The Case for Pursuing the CURT Awards of Excellence

Speaker A: Hey, everyone. I'm Stephen Gallo, your host and the vice president of client services at Reputation Inc. We're, uh, a public relations and thought leadership marketing agency for B2B professional service firms, including those in architecture, engineering and construction. Learn more at rep-inc. That's inc with a k dot com. Okay, so in the AEC industry, awards aren't just trophies, right? Well, I mean, they can be or plaques, what have you, but they're ultimately more than that, right? They're marketing tools, quality, qualification signals, uh, proof points that your firm carries for years. The Construction Users Roundtable presents its annual awards of excellence to honor the best in safety, workforce development, uh, and project delivery. And winning puts your firm in front of the project owners who are doing that hiring. And today, we are very fortunate to be sitting down with the two people behind the awards to talk about what it takes to put together a winning submission. That's Kurt's executive Vice president, Greg Sizemore, and Director of Events and Digital Programs, Gregory Palmer. Thanks, uh, to both of you for being here today.

Speaker B: Great to be here, Steve. Thank you for the intro. We're excited to share, of course.

Speaker A: And I hear around the office it's Greg and Palmer to help keep things straight. So we'll go with that, too, if that's all right.

Speaker B: I was the first and oldest, so I took the name Greg. He was literally the second and a little younger. So, uh, since his last name sounds very New England preppy, he was quite content to go with Palmer.

Speaker A: I like it. That works. That works. Um, well, wonderful, Greg. Then maybe, uh, if you don't mind starting us off, um, would love to, uh, just get an overview of the Construction Users Roundtable, uh, and tell us why Kurt created these awards in the first place.

Speaker B: Yeah, thanks, Steve. I appreciate it. Um, the Construction Users roundtable, commonly called CURT, was developed about 25 years ago. I was its founder. It is the Legacy Group. I think you can call it that. But back then, it was indeed the Legacy Group of the Construction Committee of the Business roundtable in Washington, D.C. the Business Roundtable. So I'm kind of backtracking. The business roundtable in D.C. uh, at the time was comprised of about 150 Fortune 500 CEOs. In their limited wisdom, they decided the construction industry was, uh, not important enough for CEO attention. They've since changed their mind on that, of course. And so they sunset the Construction Committee of the Business Roundtable. I, um, came in afterwards, picked up some of the broken pieces, and with two or three other owners, we formed what today is Called the Construction Users Roundtable. And its primary purpose, Steve, is to prove, is to focus on the industrial owner community. But we're not exclusively industrial owner. For example, we've had the U.S. department of State, we've had the Architect of the Capitol, we've had the General Services Administration as members and a sprinkling of universities along the way. But primarily focusing on the industrial user and sharing resources, perspectives and uh, learnings one with the other. And we do that with a series of meetings and seminars and conferences. And together we have sprint teams that develop white papers and that sort of thing. But the end goal, if I had to summarize it, is simply more construction for the money. Construction's hard, it's complex. We feel that we can help, uh, in some very, very important areas. Uh, the ones that you mentioned that denote the award.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's fantastic. And so, um, what grew out of that were these, uh, this awards program. And can you tell me a bit about the genesis of that and what sort of the idea was in having a program at all?

Speaker B: So we feel responsible not only for our members and providing them resources, um, for them to do a better job, but we also felt a responsibility to the industry at home. And these are very important areas. Safety. Sending men and women home from the job the way they came to your job is exceedingly important. For every member of curt, there's ways to improve construction safety. Uh, same thing with workforce development. It is indeed the number one challenge on construction projects today through, uh, the whole organization, not only the skilled trades that are in the field, but the folks in the office who plan and manage and execute construction. Construction engineers, construction managers, if you will. And there's a shortage, there's a, through thread of shortages in all those areas. So workforce development. And then the third thing is, historically construction has not improved its productivity metrics hardly at all in the last number of years. We're way lagging behind. So the concept to um, receive, evaluate, curate and deploy information on project excellence, primarily focused on productivity improvement, uh, became the uh, genesis of the other award. In addition, throughout the year we recognize outstanding service by some of our members. We recognize women in construction. We have a, uh, women in construction initiative. And we recognize those participants in a public way. More about that later. And so the genesis of the awards is, hey, let's recognize and share those who are out front in improving safety, being creative with workforce and addressing project excellence, and let's share it with the entire industry because it's our duty. You know, the rising tide lifts all ships right and we want to certainly help our industry improve.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Um, and you sort of alluded to this, uh, a bit, but Palmer, you know, you mentioned, uh, you know, these three categories, uh, I think are great ones and critical ones. To focus on why these three and what is it that, you know, you're looking for in folks who submit to those categories?

