Suzanne McCoy

What attracted you to join the construction industry?

I grew up on a farm in a blue-collar family, where hard work was a part of our DNA. My brother and I spent summers helping put up hay and winters hauling wood to help heat our home. That kind of work has always been a part of what I do, and I feel like construction’s very similar. It’s about dedicated people who are working really hard to build something, to build a community, to be a part of something that is bigger than yourself.

What do you feel proud of, working in construction?

As a marketing and sales professional, I’m on the front end of construction and on the back end as well. On the marketing side of it, I make sure that people know about all the awesome things we’re doing. My favorite part of the job is getting to a construction site and being able to show our frontline workers and what they’re doing. They’re really the heart of our company and the soul of what we do. Buildings don’t erect themselves, they’re built by people, and it’s our skilled labor force who are on the front lines, doing that hard work.

How is Samet’s approach to workforce development unique?

At Samet, 65% of our employee base is 40 years or younger. When you look at the millennials and Gen Z who are working for Samet, a lot of companies might step back and think that’s a big risk — we’ve got a young organization. But we look at it as an opportunity. We’re really focused on our workforce development. Last year, we had our largest intern class ever — 40 young men and women from 18 different universities — which means we have an opportunity to mentor and mold young construction professionals.

Tell me about the Builders Building Builders program.

When you think about the passing of the torch and the generational gap that construction has right now, it’s really up to us to make sure the young people coming into the industry are getting what they need. So, we recently started a program called Builders Building Builders. It’s all about getting onto the jobsite with young folks — teaching them, giving them the opportunity to see firsthand what it takes to put up a school, build a healthcare facility and work alongside older folks who know that their legacy is going to live on because they’ve spent the time educating these young people.

Can you give an example of a unique mentorship you’ve seen?

Since I’ve been at Samet, there have been some very unique mentorships within our organization. When I was with the company for two or three months, I was on a jobsite for a high school and saw a young woman — early twenties, petite, blonde, didn’t look like your “typical” construction worker. She was paired up with a 60+-year-old man who’d been in construction his whole life. She worried she wouldn’t be taken seriously or respected, but she was embraced. On the flip side, she was teaching him, too, about technology and a younger person’s perspective. It’s a two-way street.

What about the industry do you think can excite the next generation of construction?

I think oftentimes, a young kid drives by a construction site and only sees what they see, but in reality, construction has so many different paths to take, from flying drones to estimating to pre-construction, to even marketing like myself. For young people today, if they have the opportunity to spend some time on a jobsite or office environment of a construction company, it can encourage them to get some experience to see all the career paths in the industry.

Can you tell me about some of the initiatives Samet is spearheading to get youth in construction?

Samet recently completed construction of Aspire Trade High School, the first charter trade high school in the metro Charlotte area in North Carolina. Building a school that’s going to be a pipeline for future skilled trade is phenomenal since finding skilled trade is a big challenge in the industry. The school will cover carpentry, HVAC, plumbing, electrical and construction courses. A lot of young men and women will get the chance to get hands-on training in the classroom that you don’t get in a typical high school.

How do you think this school will attract the next generation of construction?

I think Aspire Trade High School is unique because students who are looking for a hands-on classroom type of training, a little different from the traditional academic course, will get the opportunity to get exposure to many types of trades that they’re not going to anywhere else. They’ll have the chance to see where they’re the best fit and have a passion. This can lead to an opportunity for us and other companies to hire these young men and women right out of high school to begin to train and develop them further for lifelong careers.

What does workforce development look like internally at Samet?

We have Samet University — it’s really a mindset, but also a training opportunity. It’s been around for a number of years and was designed to build a leadership pipeline within our organization. It covers everything from technical training, like how to write a good RFI, but also professional and leadership skills. These skills are what it takes to be effective on a jobsite, communicating to an owner, trade partners or interviewing in front of a potential client. We like to say learning is a journey, not a one-and-done, and Samet University offers that extended learning and education. It’s also a platform for our really skilled and seasoned people to teach. It’s really about creating leaders within the organization who will continue to run the company when the rest of us are no longer here.

How is Samet encouraging not just youth, but also women to enter the industry?

There’s a wonderful organization in Charlotte called She Built This City that focuses on getting women and youth into the trades, especially for those who want a change and have an interest in construction but never quite knew how to break into the industry. The program trains them over six to 12 weeks on a specific cohort, like electrical or plumbing, and teams those folks up with trade people within the community, kind of like an apprenticeship. Samet supports She Built This City financially through donations and contributions, but we also bring cohorts to our jobsites. Many of these young women and youth come from marginalized communities and the program gives them a second chance to enter into a new trade and occupation, which is amazing.

Samet’s own workforce is made up of around 20 percent women. This includes women in both field and office positions. Just over two years ago, we initiated our first Employee Resource Group (ERG), called Women @ Work. We have nearly 100 women in the group and our mission is focused on the career path development of our female associates and ensuring that our voices are heard by creating change that fosters an inclusive and collaborative culture for everyone. Since the formation of the ERG we have championed the implementation of a new parental leave policy for both women and men, and we’ve worked with the safety team to ensure proper fitting PPE for women on the jobsite.

What would you tell women about joining construction?

Construction’s changing every day and the opportunities are limitless. Some women might think construction’s dirty, it’s only about swinging a hammer. But there’s so much more than that. Women tend to be more detail-oriented and better at multitasking, so project management roles and many other things that women can do in construction can make them feel really good about their contribution. If you’re a woman and want to be a senior superintendent one day, you have every opportunity within Samet and the industry as a whole to get there. I would tell young women don’t look at construction as down and dirty or just for men. Find a company like Samet and you’ll be treated equally, with the same opportunities as any other man on that job.