Empowering the Trades: The Humphrey & Associates Story

This enlightening episode of Location Cubed, a Weaver: Beyond the Numbers podcast, examines the heart of the trades with Randy Humphrey, the executive vice president of Humphrey & Associates. Weaver hosts Howard Altshuler and Aaron Grisz discover how this family-oriented business thrives on employee ownership and a commitment to nurturing the next generation of skilled tradespeople.

Key Points:

  • Humphrey & Associates’ unique business model offers its team members a stake in the company with employee ownership through its ESOP program
  • Utilizing a proactive approach to recruit and train young tradespeople, Humphrey & Associates encourages the development of its people while addressing the industry’s workforce shortage
  • Humphrey & Associates’ commitment to family values and community involvement sets a benchmark for corporate culture

 

 

Humphrey & Associates stands out in the electrical and mechanical contracting industry for its services and remarkable company culture and structure. With 50% employee ownership through an ESOP program, the company has cultivated a family-like atmosphere that values each member’s contribution. This unique approach has resulted in an impressive average employee tenure of over eight years, highlighting the success of their model in creating a loyal and dedicated workforce.

“I think our biggest problem and biggest deterrent to growth and providing electrical and mechanical systems is not the material. It’s not the shortage of those things. It’s the shortage of individuals wanting to learn a trade,” Humphrey said. Later in the conversation, he speaks to the workforce shortage and what may incentivize people to consider the trades, saying, “The simple law of supply and demand is going to drive everything. The shortage of trades and the simple fact everything we have is powered by electricity. Everybody wants an electric car. Everybody wants to turn their computer on, charge your phone, do all these things. If they don’t have electricity or water in the building or a good plumbing system, it’s going to be an unhappy world.”

Subscribe and listen to future episodes of Weaver: Beyond the Numbers: Location Cubed on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

©2024

Recent Episodes

What does a mayor learn about human nature? In this episode of Professional Quotient: Conversations that Build Equity, host Jason Winningham sits down with Gerard Hudspeth, longtime mayor of Denton, Texas, and a respected figure in civic leadership. Drawing from his years in public service, Hudspeth explores how leading a city reveals the core…

In this episode of Professional Quotient: Conversations That Build Equity, host Jason Winningham sits down with Alicia Layfield, founder of Casa Layfield, a boutique marketing agency in Houston, Texas. Alicia shares how she built her business from the ground up—not by following a perfect plan, but by showing up, staying open, and turning connections…

In this episode of The Marketing AI SparkCast, Aby Varma, founder of Spark Novus, a leading consultancy that partners with marketing leaders to adopt and scale AI responsibly and strategically, talks with Nicola Smith, Senior AI Programs Advisor at Southwest Airlines. They explore how enterprises can move beyond tool experimentation to embed AI into…