Speaker C: Sure. The safety awards have been from the very beginning of curt. So we've been doing those from the start, because that's the. The easiest one. Safety. If we're not taking care of our people, if we're not sending them home at least as good as they arrived, then what's the point? For, um, years, construction was the deadliest, um, profession there was. The fatality rate was embarrassingly high. And one of the things that the construction committee and then Curt continued was driving to zero. And that number has improved greatly. And the awards celebrate that, um, and they celebrate it, um, for the folks who have implemented the recommendations from the Curt construction blueprint, which started out as the owner safety blueprint, but safety is broader than just the owner, so we removed that name, and now it's just construction safety blueprint. Then in 2009, we realized that there are some people doing great things in workforce development, and so it was time to start celebrating them. Workforce, where they do great, um, innovative training and education programs. And then lately, we've begun to give a $5,000 scholarship to a nonprofit that wins the award. So you'll have owners apply, contractors apply, who are doing great things, but then on occasion, there'll be a nonprofit who's a little bootstrap startup that barely has the money to do it, let alone sometimes come and receive their award. So we, in partnership with a few other folks, came up with this $5,000 scholarship that we grant to them to help them propagate their service to the industry. And then in 2016, we began to acknowledge overall project excellence. So you might be great at safety, and you might be great at workforce development, and you might be great at lean implementation and every other part of the project, but we were only focusing on safety and workforce. So this is a chance to give recognition to contractors and owners for excellence. Start to finish on a project for sure.

Speaker A: Yeah. No, I love that. Um, and as I understand it, uh, Greg, applicants don't necessarily have to be CURT members. Uh, is that right?

Speaker B: Um, yeah, that's right.

Speaker A: Yeah. Why open it up?

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, the reason we opened it up is, uh, we feel a responsibility, you know, to the industry, and not just for us, by us. Um, Obviously by becoming a member of curt, you're privy to certain, um, white papers, uh, roundtable discussions, um, webinars, conferences, etc. That are CURT member exclusive. But for the award event, we want to see who, who all is doing best in class out there and allow them to be recognized as well. And then we promote that. We'll tell you a little bit about that a little later on. But uh, it's really, it sounds altruistic, but we mean it sincerely. We want to improve the industry and we believe that safety, workforce, project excellence slash productivity is a way to do that. So by, by the way, Curt.org is the website. I'm not sure I mentioned that earlier. Curt.org Very easy to, uh, remember. And if you go on to curt.org, you can get more information about this or certainly call the CURT office and ask for Greg Palmer Theresa and uh, we'll be able to help guide you through the process.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, no, fantastic and great to mention that. Thank you. Um, and I imagine you get a good number of submissions. I mean, I'm, part of me is just curious, what does that typically look like in terms of what you all, uh, receive through your each award cycle? Does it vary?

Speaker B: Yeah, I don't, I don't know the exact number from year to year. And it does vary because it takes a little effort to put them together. But we always have a fair number of them to evaluate. And I think, Greg, maybe you can tell us just a little bit about how you go about executing the uh, judging process and uh, how you review these things, et cetera, any conflicts of interest that may occur in that process.

