safety procedures.

Cianbro’s nationally recognized wellness program focuses on the worker at the workplace, and beyond. “We deal with tobacco use [Cianbro is a 100 percent tobacco-free workplace], diet and nutrition, alcohol and drug abuse and exercise,” Burton said. “This is an outgrowth of what we learned in safety. We want to send people home in the same shape they came to work, or better.”

Training is key as well. “We have 100 to 150 employees in training programs all the time,” Burton said. “A worker can go from no skill to highly skilled in less than four years.” By having its own programs in place, Cianbro has helped alleviate the problem of finding adequately training craftspeople, he said.

Back home in his Pittsfield office, Burton has a small saying, printed in green ink on his bulletin board: “Managers do things that are right. Leaders do the right thing.”

Because Cianbro is recognized as a leader in the industry, Burton said the company has a responsibility, not just to its workers, but to its communities and state.

Cianbro has linked with the state’s community college system, local schools and 17 regional vocational schools to assist in worker training. The company donates equipment, material and tools, and provides technical expertise.

“Unless we stay engaged, it will become more of a struggle to find skilled craftspeople,” Burton said.

Vigue said all employees are encouraged to become involved in their communities as coaches, Boy and Girl Scout leaders and other volunteer opportunities. “We have learned that when our team members get involved in the community, their personal growth is unbelievable. Pride and enthusiasm are good things,” he said.

Cianbro is creating a culture of caring about people. “We are focusing on the right things first,” Burton said.

“For us, the challenge isn’t becoming the biggest contractor in the country, but to be the constructor of choice, and, more importantly, the employer of choice,” Vigue said. He said that emphasis on teamwork and employee well-being is a “dynamic approach” and often is Cianbro’s edge when customers are choosing a company.

When asked if it wouldn’t be more efficient for Cianbro to move out of state, closer to its work sites, Vigue chuckled. “Someone has to step forward and reflect their belief in this state,” he said. Cianbro operates on three values, he said, which harken back to the founding brothers: Treat people as you would like to be treated; your word is your bond; and give back from which you take.

“It would be so easy to be narrow-minded, to go down the road and do better, but we wouldn’t feel good about that. We would not be fulfilling our responsibility,” he said.

“We have 1,300 residents of Maine that own this company.” As for Pittsfield, Vigue calls his home town “a great place to live and a great community. It may sound corny, but there are people here, within our company, that have strong ties with each other, that love each other. The environment we have created allows them to support each other, through good times and bad times. It’s an atmosphere of collaboration and support.”

At Cianbro, Vigue said “It is all of us. Not one of us. That in itself makes a difference between ourselves and our competition. We have tried to do what is right and we will continue to raise the bar. It is our responsibility not just to participate in the economy as a business, but to give back to society.”

QUICK FACTS

. Cianbro Corp. was established in 1949.

. Its corporate headquarters are in Pittsfield with satellite offices in Connecticut and Maryland, and more than 26 job sites exist in 15 states along the Eastern Seaboard.

. It is 100-percent employee owned.

. Gross annual sales exceed $360 million.

. Cianbro maintains an $85 million equipment and tool inventory.

. It is an open shop with more than 2,000 member-employees and contains the largest electrical work force in the state.

. The company specializes in heavy industrial, power plant, hydroelectric, nuclear plant, marine facilities, lock and dam construction.

. Cianbro has four divisions: construction, fabrication and coatings, a development corporation, and a data services sector.