Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: I'm Marianne Gabauer. I'm the NEBF Coordinator at the Illinois Chapter NECA office. I've been with NECA for 11 years now. I used to work for a company doing data entry and collecting the money and stuff. It was a high school class ranked company and, and one of the moms that came in and worked with me was a mom in my community that had kids the same age as me. And we worked together for about a year and she went on her merry way somewhere else and I went to the doctor's office and one night she. She also was my neighbor. She lived behind me. And she came through my backyard and said, hey, I have a job for you. Would. Are you interested? Are you looking for a job? I said, well, you know, I'm really happy at the eye doctors. I like it there. Everybody's really nice. And she said, well, I. I work at NECA now. I'm an event coordinator. And I'm like, nika, what's neca? And she said, oh, you know, it's for electrical contractors and we need someone to take the contributions and give them money. And you're so good at that. It's your. At Jostens, you know, you should come apply.
And you're like, well, I didn't, you know, I didn't really know anything about it or whatnot because not a lot of people do, right? Unless you're an electrical contractor, you really don't know what this association is about. So I came in and talked, talked with Billy and he had a, you know, whole slew of people that was interested in the job. And I had to come in a second time. And it was all very interesting, but I really didn't know the language. I didn't know. I just knew that I would be working with numbers and money, which is very much in my realm, and that I'd be talking to a lot of people on the phone.
And I got the job that way. And it was, that was 11 years ago. And it was all because my neighbor who lived in the backyard for me, knew me and thought I would be good at it.
So I came and I started working. And the more and more I learned, you know, here I still am 11 years later. So I love that story.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: I feel like everybody's got this Nika story that's like that, where it's like, oh, what's Nika?
There's just somebody said, come work for Nika. And they're like, what are you talking about? I don't know what that is.
I love It, Yeah.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Still to this day when somebody asks me where I work and I say, nika, they still don't know. People don't know what that is. And you try to explain it in one or two sentences and sometimes it, they don't care after one or two sentences and sometimes they want to know more and more and more. So it's a great conversational piece.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: I mostly get they don't care after two sentences. Their, their eyes are glazing over.
So that happened with my son last night. I was trying to describe something and he was like, after a couple sentences he said, I. This just. I don't get it.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Prior to coming here, I also was a stay at home mom for about 18 years.
I have three children and I'm going to be a grandma soon. So looking forward to that new chapter.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: That was really exciting. Congratulations. Is the baby going to be close to you?
[00:03:11] Speaker A: About three and a half hours away up in Chicago. But that's a weekend trip. No problem. So.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah, that's not too bad.
Not across the country. I was also a stay at home mom for a while.
It's an interesting role.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: It is work.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: It is a lot of work.
Way more work. I remember when I, I quit my job at Kaiser and I was a stay at home mom. I, I really felt like I didn't have an identity at that point.
But then, you know, obviously it's just, it's so much to do. You have to do so much, but there's not like a role. I never really knew how to say it. Did you call yourself a stay at home mom?
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Yep. I can't remember when I got back into the workforce and it was like at work you get a paycheck, you get a review and people are telling you you're doing a good job and you get this instant reward for the work that you put in. But at home you don't get that. You know, at the end of the day you get your kids to bed and you still have laundry to do and dishes to clean and. But now isn't a parent of all adult children now? The reward is definitely there. You have great human beings working and starting families and that's the reward for all those years. It just took my brain a while to get there and realize they're all in a good place. They're all healthy and happy.
There's your reward.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I hope I get there. Mine aren't quite all the way grown, but yeah, I think that's really true. Especially when the kids are really little. They don't know how to say thank you. They're just starting. Mine are just starting to say, like, thanks for dinner or thank you for whatever.
Now, like, well, after I was spending every minute with them and having them be the center of my life. So what you said you're the NEBF coordinator, but it's a lot more than that. Can you talk about the full scope of your job? It's not just dealing with NEBF contributions, it's all of the benefits, right?