Speaker C: Sure. So it is cyclical. It does go up and down a bit. You can only win every other year. So what that does is spread the joy. You may have Procter and Gamble, who is just great at everything they do. And if they just won every year, then nobody else gets a chance. So you have, if you win, if you won last year in 2025, you're not eligible to apply in 2026. You'll have to wait until 27. So there is some of that ebb and flow and then the judging process, they're all judged by industry professionals with expertise in that area. And to prevent any conflict of interest, if their organization submits an application in the area they're judging, they recuse themselves from it. So it's all very up and up. There's no, oh, well, of course they won. They were on the judging committee. They've removed themselves from it. And um, Keeps it very clean and easy.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense and preserves that integrity of the judging, which is important for any, uh, awards program like this. Um, and I understand, Greg, that you know, Safety and Project Excellence, they're pretty data numbers driven categories. So I'm curious, what are the metrics that judges are looking at specifically there?

Speaker B: I'm going to defer to Palmer in just a moment to answer specifics of that question because he manages this whole process. But I will tell you that in addition to the metrics, we're also looking for innovative program ideas. What can improve safety performance? Uh, I tell you, a new and emerging area is mental wellness. The dark word for that is suicide prevention. So now safety in recent years, very recently, in the last couple of three years, has embraced the concept of mental wellness of our industry. Um, and so we're looking for program elements in addition to the metrics that you mentioned. Palmer, I'll talk to you about the metrics in a second. We, we're looking for innovation. We're looking for effectiveness of a program. We're looking for, uh, ease of understanding the program, where they've used it, and if they have any particular outcomes that maybe are non metrics driven, but nevertheless worthy of recognition, particularly in the safety area and most recently particularly in the mental wellness area of their application. When it comes also to workforce development, um, uh, we've had some pretty creative work done by, um, I think the Navajo Indian reservation people. Greg, is that correct? Did I get the right tribe out there in Arizona? You're muted, by the way. Thank God Steve can edit these things. Right, Steve?

Speaker A: That is the whole idea.

Speaker B: That's why we, some reason, I know 100 us too. There you go. Now we can hear you. So let me do the question again. By the way, did I get the answer right? Was it the Navajo Indian reservation?

Speaker C: I don't say that because I can't be for sure. It's just the Southwest Indian Industrial Workforce Program.

Speaker B: So I'll pick it up so it'd be easier to edit. So one of the components, for example, in workforce that we look at was how innovative or creative, uh, there have been some Southwest Indian tribes that have picked up the whole concept of trades training and done a marvelous job with it, deploying their people, increasing the, um, availability of skilled labor in some of those remote areas. And they were one of our award winners when it comes to Project Excellence. Yes, we look for data points. And Greg, I'm going to defer to you on maybe what specific data points, uh, are evaluated in these applications.

Speaker C: Okay. For safety, we ask you to submit your trir, some of your OSHA log numbers. It's very, and it's spelled out very clearly. We asked for three years worth of information and then we do ask for some backup information. So pages from your safety program, the uh, Project Excellence, again it's just numbers. We ask for the man hours worked, the, some of your safety records, um, and things like that. And then for some backup information. And none of it is, would be considered proprietary or a uh, violation of a non compete. It's all stuff that would be public anyway. Uh, you're just compiling it in one place for our judges to look at.

Speaker B: Sure.

Speaker A: Um, and let's stay with you Palmer, in terms of the workforce development category. Um, because again, you know, as sort of you mentioned Greg, it feels like that leans a bit more on the storytelling aspect. So I'm curious, uh, what a strong submission in that category specifically looks like

Speaker C: it does lean on storytelling. The very second question, after we've asked you what the name of your program is is, what's the story of your program? We give you 500 words to tell the story, the why and the passion behind it. Um, and then we'll ask for some things like your mission statement, your methodology, your uh, measures that you use to determine success. But really it's that that second question is tell us the story of it. Which brings the compelling story of the Southwest Indian industrial construction, uh, group. It brings in um, Turner. It gives them an opportunity to talk about what they did with FC Cincinnati's stadium that they built and putting folks to work, 80% of which are still employed in the industry years later. So it's storytelling that you don't get to tell in safety because the numbers tell the story. The numbers are often less concrete and obvious on workforce development, but the story is really the thing.

