If you visit a Webcor jobsite in the near future, you'll be just as likely to see a "Speak Up for Unity" banner as you'll be to see one reminding employees to "Speak Up for Safety."

The creation of these banners and other signage was a collaborative effort that began with Webcor's Senior Safety Manager Kendall Cantave.

"The idea was triggered when a police officer killed George Floyd on May 25, followed by all the media coverage of nationwide protests," Kendall said. "That woke me up. As an African Haitian American, this is nothing new to me; I've witnessed social injustice my entire life. But this was a reminder and a flashback to all the pain I've experienced.

"When you work for a big company like Webcor, with its Core Values we strive to live up to, it's important that we lead by example and let those values set the tone."

The Core Value of "trust" in particular resonated with Kendall.

"It's important that we gain the trust of the communities in which we work. Part of that comes from our own behavior. Are we helping out? Creating job opportunities in the community? Showing the community that we care and are opening the door to minorities? Making a big impact toward addressing the oppression some of them are suffering?"

With the Core Value of "bold" also top of mind, Kendall said, "We need to have the courage to make a difference and speak up when we see inequality. Webcor leads the industry in various aspects of construction. We have led with safety. We can also lead with diversity and inclusion."

After creating a concept for a banner that included all the national flags representing the nationalities of Webcor employees, Kendall shared it with Senior Vice President Greg Chauhan and Senior HR Business Partner Tim Wortham, among others.

"My first ideas got shot down," he said, but the idea of a visual reminder of Webcor's commitment to unity caught on quickly. The conversation grew with more and more ideas for the visual aid. Employees from Southern California also joined the discussions, with Tim guiding the effort.

"Greg Chauhan ultimately approved the final design, which covers the range of minorities," Kendall said. For example, the rainbow color scheme reflects the LGBTQ community.

In addition to being used on project banners, Kendall envisions the graphic appearing on t-shirts and safety vests, among other items.

"The symbol covers everything," he said. "The last thing we want is for it to be just about Black and white. We want equality for all because that's who we are here at Webcor."

Webcor is proud to have won the 2020 CIO Magazine/OpenText Information Champion Award in the Cyber Resiliency category. Such a recognition is an honor for a company within any industry, but for a construction company, it's nearly unheard of.

"The construction industry as a whole is usually at the top of the list of the most insecure organizations, leaving them open to security issues, attacks, and other problems," says Webcor's IT Security Director, Jay C. Grant.

Digital security firm RSI defines cyber resiliency as "the ability of an organization to prepare, respond, and recover when cyber attacks happen. An organization has cyber resilience if it can defend itself against these attacks, limit the effects of a security incident, and guarantee the continuity of its operation during and after the attacks."

Panel of Experts Judged Entries

The CIO Magazine/OpenText awards were judged by a panel of industry experts who short-listed Webcor, then announced the company had won.

Webcor stands out from other general contractors because a focus on resiliency comes from the top.

"You have to have an executive who gets it, wants to deliver it, has bought into the process, is able to sell it up to executives, and who provides those who work for her everything they need to deliver on it," Jay says, speaking of Kim Bates, Webcor's chief information officer. "You don't achieve cyber resiliency without a leader who does all of this."

The process of establishing cyber resiliency begins with an overarching goal.

"What is the strategic focus?" Jay asks. "The team delivers an infrastructure that functions quickly and gives our customers -- Webcor employees -- what they need and does so in a secure fashion. The department management trusts the staff to have bold ideas and craft innovative solutions for the Webcor community."

Small Team, Big Results

Jay also notes that the recognition would not have been possible without the entire IT team.

"It's smaller than in big companies, but the team functions like a larger enterprise does. A lot of the technology team members have multiple proficiencies and capabilities; they have a primary job but also have secondary and tertiary positions they cover depending on the need, the process involved, or the service we're delivering."

The award will be spotlighted at OpenText World in late October with a short video, a trophy, and more. OpenText, one of Webcor's technology service providers, recommended Webcor for the award.

When the Newark Civic Center project initially broke ground, Webcor planned for a staff of one senior superintendent – Justin Marsh – and one assistant superintendent. However, as construction progressed, it quickly became evident that a project of this complexity warranted a superintendent to oversee each of the project's buildings: the new City Hall, the library, and the police station.

Webcor Concrete employees immediately stepped up to fill the need.

"How many GCs can do that?" Justin asks "Webcor has a very deep bench."