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Correct. When I started here at the NECA office as the NEBF coordinator, we accepted four contributions on behalf of the eight locals. And it was busy. There were stacks of checks coming in. It was a lot going on. Now, Fast forward to 11 years later and I collect 32 different contributions.
We collect some of our locals, we collect all the contributions for all of their agreements, and then we funnel that money back out to the fund offices and some locals. We just still collect those four.
But on top of collecting the contributions, we have to maintain the agreements and the rates in EPR live. So you spend a lot of time setting up the agreements, changing the contribution rates. We spend a lot of time with the employers, even though they can come on to Krillian's once a month training, you know, you're the person they call when they're. When they have a question, when they're experiencing a problem, when they don't understand why something is happening. So you spend a lot of time with the employers and you also spend a lot of time with local unions. They don't understand why an employer reported this way. They don't understand why this much money came. So it's more than just collecting the nebf. It's a whole family of duties that comes along on the outside that keeps me busy.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: And you came into this job without working with unions. You didn't work with unions prior to this.
How was that experience jumping into the union and Nika IBEW World?
[00:07:04] Speaker A: That was a huge adjustment. As you know, the language is totally different from any other language I've ever spoken before. The first day I got a sheet of acronyms like that was three pages long. Here, you're going to need to use these and learn them. You're going to hear them all the time. And I thought, oh, my goodness, what have I got myself into?
It took me a good couple years to really understand what was going on here at the NECA office, what our role was between the employers and the locals.
I didn't really get that for a while, even though people kept explaining it to me.
And the language that we speak here is also a little different than the language spoken at the local union. It's a little different than the language at Carillian Software. We're all coming at the same topics, but with different terms, different history.
So it's a lot to take in, digest, figure it out, and then be able to speak back to somebody. It's a process.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Do you have any stories about where that, like the miscommunication or the language was different and it caused a problem or a scenario?
[00:08:30] Speaker A: It took me a long time to understand what union dues was or working assessments. There's a lot of different names for.
Took a long time to understand the difference between an employer paid contribution and an employee paid contribution and why union dues weren't getting paid and why the union dues weren't what they were supposed to be. I'd get locals calling and you know, first off, like, what is union dues? Somebody needs to explain what that is. Why the employee pays for it, not the employer. Yeah. So for a while I felt there was frustration on the other end from unions because I didn't quite get what they were talking about and why it was a problem. But since that time, you know, we figured out that it's an employee paid contribution, it comes out of their paycheck. So it's treated a little differently in EPR Live.
And Brilliant's been great at allowing us to pre choose that box, that union dues box to automatically fill, even though it's an employee paid contribution, so that it's not an issue that the local union is not receiving those contributions anymore. That had to be my biggest phone call and my biggest, I don't want to say bad feeling, but it was something I couldn't answer at the beginning.
Definitely was a cause for stress. But I now understand it. I mean, everybody understands it. And we've gotten to the bottom of the issue, thanks to Kirlian, of allowing that to be paid automatically or reported. I guess automatically is how I should say it. So, yeah, that was one of my first big hurdles when I got here.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think to explain further, on our side, this was an. An electable benefit. I think most of our clients set up working assessments as an electable benefit for employees. So employee electable. And the way that our system was set up from the beginning was that those are never on. They never start on. They start unchecked. It took us a long time to realize that employers would add an employee and not know to check that box if they, especially if they were doing it manually and not via an upload. An upload would automatically check it. But putting that employee in manually would leave that box open. There wouldn't be any calculation for it. And so I think there was a long time where we thought, well, maybe this benefit just shouldn't be electable. If everybody pays it, maybe it shouldn't be an electable benefit. But then came to realize that there are these situations where there's some employees that don't pay it.
