How Benjamin Bishop Jr. uses Boy Scout principles to lead Western Specialty Contractors into its second century

While the “generation gap” might worry parents when it comes to raising their children, it’s the “generation balance” that concerns Benjamin Bishop Jr., CEO at Western Specialty Contractors.
“One of the keys to our success is making sure we have the right amount of people in each generation,” he says about the family business, which began 100 years ago as Western Waterproofing Co.
Over the course of those years, the business added several specialty areas, including masonry, concrete and facades restoration, and annual revenue of $170 million. This year also marked a rebranding from the Western Construction Group to Western Specialty Contractors to better describe what the company offers.
The generational balancing act isn’t just an exercise in making impressive workforce statistics for the annual report. Bishop has a plan behind this operational decision for his departments other than it being just a benevolent gesture.
“If we have two 60-year-olds, do we have two 20-year-olds?” he says. “Do we have three 50-year-olds? You really need to have balance between all the age groups.
“Then with your middle management people, I’m going to classify them in the 40s, when they’ve been around and they’re able to take responsibility, they will manage two generations up and two generations down.”
While that sounds simple on paper, in practice it takes work and being careful with how you bridge the generation gap, Bishop says.
‘To do my best …’
One of Bishop’s philosophies has its origins in an organization founded in 1910 — the Boy Scouts of America.
“If you just follow the old Boy Scout traits, you’ll never go wrong,” Bishop says. “It doesn’t matter what generation you have. If you’re courteous, kind, thrifty, obedient; honest with yourself, your people, your employees and you have a good product, then it will all work out.”
Bishop says his father, Benjamin Bishop Sr., always said that.
“He was big into Boy Scouts, and so was I growing up. But I look at just what I’ve learned from older peers and try to be able to give my experience to the younger peers that are coming up and you can’t second guess what’s going on,” he says. “You have to go with the flow, so to speak, you’ve got to stay current with the changes.”
When challenges occur that seem rooted in a generational gap, Bishop falls back on the Boy Scout principles.
The ability to call upon those principles is especially useful across the 30 offices and 18 states in which Western operates. While people in the workforce have regional differences, it shouldn’t matter if they know it’s them who make the company thrive, Bishop says.
“We’re a service industry, and certainly what’s going to make us successful are our people. That all comes to culture, and in the construction business you have to be pretty thick-skinned. You’re going to have some roller coasters up and down.”
People development
Another technique of addressing the challenges of a multi-generational workforce is to make professional development a priority, Bishop says. That means addressing the office side as well as the project field.
“You’re looking at the development of people — hiring people, developing people, training people, promoting people, and then when people are trailing in to the years, it’s about trying to help manage their thinking about retirement so we have a pretty good people bullpen,” Bishop says.
While that approach may sound difficult, it is not as hard to manage as it may sound, he says.
“The key is to be healthy all the way through the ranks. I think you see companies get too top heavy — they’re too old and it’s too hard to change.
“Then you get some of the young entrepreneur companies that are too young, and they haven’t quite learned the respect to get over that hump. They will, but they’re just going too fast. I really think you have to manage your people bullpen,” Bishop says.
While consultants may recommend a reward system that sets up different perks for millennials than for baby boomers, for instance, Bishop disagrees.
“I think that people like to be respected, and they like you to communicate with them, and they like to be patted on the back when they do a good job,” he says. “I find so much more on the personal recognition side of it.”
How to reach: Western Specialty Contractors, (314) 427-1637 or www.westernspecialtycontractors.com
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