Facing the labor shortage head on

By Emma Peterson. 

Contractors big and small are facing challenges in finding skilled workers; learn how ABC Supply helps them navigate through this issue. 

In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth spoke to Jeff Leyden and Stephanie Lyons of ABC Supply. Positioned between contractors in the field and manufacturers in the warehouses, ABC is able to see all angles of the issues currently facing the industry as a whole. Jeff, who is ABC’s VP of residential new construction, explained, “If you ask what issues keep people  up at night, land is first and labor's number two. And then housing affordability. So it's number two, it's hit this industry hard. We're aging out and we need to figure out how to attract young talent into this non-sexy category — roofing.”  

One strategy that ABC is employing is training. Not only do they have internal training programs for low-slope and commercial products, they also have an exciting program called Path to CDL. A CDL is a commercial driver's license and anyone who wants to commercially drive trucks needs one. But it can be hard to acquire due to factors such as high fees and lack of access to schools/trainings. This has resulted in there being a nationwide driver shortage in the roofing industry and beyond. Path to CDL helps individuals overcome those challenging factors and get into the trucking sector of the industry. Jeff explained, “We have 60 centers, training centers, within ABC and L&W Supply, to train upcoming employees rate for both groups. Warehouse folks, outside salespeople, new people, they're coming to our company and we spot them, we train them and get them CDL licenses.” In 2023, this program saw 178 trainees come through and get licensed!  

In addition to helping on the training side of the industry, ABC is also working to connect contractors with new products and tools. Not only does this lessen their workloads and require fewer employees to operate, but it also helps modernize an aging industry to attract new, younger folks. Stephanie, who is the business development manager for ABC’s West region, explained, “We're trying to stay current with technology trends and people use their mobile devices for everything these days. So, we made the MyABC mobile app that can be used for on the go ordering, checking the status of upcoming deliveries, paying invoices, accessing express pickup (which allows you to skip the line and get back to the job site faster) and report generation for job costing, historical needs, rebate reporting and more.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the episode to learn more about how ABC Supply is helping the industry handle the labor shortage.