And maybe you can talk about when that is, because I don't know, but sometimes they don't pay it. And so it made sense for it to be an electable benefit, but we changed it so that it could be defaulted on, that any benefit can be a default on to start with if the majority of employees are going to have to pay it.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: And that was the best thing that ever happened. It automatically reduced phone call volume, you know, by a lot, because the locals would call because they weren't getting their dues. Then you'd have to call the employer and talk them through checking the box.
It was just all fixed with that immediate checkbox. So that was a great, A great help to everyone.
And just while I'm on that topic, the thing I like about being the NEDF coordinator and working with Karelian software is that when I see something that isn't working the way maybe in my mind I think it should be working. Carlion is always open to hearing our suggestions about how things can maybe work better.
Sometimes they get a, oh, sorry, that's not possible. Or, you know, oh, something we're working on. We're trying to get that resolved. But I've never had a relationship with our. I'll call you a software company because that's what I usually call you, where I can actually talk to someone about something that I have in my mind that could transmit into being better for everyone.
And then seeing it happen or knowing that it's in the works, that to me is amazing. So kudos to you guys for that.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Thank you. I'm glad to hear it. That is something we definitely work on and aspire to.
And in my world of software, when I talk to other software people, that's definitely something that software should and can do, incorporating user feedback.
I think especially the larger companies really struggle with that. There's probably some voices out there that they listen to, but it's hard to get your voice heard for your specific thing. Yeah, I don't know how to navigate it either. I wish I did. I wish I had tips for people to get their ideas into, like Microsoft or Intuit or something.
So you mentioned that it took you about two years to learn the role.
What happens when you go on vacation?
[00:13:44] Speaker A: So there's only four people that work at this office. And sometimes it's really interesting when someone calls in and says, should I put your name on the envelope to make sure it gets to you? And I have to chuckle. I'm like, you know, there's four of us, and, you know, I'm going to get the envelope either way. But I do have a backup. It's one of our assistant managers, and he works every couple months. So we kind of touch base and go through the whole process of, you know, take, from taking contributions to changing grade schedules to actually call it closing out the month and distributing the funds to where they need to go so that he's able to do that in my absence. I think the tricky part of it all is you in this job, you might only do things once a month or twice a month, so it's not something you do every day. And so for my backup, every couple months, we have to get back together again so he can take a trial run through it to make sure that he remembers.
So, yeah, we do have a backup. He can use EPR very well when people call in. He. He is actually the one that answers the phone now so that he can get all the questions. And then the ones that are maybe a little more difficult or needs some digging, he'll come in and we'll tackle them together so he gets that experience of how to answer things that are just black and white on the screen.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: That's really how we train, too. We make the new person be the front line and just like, get bombarded with all the questions, and then they, you know, gradually learn that way. But it is. It's hard because very often, especially questions from our clients, they don't happen very often.
They only come up once or twice a year, even with everybody that we're supporting. So there's always those things that come up where even somebody who's been here a year, they'll get new questions for sure, right?
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Yeah. We have about 495 employers that report to us and eight locals. And you're never. I mean, sometimes you'll get the same question a few times, but more than likely not. You're going to get a new question pretty much every other phone call. So it does take a lot of time and thinking, critical thinking, to figure out, to go in the back door, look at the agreement instead of looking at the report or there's so many different ways you can figure something out that it takes time and answering the phone over and over and over again to see those situations pop up. Yes.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: A lot of thinking on your feet, I imagine.
So you guys implemented electronic payments through EPR Live not that long ago. How's that process been?
[00:16:32] Speaker A: It is fabulous.
It has, I'd say we have about 75% of our employers that use ACH and they love it. The locals that we collect all the funds for, that used to be a one check system is now a one ACH system. So they just have to do, you know, the set of clicks once and everything is taken care of. And they're really appreciative that we've went that route. We have sent out newsletters about it that we've gone to the system. We've sent out AMF bulletins, which is our way of corresponding through the mail. We've sent out emails. And it's taken a while to get to this point. I don't know if people don't read all the way through or they say, oh, maybe I might, you know, check this out next month and set it aside. And here it is a year later.
