CGI Constructors Being a Builders Code Champion

An interview with Anthony Minniti, VP of Operations, CGI Constructors

Tell us when you signed the Builders Code Acceptable Worksite Pledge. What did you see as the benefits of signing the Pledge?

CGI signed early in the launch of the Builders Code. It represented a dramatically different commitment within the industry when issues regarding equity weren’t at the forefront. It wasn’t something where we were being reactive. It was a proactive methodology to pursue signing. As a company, we’re always trying to look at where things are going and where we can place ourselves as a leader within the industry. We saw the potential and all that came with the program. It was a no-brainer in terms of committing to the Builders Code and an acceptable worksite.

Why is it important? Why do you encourage others to sign the pledge?

Well, it’s a bit multifaceted. There is the company, the individuals within the company, the leadership, and then leadership at the worksite. There’s only an upside in terms of committing yourself, as a company and a workforce, towards a common goal of improving the entire industry.

From our perspective, it establishes a roadmap or a framework for all of us to interact with each other in a professional way—where everybody knows what to expect, and not one person or one entity is unbalanced in any of the relationships. So, we made the commitment to participate.

It’s easy to look at it proactively to refresh our thinking on a year-to-year basis as well.

You’ve been in construction for many years. If you compare worksites then and now, can you talk about how Builders Code can help move the industry forward?

Yes, I have been in construction since I was 17. So, 37 years.

Early on in my career, I accepted that there were situations of inequity on a construction site. There were certain people with power, and they would not treat everybody equitably.

Construction has changed in terms of communicating a respectful and equitable commitment to each other. I think there are still some bad players, people that are not acting in an equitable manner. However, the vast majority are treating people respectfully, are being loyal, and are working to say that we no longer accept these aspects within our industry. We’re just reaffirming a commitment and celebrating the facets within the community and within the industry that are about treating each other respectfully.

If you look at Builders Code as a recruitment tool, how do you explain it to a 17 year-old that is thinking about a career in the trades?

When a company signs the Builders Code Pledge, it represents a commitment that involves the leadership and staff.

Having a Builders Code badge on a company website indicates that these are the values the industry upholds, and they should consider a career in construction.

I think younger people appreciate joining a team that’s committed to a common goal.

What reason would you give to a company as to why they should sign the Builders Code Pledge?

Why not? It’s common sense. It’s something that we expect in our day-to-day lives: to be respected, to have a voice, and to feel comfortable in the place where we work. And why wouldn’t we, as owners, want that for our employees, no matter where their position is in the company, whether they’re out in the field or working in the office.

All sizes of companies strive to be seen as working towards a better business strategy. I would say that everything about the Builders Code represents how a company can work better to be a respectful leader and to have a comfortable environment for their employees.

Could you speak about the Builders Code training you’ve taken, the value you’ve gained from it, and any takeaways you’d like to share?

CGI was quite lucky to receive the original Builders Code training and then subsequent refreshments of the training. I would say that all aspects were very, very helpful.

The training was eye-opening, and the methodology of the learning was quite good because it had lots of examples. You were able to see an example of what could be happening on a job site, or happening between the office and the job site, or even happening between two individuals. You could listen to that scenario and then develop different and better ways to deal with the same situation.

The training gave you a toolbox of skills to deal with difficult situations – either a conflict, an abusive relationship on site, or a situation where somebody in leadership could be treating somebody else poorly. And that toolbox of skills was very, very helpful.

To have refreshers on the training and gain newer skills on a year-to-year basis was also good because it reminds you of some of the skills you might not have been using over the past year. I think another thing that was effective is doing the training in a group. Sometimes hearing what your colleagues or your staff are experiencing can be eye-opening.

I often use the phrase that somebody could be suffering in silence, and you might never know because they often choose to turn a blind eye. They have other management techniques. But being in a safe situation and sharing it was good because you could get very different perspectives from your team over very different periods of time. We had young staff, and we had staff that had been in their careers for 30 or 40 years. Feeling and hearing the entire gamut of their opinions was quite good.

It sounds like you’re describing the group sessions with a facilitator. Builders Code has various types of training, including self-directed training. Have you had a chance to explore that yet?

I’ve had the opportunity to experience some of the self-directed modules, and I think they just add a different flavor of learning. It’s the ability to learn at your own pace. It’s very interactive, it’s very comfortable. The great thing about it is when everybody’s under pressure, especially on sites and within the office, bringing everybody together in one spot can be very challenging. It’s also good because you can explore areas where you might not feel comfortable sharing with an entire team.

What are you, as a company, most proud of having achieved when it comes to creating and maintaining a positive workplace culture?

I think there’s probably two aspects to it.

The first aspect is that there’s an opportunity to constantly improve. As a company, we’ve been very committed to our employees. We have this statement that “we’re building Canada and we’re building Canada through our people”. If you’re committed to that strategy, there is this need to constantly improve, to recenter yourself, to be considerate of what a modern workplace might look like.

It helps us, as a company, recenter ourselves on a year-to-year basis. And when you’re reflective, you consider different aspects of your business. So not only are we considerate of our pledge to the Builders Code, but it’s also allowed us to look at some other functions within our business and help modernize them and recommit to some different strategies.

CGI has won a Builders Code Champion Award. What does winning an award like this mean for your company?

We were very proud to win this award. It was a culmination of a multi-year strategy within CGI to focus our attention very keenly on our people.

We focused on our people in multiple areas: their work environment, our commitment to having a safe, respectful workplace, and other improvements that we’re applying within our business.

This goes a far way in representing ourselves with potential employees, with our peers, and especially with our clients. It also helps represent us with our co-op students because it gives them, being junior in their careers, a sense of reassurance that they’re committing a four-month period of time to a place where they can be assured of a respectful learning environment.

And that kind of flows throughout the business.

What’s the advantage of that flowing throughout the business?

Well, some advantages are probably quite evident, and some might be a little more subtle. The evident ones are the morale within the organization improves; it’s a little easier to recruit new staff; and it’s definitely easier to recruit co-ops or young apprentices. That’s very tangible.

I think the more nuanced ones are where it challenges us in the rest of the business to raise our bar in the same way. This would include challenging all our vendors and sub trades who work with us to improve their behavior.

It’s not only the site dialog, the site behaviors, and the social behaviors on site that improve, it also improves the behavior of the entire team that’s supporting the site.

How should the construction industry continue to demonstrate the values of an inclusive construction culture? And why should they?

Well, the why, I think, is quite evident. The construction industry today is challenged with the decline of employees, mostly due to retirements. We’re in a situation where we’re out there actively recruiting in a very competitive marketplace, both for young students and young graduates from high school competing with technology-based careers.

We definitely want to present our industry, as well as our individual companies, as being positioned to acknowledge any shortcomings. We want to show that we acknowledge them and are willing to deal with them proactively – to show how we’re improving ourselves and have a vision for the future.

And ironically, our industry has never been afraid of those kinds of challenges. For example, during COVID, the industry hit that challenge head on from a health and safety perspective and endured. When we rally, we are very effective in how we get behind something.

Perhaps because we are made up of so many small companies or, we’ve always been lucky to be in a very robust, busy market, we didn’t focus on the issues as well as we should. I think we are now positioning ourselves to where an individual considering a change in their career can find themselves a place where they’re respected, where they feel they can grow in their career, and where they can be challenged. To ultimately not feel like a square peg in a round hole. They can find a home and certainly once they find their home, they can flourish.

Thank you, Anthony.

We’d like to thank you for your inspiring leadership in the industry, and for being a true champion of respectful workplace culture.