KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In this day and age, in this line of work, the only thing concrete is what’s poured — definitely not what’s planned for construction companies and other businesses alike.
Ramin Cherafat is CEO of McCownGordon Construction, one of the Kansas City area’s busiest construction companies.
“We do certainly believe this is going to drive more flexibility into the workforce,” Cherafat explained while talking about the COVID-19 pandemic. McCownGordon has helped with several projects like Hy-Vee Arena, school building renovations, hospital expansions and libraries.
2019 was a record year for the company. They came into the year with a backlog of $1.6 billion.
“And we forecasted this year would most definitely be better,” Cherafat added. What they didn’t forecast was a worldwide pandemic.
“This is a different scenario we’re dealing with. Mother Nature here,” Cherafat explained.
Immediately, he and his crew put aside the floor plans for a new, unprecedented game plan. McCownGordon was deemed essential and it was management’s responsibility to make sure workers remain safe. Cherafat said part of that was allowing most of the office workers to work from home. Once they return, Cherafat said there will be several new measures in place.
“Screenings, questionnaires that people will ask every day. We’ll do some screenings as well. And we’re also talking about doing some contact tracing ourselves,” he said.
To keep crews safe while working in close proximity, the company is exploring staggering start and stop times for certain shifts as well as limiting the number of people on a construction site at any given time.
Cherafat said this pandemic has taught him many lessons. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to be flexible, do a lot of listening and let the data and the metrics guide your decision making.”
According to Cherafat, the good news is work hasn’t necessarily tapered off because the construction industry typically lags the economy by 9 to 18 months. Cherafat said now is the time crews would normally work to secure projects for 2022 and beyond. As several businesses tighten purse strings, it leaves a lot of uncertainty for future projects.
“I’m hoping when we look back in five years, this will be a blip on the radar,” Cherafat said. “When you think of all the great things happening in our community.”
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