But it has been a very smooth process and I've gotten only positive feedback about it. And it makes my life so much easier because I'm not opening, you know, 200 envelopes and processing all those checks. And it's just been a great benefit for employers.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: So you sent out the newsletter and the bulletins and the emails, and there's still some employers who don't realize that this is a thing.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: That's correct. And I've been trying as I speak with employers on the phone, you know, helping them with a report or helping with this or helping with that when I realize that they are not using ach.
By the way, did you know that we offer ACH now? And you can. It takes two minutes to put your banking information in the EPI system and then you can send everything electronically. And some of them, like, I didn't know that. I never heard about that. This is news to me. And so that's my. That's now my go to with just the 25% left.
I use it every, try to use it every time I'm on the phone with employer that I know sends checks. Because that one on one, they can't. They have to listen to me. They can't, you know, set the paper aside or read it later or whatever. So, yeah, that's a big push of ours because it's just saves so much time for us.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: We have the exact same thing that we recommend for anybody getting paper reports still those last few stragglers or even if it's a lot of people. So in some areas there are still a lot of paper reports.
And the best way we've found is to call those employers and to walk them through reporting online. And then it's like magic. They just, they do it and they love it and then they never go back to paper. But it takes that. You know, they can ignore an email, they can ignore the newsletter, but they can't usually ignore your call. They're going to pick up their business. So they'll pick up and you'll walk them through it because they don't have a choice and they do. Well, with a few notable exceptions, there's always those few holdouts. Do you have anybody doing paper still?
[00:19:39] Speaker A: We have three paper reports. We have a big university system, a big employer that works at power plants and then we have a little two man shop that says they don't have a computer, which I don't know if I really believe that. But they, it's their reasoning behind it.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: That aligns with what I've heard. Universities, any federal agency can give pushback, but we have had success with some so it's not impossible.
And the teeny tiny shops and I thought that maybe that excuse was gone because is there really anybody who doesn't have a computer now or a, or an iPad or something that they're using? That seems really surprising. But yeah, that's the excuse we've heard over the years for sure. We don't have a computer. That's amazing. Do you still push them or have you given up at this point?
[00:20:32] Speaker A: I've given up on the two larger companies. I just don't think it's. They're ever going to allow.
They want us to give them our banking information and send it that way and that's just something you know, we're not going to do. So I think we're at a standstill. But that little employer, I think about him, you know, every month when I get his paper report thinking, you know, there's gotta be some way we can get around this. So I'll have to put that on my to do list to give them another call here soon and if I can go back and add something.
I felt like when I started working here that when I would call someone and they'd see Illinois chapter NECA come up on their phone, it's the caller id, they would think, oh, no, what did I do wrong?
That was pretty standard.
They'd say, oh, hi, what did I do? Oh, what's the matter? Oh. And coming from customer service, that was very disheartening to me to have people out there thinking, oh, those people only call us when we've done something wrong, you know? So I just decided when that started happening that I was going to change that culture.
I wanted to work with everyone in a positive, not have everyone be afraid that Nika was calling. And I don't even know why they were afraid, because the person that had this role before me, he was fabulous and he has no enemies.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: It was just.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: It's more of a mindset, I think, for them than it was really that anybody had done them wrong.
So I really went out of my way to be so friendly, so helpful.
And sometimes I just call and say, hey, just check in to make sure you're reporting, you know, a new employer. Just make sure you're settling in. If you come across anything, you may have a question just to kind of change the mindset of the people that we were working with. And I can. I can say, that's worked after 11 years, I can say I get, oh, hey, Marianne. Instead of, oh, no, what did I do wrong? More often than not now on the phone. We could all do better at that in our jobs. So I just wanted to add that into one of your questions. Prior.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: No, I definitely. I love that.
And was that mostly with contractors or with the locals or with the fund.