Speaker B: Mhm. I think. Let me add to that too Palmer, if I might also, what was the effectiveness of it? It might sound cool, but so what? Did it pass the so what test? Uh, for example, you mentioned the FC Cincinnati stadium, which was quite large here and it went into a, ah, neighborhood that was historically low income, underemployed and the work that they did with that neighborhood to provide opportunity for those residents or former residents. Residents. This place was just phenomenal and um, so hats off again to Turner if you're watching. And uh, those are the kind of things we look for. Are they duplicatable? Uh, did it pass the so what test? That it might sound cool, but what was the result and how easy is it to implement? Um, those are the kind of things that I think people are interested in knowing about and certainly that we're interested in recognizing them for.

Speaker A: For sure. Yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: It's an industry of impact and outcomes. Right. So I'd be looking at that. Um, that's awesome. Uh, and, and Palmer, as we mentioned, you're. You're closest to these submissions. You've seen a lot of really, um, strong ones, I'm sure. And for our listeners who might be interested in applying themselves, they may be curious. Okay, what are the. Maybe some of the common pitfalls? Can you speak to. Maybe. What are some of the. Kind of the missteps or things that you've seen go wrong on applications that folks can learn from?

Speaker C: Sure. The number one thing is not following the instructions. We give you some limits on Same

Speaker B: when you file your income tax, by the way.

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker C: We give you some limits on how many pages of supplemental material you can submit. Sometimes they'll send 10 times more than we've allowed. And that makes it very difficult to judge, um, to weed through that and find out what really supports what you've submitted. Um, and then keeping your responses, um, within the recommended number of words. So it's staying within the limits really, is what causes an application to be difficult to judge. Um, and all of that is clearly laid out in the instructions, reminds me

Speaker A: of like, uh, that. That pop quiz in elementary school a teacher may have sent out where, you know, the first instruction was write your name and turn it in. And if you just jump right in without reading, you get caught. Right?

Speaker B: Yes, very similar. Some things never change, do they?

Speaker A: For better or for worse. Um, but, yeah, no, that's a great point. That's a great point. Um, and for both of you, uh, this question, uh, you know, these submissions, they really take, uh, a good bit of time and resources because they are comprehensive. You know, they're meant to really tell that story. Um, and I imagine that folks are stretched, uh, you know, in house, uh, marketers and folks at firms are pretty stretched, uh, to find that time. So what's sort of the sell on why it's worth the effort to put the submission in and sort of what you get out of it?

Speaker B: Uh, I smile because I think that's probably a better question for you. Being in the marketing space there, you can probably understand what the value is. But, yeah, no, um, we feel, number one, to be recognized. And when we do make a recognition, there's a big event that is typically, um, November that we celebrate Our award winners, uh, in there are lots of photos taken. There are lots of photos on the website. We promote the award winners with a write up of what they did, how they did it. Offer whoever the reader is to inquire uh, for more information either from our office or from the award recipient, uh, themselves. The other thing is that we highlight them in our Voice magazine. I think that goes out to what, how many people, Greg?

Speaker C: 13,000.

Speaker B: 13,000. We also put uh, them in our newsletter, special announcement, our email list which goes out to I think over 9,000 people. Uh, and then they become celebrated. Um, oftentimes when we do a seminar workshop on a particular subject, safety, workforce related, we'll invite those award winners to also participate. And so they get notoriety all around, so you get recognition. And the awards are just absolutely gorgeous. They're phenomenal. They use glass, steel, wood, all the uh, raw elements of construction and they're quite large and very prominent. And um, yeah, those are some of the advantages. And then of course internal to that organization, whether it's a Proctor, a Gamble or a Turner or a Bechtel or a Merck Pharmaceutical, then they have all kinds of opportunity then to promote what they're doing internally to their own organization using wonderful organizations like yours, Steve.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And Palmer, I'd love to kick it to you as well in terms of, I mean I don't know if you've sort uh, of heard any feedback from folks of sort of their uh, anecdotal experience of what the value they've gotten out of it. But um, yeah, curious, sort of from your perspective.