The first addition to the team was Field Specialist Juan Ramos, who had spent nine of his 10 years with the company working for Concrete as a carpenter, and carpenter foreman.

"He transitioned to the core and shell group when he went to work at the SFO Hotel," Justin says.

"I had always had an interest in learning more," Juan says. "In March, the opportunity came up to join the SFO Hotel team."

What Juan thought would be a short assignment turned into a job offer and a new position.

"It was an opportunity to keep learning and growing, and to be part of the core and shell side of the business," he says.

On-the-job learning

Available after the hotel job wrapped up, Juan joined Justin, stepping into the open assistant superintendent role.

"Juan and I were going to be field leaders for the whole project until we realized it was going to take more than just the two of us," Justin says.

Then the pandemic struck, and Webcor Concrete's work slowed down. "They were looking for a place to put some people from Webcor Concrete and we had the need for extra people."

Enter Webcor Concrete Assistant Superintendent Barret Neumayr and Project Engineer Christophe Allard-Moreau. Now, Justin is overseeing the overall project while Juan is handling City Hall, Barret is managing the police station, and the library is in Christophe's hands.

"I'm also assisting Justin with site logistics and some of the site work," Juan says.

All four of the Newark Civic Center project leaders credit the One Webcor philosophy with the ability of the Concrete employees to step into entirely new roles without missing a beat.

"We take care of each other; we have each other's backs when it comes to making decisions. We think about how a decision can affect the next person and even the next building," Juan explains. "This is about one team, one family. It's extremely important that we grow and learn together."

Christophe agrees. "This is my first Webcor job," he explains, noting he has only worked for Webcor Concrete on jobs for other general contractors. "I like that we all share the same space, even the trade partners. Webcor Drywall is right across the wall from me in the trailer. We get along really well; we got along great with Webcor Concrete while they were here, too. One Webcor is leading to a lot of success for us."

Barret, who is coming up on his fifth anniversary with Webcor, says, "I was working with the Concrete group for the first four years until I came to Newark to help out with Core and Shell," he says. "When the shelter-in-place order started in March, I was sent home and was helping out with Concrete estimating."

That's when he got the call informing him that he had a new assignment.

One Webcor makes it possible

"I've never done anything like this before. It's a great learning experience," he says, adding that he's been lucky that a great Core and Shell team was already in place, along with Webcor Craft team members. "I can lean on them to learn new trades I wasn't familiar with, like drywall and some of the stuff Webcor Carpentry is doing."

Even trade partners from subcontractors like Southland and Cupertino have stepped up to help.

"I can run over with a quick question and have them explain something to me," Barret says. "Sometimes I just go to one of them and say, 'Educate me' and they hold my hand as we go through the whole process."

Christophe is handling project engineer work for the Newark Civic Center project in addition to taking on responsibility for the library.

"I love it," he says. "The principles are similar. On the project engineer side, it's all about communication and sharing specific information and understanding what needs to be done. It's very similar to project engineer work in Concrete."

As for supervising the library work, "That's a whole new experience," he says. "It's a big challenge for me. I problem-solve in the field, coordinate work -- I learn something new every day."

Originally from Montreal, Canada, Christophe has been in the U.S. for 15 years, landing first in Delaware, then Los Angeles, and finally the Bay Area, where he moved to study civil engineering at UC Berkeley.

"I didn't know what working at Webcor Concrete would be like, even after internships. But field work appealed to me. I didn't want to sit at a desk all day running calculations."

He was doing carpentry work for Concrete for most of the winter when he was approached with an opportunity to finish Concrete work at the Newark project. "We had a few metal decks to pour, a few walls and a tower footing to put up." There weren't many Concrete projects for him to move to when that work was done, but he was enthusiastic when offered the chance to tackle the core and shell work.

A cohesive team

"This isn't an opportunity most companies can provide," he says.

"None of these guys have the superintendent title," Justin says. "These guys came into this job without much knowledge outside of Concrete. They have been thrown into the role. Not only are they succeeding; they are thriving."

"Now the four of us are a team," he explains. "We work together to plan out the sequence of how the three buildings get put together. We built some pretty detailed schedules for each building, and they're using those schedules to put the buildings together.

"It is so cool that we have people in our company who can manage and set up a concrete pour in the beginning of the day and run a waterproofing coordination meeting at the end of the day. It's a testament to how strong our employees are," Justin says.

Note: The photo at the top includes, from left, Christophe, Barret, and Juan.