[00:22:54] Speaker A: Offices, the employers and the locals? Pretty much, yeah. So nobody ever calls people when tells them they're doing a good job, right?
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Well, that's my question.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: There's a problem.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Have you worked out a process to, like, reach out to people just to say hi, or do you find other reasons, other kind of reasons to call people or contact them? What's your strategy?
[00:23:18] Speaker A: So if I have an employer that is delinquent, that usually isn't, you know, I'll take that as an opportunity to just call. I mean, everybody sends out letters saying, you know, we need your money, we need your money. But I get a lot more positive feedback with a phone call. Just, hello, I noticed we didn't get your contributions yet. Did your ACH not go through, or did you forget to click the ACH button? Or did you mail it to our old address because we recently built a new office? I use those situations to kind of build a better relationship and check in on people.
I also, if they haven't filed a report for a month or two. I just kind of call and see how they're doing if everything's okay. I noticed you didn't file a report last month. Did you need some help with that? So I just try to change the way things are handled upfront. I know they're going to get the letter, and I know the letter's going to say you're delinquent, and if you don't pay soon, you're going to have extra fees. So if I can call in person and just check in, I think that's well received.
So that's one of the ways I try to use that as an excuse to reach out to people.
Yeah.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: In my worst moments, when I've sent the, like, the nasty gram, I always inevitably, I get the response back, like, oh, that person died. Or so, you know, like something horrible where you're just like, oh, I'm so sorry. I wish I. I wish I could rewind and say, like, hey, just checking in. What's going on? You know, how are you doing?
Instead of assuming that, like, they'd seen everything and were intentionally not doing whatever they were supposed to do.
I actually just. I was going through some old files, and I had Kip's, like, file, you know, like the big file, and I was looking through it, and I had saved this letter I got after he died. So when he died, you know, he was like the primary person on the insurance, as you. As you would know, like the primary holder or maybe, you know, the correct term. So we got the. And then I took. I took over at Corellian, and so I was covered with the same insurance, the exact same one. But I got this letter at some point, maybe a month or two after he died. That was, you know, dear Kip Larson, your insurance has terminated due to death. I'm sorry for your loss.
Now you're. You and your dependents will no longer have insurance.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Just.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: I saved it because it was so bad. I just think, like, oh, they could have done so much better. And I do remember getting back to them. I was like, I am on your insurance. These same people are still on your insurance.
Why would you send this? I mean, I know it's a form letter. I know it's, like, triggered by other things, but check your data and make sure you're not sending these things out, because it was terrible.
So one of the things that you mentioned to me is that you get calls sometimes from employers with questions from other areas, that they have questions about what they're doing in other areas. And I'm curious, from your perspective, what do you think it is about you that makes people trust you? Is it building these things over time or is it you as a person? Is it, is it some other strategy you have or, or knowledge that you have? What do you think it is?
[00:26:29] Speaker A: I think it's a combination of things. I think I've been here long enough that I, I have a lot of the knowledge or if I don't have knowledge, I definitely know how to connect people, how to find the right person to get an answer.
I do think part of it is because I've made these relationships with our employers, with our, the staff in the local union where they trust me, they trust my knowledge, they reach out and say, hey, I know this isn't your local, but this is what's going on. Can you give me some insight? And then from there I'll, you know, try to ask more questions, which is also newer. People don't know the questions to ask where. I kind of know what questions to ask to pinpoint the actual issue.
So I think that helps, helps in that relationship building and it helps to connect the people with who they need to be with. I also feel when you have a new person working the EPR and in a chapter, they're just on board. I had that two year learning curve. They have that as well. And when an employer who's been there forever is dealing with a new person and they kind of have the feeling like maybe the new person is understanding, they'll call and say, you know, can you help me with this? Can you maybe reach out to this person and figure out why we can't get this job done the way it is? And of course I'm going to do that because I remember what it was like to be new. I remember not knowing the terminology or understanding what was going on.
