Durable Slate Employee Wins National Award

March 11, 2005

Jeremy Decker, a native of Hillsboro, a graduate of Hillsboro High School and a lead slater for The Durable Slate Company, received the Most Valuable Player Award at the International Roofing Expo in Orlando, Florida on February 17, 2005. These annual awards are sponsored by the National Roofing Contractors Association and the Roofing Industry Alliance for Progress.

Nominees are judged on specific criteria: "outstanding on-the-job performance, attracting new roofing workers and helping retain existing ones, contributing to a team effort, and community service and volunteerism."

Decker's work ethic is highly appreciated at Durable Slate. According to Matt Wolf, Durable Slate's assistant vice-president of production, "Jeremy is consistently one of our high producers in one of the less glamorous, dirtier, and more difficult aspects of our business - slate repair."

Mark Wolf, the director of job planning at Durable Slate, gave this example of Decker's zealous dedication to both the company and the customer in terms of getting the job done. "Just last week, Jeremy's crew was working on a dormitory building at The Ohio State University when it started to rain," said Wolf. "They were in the midst of handling an internal drain that had been clogged. They worked for 2 ½ hours in the rain in order to halt the leaking and minimize interior damage. These men were soaked to the skin, but happy, when they got back to the shop. That's how Jeremy sets an example of work ethic and inspires morale."

Decker makes sure that his crew complies with the safety standards set by the company which are in strict compliance with OSHA guidelines. There has never been an accident on his crew that was attributable to a safety violation. As one of the men on his crew commented, "He's very particular how safe we are on the job, and that's a plus."

After Decker was hired, he encouraged four friends from his home town, Hillsboro, Ohio, to come to work at Durable Slate.

When asked how this occurred Decker responded, "When you're excited about the work you do people can tell that. I love this work and I love the company - the materials we work with are the best, the craftsmanship is the best. Talking about that gets other people interested. Everybody wants a job that makes them happy - maybe what we have to offer is what they're looking for too."

Decker's supervisor, Matt Wolf, gives high praise for Decker's contribution to employee retention: "There were two employees who were in danger of being fired for various reasons. We had reached a point where nobody else wanted to have them on their crew, so Jeremy volunteered to work with them on his crew, and he turned them around."

According to Decker, "I'd worked with them before; I felt they deserved a second shot. You need to be more patient and take your time with them and keep their morale up. I wanted to do this because it bothered me that people would come and go and keeping employees can be such a problem. Everybody should strive to be the best. I try to make that possible for people who work with me."

Richard Pozo, had been doing well as a laborer, but had a language barrier. Most of the foremen and crew leaders were discouraged by the difficulty they had in communicating with this employee, but Jeremy took him on his crew, worked with him closely, and gave him the opportunity to become a good mechanic.

Pozo shared his comments about working on Decker's crew: "I like work with him. He teach me everything. He take his time. If I don't understand, he try to do it again and again and again until I got it. He don't get mad. He's a good person, and I like him.

Tim Ramage was asked how he felt about his future in the roofing industry as a result of his working with Decker. He said, "I'm more than a laborer. I'm a technician; I'm skilled. It is a career. I didn't know that coming here - I honestly didn't know that it was going to be considered a full-on career, but it is.

"With the more skills that I learn, I feel more of a professional than just a worker. I feel like I'm part of a company rather than just some guy who comes here and cranks out work. In my previous jobs that's how it was; there wasn't the sense of quality that there is here, especially with Jeremy. It's friendly, and there's integrity."

Decker has encouraged fellow employees to participate in Durable Slate's in-house training program which exists to enhance the skills and abilities of the crews. He is setting an example in that respect as he is leading the field in his progress on the program.

"I like to get morale up because we're all trying to achieve the same goal. We take pride in our work. People pay a lot of money for the work we do, and they hire us because we do quality work. We need to deliver that to them."

This statement is the essence of the team work that Decker inspires among his co-workers.