Speaker C: I haven't heard anything as far as number wise goes. Although I do know that there are some owners who give a big heads up or a leg up to contractors who've won safety awards from Curt, because they already know, um, they were a part of developing the construction safety blueprint. So they already know that they're using the guidelines that they approve. Um, we hear from the workforce development uh, groups that winning the award really helps promote them. Uh, usually they're a grassroots organization that's happening just locally, but this gives them a little bit of national intention and so it helps them grow within their area and then replicate that in other places. So the recognition I think really is what they're most excited about. And the award is beautiful and the dinner is great and bringing everybody up for pictures and public recognition. But it's the after the event recognition I think that really is.

Speaker A: Yeah. And you mentioned, you know, whether through um, you know the magazine, the, through the email Newsletter. It's a sizable audience there. Who's in that audience? I guess I'm curious in terms of what that exposure means for winners.

Speaker B: Owners, contractors, subcontractors, um, legal organizations, just a nice cross section of the industry. And Steve, I'll give you another example of how one award winner has used it. Uh, I think last year there was an award recipient from the West Virginia Building Trades Group and they had gotten some money from the State House to promote apprenticeship, the availability of apprenticeship training. This award validated that what they're saying is true and they've taken that back and they'll likely get more money from the state because it's been recognized by a group like ours as being a leader in that space. And I'm not. It's a seven figure amount that the state made available to them for promoting the trades to the folks of West Virginia. So you know, these are able to turn into tangible. As Palmer accurately, um, mentioned tangible, you know, jobs or points when you're being evaluated for job. If you're a contractor, uh, internal, um, internal to an organization like a Merck or a proctor. It gets you know, wink and a nod from the senior folks for um, more of the same. And then you know, there could be uh, PR and uh, political ramifications for receiving word as I just described in West Virginia.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And we say that a lot in marketing and pr, especially today, but that, that third party validation. Right, that credibility of this outside group has evaluated and yeah, it goes a long way for sure.

Speaker B: That's exactly right. Mhm.

Speaker A: Yeah. Um, and I noticed, you know we mentioned uh, in terms of the industrial space being a big focus, I noticed several past uh, winners, uh, sort of in that sector. I'm curious though, who would be best to apply to these? I imagine it's not limited, as you said, to the industrial space. Um, but who would be sort of a great candidate who might be out there thinking okay, is our firm really, um, kind of make the cut? Should we give this a go and apply, uh, what would you say to them?

Speaker B: Well, uh, for safety and Greg can um, deal with this in just a moment, but there are different categories you can apply in so that a small contractor regional to Florida, North Florida or Wisconsin, wherever, um, is not competing against a multinational contractor like Turner Construction or Bechtel or uh, whatever. So we try to um, uh, break those down into sensible, reasonable categories. Say more, Greg.

Speaker C: So yes, we use three SAI NASC codes. Um, general contractor, specialty contractor and heavy. Heavy contractor. And then within that we break it down by work hours. So it helps you compete amongst your peers and not like a kindergartner against a senior in high school. Right. So, um, not by experience, but by just general size. So we've also had hospital systems win safety awards. Uh, so anybody who's building really could, could apply for one of these.

Speaker A: That's awesome. Yeah, cast casts a nice wide net there.

Speaker B: Um, yeah, sure does.

Speaker A: And I'm wondering, yeah, um, you know, this has all been really helpful for folks maybe listening in and again wanting to know more about the program, the organization, um, how to maybe approach a submission the best way possible. Uh, is there anything we haven't touched on, uh, yet that we should have or maybe one final thought that, uh, each of you would want to leave our listeners with?