So I think it's a combination of things. I think it's the time that I've spent here, it's the relationships that I've made with the employers and the friends at the local unions.
And I think we all need to be a team together. And people realize when we're talking that, yeah, we're going to get to the bottom of this no matter what. That's what I like to do. I like to help out however I can. And people have come to trust that.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: Would you say you're a connector outside of work?
[00:28:37] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Tell me a story.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: So our family has a nonprofit organization we run called Fishing has no Boundaries. It enables people with disabilities to go out fishing and it's definitely talking to the organizations or the families with people that have disabilities and connecting them to a person that knows how to go fishing, or connecting them to a person that will bring their boat for the day and take these people out. That's the joy I have. And then I realized that after they spent a day on a boat, hey, they want to do this again, they want to get together again, they're building a relationship. And I was a part of that. And we started with nothing. We went out in the community and got all these great sponsors and all these homes involved and all these fishing people involved. And people ask me like, oh, this is so great you do this. Do you like to fish? And I'm like, no, I don't. But my husband does.
He loves to fish. But does he like to talk to people and go out and ask for sponsors and. Not really.
So I think that's just the person that I am. I. I like to meet people, connect people, work towards a goal. Whether it's seeing a bunch of smiles on faces for the day outside, or getting somebody to file their first report without, you know, any incident, that's just the person I am inside and outside of work.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: Well, that hits really close to home for me because Kip loved fishing and the kids loved going fishing with him. It was one of the things that they did together.
And I don't know how to fish at all. So I really struggled with this. I did try to find people to go fishing with them. I never really did.
So we'll have to talk about how I can bring fishing has no boundaries out here to Portland and make it happen.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: That would be great.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: I would love to do that.
So how did you decide to start that?
[00:30:36] Speaker A: My brother in law lives up in Northern Illinois and he was a part of that in Northern Illinois. Part of fishing has no boundaries. And he invited us to come see what they were doing because, you know, my husband and their brothers, they fished their whole lives. And our children fished all together because of it. And we took a weekend and went up and volunteered at his event. And it was the most amazing day. Smiles nonstop. He just felt so good volunteering when you were done. It was just the best. And we were all sitting under the tent at the end of the day and they were asking what we thought, if he liked it. It was my husband's son and I. And you know, I was like, oh, this is so great. I love this. I love being a part of it. Thank you so much. And they're like, what do you think? About opening up your own chapter down in Springfield. I was like, oh, okay, I see how you did this. You know, they kind of reeled us in, not to be funny, but. And we said, well, we'll talk about it. You know, we went home, the three hour drive home, and we were all there. We loved it. And we thought, well, if they can find a place to do this, a place that'll allow us to have these events.
Ago made one phone call to the yacht club in our area and they were like, we would love to do that.
And it just took off from there. It's been eight or nine years now. We've been doing that. And it's very rewarding. Very rewarding. So we have a whole other family of fishermen and people with boats and lake people, and we just created a whole nother family for ourselves.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: That is amazing.
I love hearing that because I want that thing.
I want that way to give back. And oh, my gosh, fishing. Who would have thought?
[00:32:27] Speaker A: I know.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: And yet that is like, that was. That was Kip's happy place for sure. It was like a place where you can be quiet, it's meditative.
And I think a lot of us struggle with meditation in general. So having that place where you can go and know that you won't be bothered, you can be kind of one with the elements and the fish and the water. And I think that's lovely.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: And if you think about it, there's a whole population of people that don't have access to that.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: It's not easy.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: They don't own a boat. They can't get on a boat because they're in a wheelchair. They don't have of anybody that would take them to do that. So when you offer that population a safe way to enjoy something like that, to feel the wind in your hair in the water and to have that peaceful, quiet moment, it changes their lives. They've just never experienced it before. It's incredible. It's incredible to watch.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: You've got eight locals and you disperse to almost 40 funds. How do you keep all of that straight?
[00:33:40] Speaker A: You need to be very organized and you need to have great spreadsheets and great cover sheets, and you need to have a process in place that works. And you, you always need to be looking for better ways to do things. I think easier ways, more thorough ways.
It's become a lot that talking about how the role when you started changed because you're taking in more money, you're sending out more money, you're managing more bank accounts and more transfers but along with that, you're also answering more questions, handling delinquencies, working with the attorneys.
It spirals into a lot more work in a lot of ways, but it also keeps it interesting, keeps it new, keeps it fresh.
And my counterpart, you know, the accounting person here, he is very thorough in, of course, making sure all the banking records are correct and all the numbers match up. And you need to work as a team, you know, together to get the job done. So I like that it's evolved over the years.
I like that we're always thinking of our members and trying to make things easier for them. That's where the one check system came in and collecting all the contributions for the locals, because then they don't have to mail 10 checks, they only have to mail one or do one ach, you know, when they're happy, we can be happy.
So it's been a good thing. And when Billy has a, you know, a great idea or the employers have a great idea, then it's our. Our way to figure out how to get that idea on paper, on epr, how to make it work. And it's challenging and that's inviting it. It keeps us fresh here.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: Well, you say that you're always tweaking your processes. You're looking at them with hopefully fresh eyes as much as possible, kind of trying to look objectively at the things that you do to see where there's improvements. Do you have examples of when you've done that recently?
[00:35:50] Speaker A: So we've had postage. Let's talk about postage. Postage is really expensive.
And last year I thought, why, why are we mailing out all of this paper and then paper that says, hey, we're turning to ach and then people don't read it. Why are we doing this? Why shouldn't we just get on to some type of emailing system?
We reached out to all of our employers to make sure that they had the right emails in their EPR live in the right box. So when we pulled the emails, we could get everything to the right people and got that all updated. And we do use that system now, but we also still mail because not everything gets to the front of people's emails, unfortunately.
So it was one. One way. We're trying to streamline things a little. And I guess in a way it was kind of a little bit of a fail because people still weren't getting the message via email and still wanted the piece of paper.
That's been a big push. I'm not giving up on that because I just. It's painful to spend $500 in postage to get one mailing out. And it's like to have a system where we could just electronically send our information.
That's one thing we've been working on right now is how to do that.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: Communication is tough. Email can be a black hole.
And I think that sometimes mailing, as you say, when somebody mails it to your office, there's only four of you. So you can kind of put it to anybody and somebody's going to look at it, hopefully.
So what is the alternative to that? What's as good as mailing?
[00:37:45] Speaker A: It's a tough one because when you, even when you mail or email, you might be mailing or emailing to the owner of the business.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:54] Speaker A: Needs to take that step and get that wage sheet off to the payroll. Get the wage sheet off to the person that does the reporting or if they use a service, you know, if they have a CPA that does their payroll. I get so many CPAs calling me for the wage rates because they don't get the update from the employer. They're in a different town or a different section of town or whatever. It's a hard, hard to get that information into the right hands that really need it. It's a struggle.
So when people call, I'm just happy to give them their information they need or if they email. I try to be on my email all the time, getting right back to them. It's their payroll. They need to know, they need to have the new wage sheet. I understand that. But yeah, if you have an answer to that, love to hear it. Because we think about it all the time.
[00:38:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a hard one. I mean we still send out leading up to the Nika show, we send out postcards to all the Nika chapters. I don't think people look at their email or email servers now. Just really weed out a lot of stuff. Yeah, not always all weeds. I hope we're not a weed. I don't want to be a weed in anybody's inbox.
And we try not to overdo it. So we try not to over send emails. We probably under send. I feel like if it's really important, it comes in the mail. Like that's how the IRS communicates with me. So I don't know, I don't have an answer either. Texting, I like texts. That's how I respond the best. So if you can text everybody with a link to the rate updates.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Yeah, we do have an app and I think it's very effective for Our members, it has every agreement, every wage rate, you know, every meeting minute, every board meeting minute. And they have our members have access to that. A lot of them use it and like it. But there are also a lot of contractors out there that are members.