Speaker B: Well, I think the problem areas for the workforce development and the area of emphasis is women in construction, to give you an example. And I think my data is correct here, Depending on which report you read over the last 10 years, the participation rate for females in construction is 11 to 14%. It was that way 10 years ago. It's that way now. They're 50% of our demographic here in this country. But for some reason, uh, you know, are we having trouble, uh, attracting them to the business once we do? Is it, is the training adequate? What are the barriers? What are the detractors for females coming into our business? Because we desperately need more folks in the industry, and that is probably the most underrepresented demographic there is out there. So I think in the future workforce, if you have a workforce development program that really has targeted the female population particularly, submit the application. Let's, uh, see what you're doing and evaluate it. Uh, and I think in safety, um, I guess the mirror image of that in safety would be mental wellness. You know, what are we doing to improve that in the industry? Um, I think those two are probably areas of focus or emphasis, but they're not requirements. We're just looking at the best overall performance in the respective categories. So they're not requirements. But from my perspective, I think, um, if you're doing anything in those two particular areas, then I invite you to, uh, supply. And then Greg Palmer and his team is very, very helpful in coaching an applicant. So you can call the office, you get friendly help. Past winners would probably give you some friendly help, especially those that have to sit out a year. So there's no disincentive for them to step up. So if you're interested, curt.org is our website. The name of the organization's the Construction Users Roundtable. And you can find contact information, email, phone numbers and other information on the curt.orgc u r t.org website. Greg, do you have any, uh, final comments on Steve's question?

Speaker C: Well, mine would be just logistic information. So the awards and all of the applications and instructions are available@curt.org awards.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker C: And uh, the deadline to submit those is July 2, so the timeline might be a little tight, but I absolutely think it's worth the effort to get that in and uh, you know, or be prepared for next year. Even if you just download them to see what's required, if you can't get it done in time for this year, you're just that much farther down the road on applying in 27.

Speaker B: And I would tell you it's not a PhD dissertation, so don't let some of these cautions prevent you from going for it. You still got time, nearly two months. And it, uh, can be done by large and small organizations. So we would invite your participation. Let's go for it. Let's see what we got out there in the industry. And we'd be happy to recognize you as stellar, uh, performer.

Speaker A: Fantastic. Well, you heard it here folks, that that's an open invitation. Yes, send your submissions in. Uh, just a little bit of time left to do that, if not this year, for next year. Uh, but that sounds fantastic. Uh, and again, thank you to you both, uh, for coming on and sharing your insights. Uh, we've been talking to Greg Sizemore, Executive Vice President of curt, uh, and Gregory Palmer, Director of Events and Digital Programs. Uh, Greg Palmer, thanks to you both for, uh, your time today and for coming on the chat.

Speaker B: Hey, that reminds me, I know you hit the stop button, but let me just say one other thing real quick, please. We have just developed a tool for, for safety and workforce called the Curtz Solutions Portal. It's powered by a platform called commodore. We've ingested 20 to 30,000 items in our knowledge base over the last several years, many of which include safety and workforce data, white papers, etc. Presentations, panel discussions. Everything's been curated, everything is traceable. And if you're interested in learning about the construction solution or the current solutions portal powered by Commodore, call Greg Palmer. It's real easy. G. Palmer. Or contact him g. Palmer@kurt.org that's g p a l m e r@curt.org inquire about the current solutions portal. It's quite interesting. Maybe it's the subject of a future podcast. Steve.

Speaker A: Hey, there you go. There you go. Uh, anything else on that front, uh, Palmer, from you?

Speaker C: No, I'm happy to handle, uh, those demos. Just quick 15 minutes is all it takes.

Speaker A: Fantastic. Well, thank you, uh, both again. That's, uh, curt.org c u r t.o r g to learn more about these, uh, great organization and awards program, uh, with a deadline coming up soon, so check into that. And, uh, thank you both again for your time.

Speaker B: Sure.

Speaker C: Pleasure.

Speaker B: It's been our joy. Thank you, Steve. We're always honored when people ask about us. Thank you.

Speaker A: Thank you. Appreciate the work you're doing for the industry.