So. And those are the ones that usually get the, the rate sheet and don't get it passed on to the payroll department or, you know, the. They're ones that call more because they don't have fingertip access to that app.
That's one way we solved the problem for our members.
[00:40:11] Speaker B: I love the idea of an app. When did you do that?
[00:40:14] Speaker A: We had it for maybe five years now. Five years now. We had a company set it up for us and we're able to go in there and update just like epr, like it's web based. You can immediately update everything. You know, they can ask for all their employees to have access so they can go in and see things. And there's different levels of access, you know, for board members and employers and whatnot. And it's been a, it's been a game changer for our members.
[00:40:41] Speaker B: One of the things that always comes up, and I imagine especially comes up for you as you're thinking about your processes and kind of looking at them and analyzing them, trying to do them better, that there's gotta be people that say no, that are gonna dig their heels in and say, we've always done it this way. Why would we change it? How do you respond to that?
[00:41:03] Speaker A: If it's put in an agreement, they have to do it whether they like it or not.
So that always makes it very easy. If we can get that negotiated into a contract.
It would be great if we could negotiate into a contract that everyone has to pay via ach.
But we know it's probably not a reasonable thing because there are those little employers out there that are just always going to mail their check in. I find people, if you just get to the root of their problem, why they're saying no, why are you so resistant?
Either you can under, I can understand why they're not wanting to go along with it, or they will take the time to listen to all the reasons why they should and maybe make some kind of effort to do whatever it is that we need them to do. So a lot of it just involves listening and trying to work out a reason.
There's not too many times where there's tempers flaring on the phone or anything like that where an argument is happening. You know, you get to the point, you try and you try and you try. And finally, it's kind of. Kind of just like with your children, you know, because I said so, because this is the way it is. This is the way you need to do it. I, you know, I don't know how to make it any easier or explain it any better, but that's very few and far between that. We get to that point with our employers.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: So on my last little question that I like to ask, what is a piece of advice that you got that really helped you out? Or what's a piece of advice that you wish you'd had in starting this job?
[00:42:39] Speaker A: That's a good question.
I had a great teacher here. Ian Andrews was the NEBF coordinator when I was hired, and he never seemed to get flustered.
He would just take a deep breath and carry on. And he would help me not get upset or flustered.
Just stay cool, find out what's going on. Really, it's okay to say, I don't have an answer for you right now, but let me check into it and I'll get back to you. And that's giving you the time to kind of think through the process. It's giving you a chance to call someone and ask a question, or maybe just walk next door to the next office and say, hey, this is happening. And I'm not quite sure how to. How to help out.
And then you can always get back to somebody. And I find that true in a lot of situations, you know, even not at work. But in any situation, be able to step back, take a breath, admit that you don't have the answer, find your team member, your network that's back behind you to help you out and get back to somebody. And they'll understand that, especially when you're new, they'll give you a chance to find the right answer and help them out. And that's probably the best thing I learned coming into this situation. Not knowing the language, not knowing the software, not knowing anything was just, oh, that's a very good question. I don't know the answer, but I'll get it to you here in the next few minutes or the next hour.
And that helped just ease my stress as a new employee.
So that would be my advice to anybody starting out.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I love it. Keep it in perspective. You don't have to own it, just have to help them out.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:30] Speaker B: Resolve it.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: It's not always easy because people want things now. In today's world, everybody wants things right this minute. And it doesn't always work that way, fortunately. So it's just a good way to give yourself some space.
[00:44:44] Speaker B: Thank you so much for being with us today.
I really love talking to you.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: Oh, thanks. Thanks for having me. I hope, I hope I was able to give you some insight into the day of an NEBF coordinator and all the great stuff we do here, so.
