By 2000, GEM Plumbing – a residential and commercial service fleet based in Lincoln, R.I. – had been growing by 20 to 50 employees annually for the past three years, and by all indications, that pace was likely to continue.
That year, to gain better control of the fast-growing company, its four owners – all brothers – began rolling out new technologies, policies and procedures. Changes included new high-tech systems to manage inventory and tools, equipment maintenance, fuel efficiency, customer service and its mobile work force.
In early 2003, GEM Plumbing implemented a new state-of-the art call center with a 12-foot screen that shows the exact location of all vehicles in real time, as well as fixed highway traffic views. With a real-time traffic system, dispatchers can reroute service trucks in the event of traffic tie-ups or inaccessible roadways.
In the midst of these major changes, Larry Gemma and brothers Leonard, Edward and Anthony created the GEM Institute in October 2003. Its charter, at least initially, was to be the training arm for all new employees on company systems, procedures and services. It also laid the groundwork for GEM Plumbing to someday become a national company.
“Training is, in most great companies, a central focus,” says Larry Gemma, executive vice president. “Even though we are a small company, we realized that we needed to focus most of our energy on training.”
Soon after starting the GEM Institute, the owners decided to expand its charter. For the first phase of this expansion, Gemma worked with a local state college to connect the internal training of employees to a degree program.
“Last September, it became real,” Gemma says. “The state college picked up the program.” Apprentices at GEM Plumbing can earn a two-year degree in construction technology and management. Some of the coursework, such as accounting and other general education requirements, is taught at the college, but most of the coursework is offered at the GEM Institute’s on-site classroom.
Today, GEM Plumbing operates 175 service vehicles and is the largest fleet of its kind in Rhode Island, and among the largest in the nation. Currently, the institute has three full-time employees and several part-time instructors. The next phase of growth begins this month, as the two-year degree will be open to all students in Rhode Island through the GEM Institute.
“We are in touch with local colleges in six locations,” Gemma says. Students can earn a degree and fulfill their apprenticeship requirements at their present employer.
In September 2008, the GEM Institute plans to roll out a nationwide degree program with training available online and at remote college locations.
“We want the industry to start to look at college education more seriously,” Gemma says. “By making it where we are hiring more people out of college, it is satisfying a parent’s needs to send a kid to college. We are building the esteem of the technicians and making them better earners in their lifetime for their families.”
Executive training
In addition to offering degree programs, the GEM Institute offers corporate training through the GEM Institute for Performance Excellence. The company is working with the Small Business Development Center of Rhode Island to assist start-up companies that are looking for real-life business training. The program is run by the SBDC through local colleges.
“That’s going to be a great benefit to a lot of companies in Rhode Island,” Gemma says. “They want some type of mentor to look up to.” The GEM Institute also assists businesses and local colleges to create and assign real-life projects to students and their instructors.
Recently, GEM Plumbing completed the development of a dashboard software application to monitor key performance indicators in real time. Local businesses that attend the GEM Institute through grants from the SBDC are trained how to continually monitor their business performance and progress with the same application.
“All companies that come in are going to be using our dashboard to help their own companies,” Gemma says. “GEM is a firm believer in real-time measurements.” If companies want to continue using the dashboard application, they can do so for a nominal fee. “We basically give it to them,” he says.
The GEM Institute for Performance Excellence also offers a one-day training seminar for any company that wants it. For $795 per person, Gemma and other executives lead attendees through the different departments of GEM Plumbing to demonstrate how their systems work. People gain firsthand experience of how GEM Plumbing updated its processes for customer service, inventory and tool management, equipment and fleet management, measurement and marketing.
“We’ve had really great success,” Gemma says. “It is a passion tour. We show them where we were, and where we are now.”
Seven years after taking the steps to transform the company, Gemma feels GEM Plumbing has reached a point where the owners have more time available to work on the GEM Institute and other strategic initiatives – both for the business and the community.
“We can do more things for the community that we want to do now,” he says. “The company runs pretty well now. Everybody has a job and a purpose.”
Along the way, the GEM Institute has become a large charitable organization. Proceeds from the institute and other fund-raising events held by GEM Plumbing – about $250,000 a year – go to the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Foundation. The foundation contributes money directly to women in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
“My mom passed away from breast cancer, which is what drove us to start the foundation,” Gemma says.
While the GEM Institute continues to expand its outreach efforts, both as a charity and a resource for training in business management, it remains centered on its original purpose – to train its own employees.
“The most important message is to make training a central focus of your company,” Gemma says. “We feel that to run a company efficiently, you have to spend money on training, or you’ll spend money on mistakes.”
The company is starting to delve into green energy, which requires more training to help technicians understand the new products and become better salespeople.
“We are the first dealer in the U.S. for Honda and Climate Energy to sell heating systems that produce electricity for your home,” Gemma says. “We are going to need training in product development.”
In the long run, the GEM Institute will benefit the entire industry for the better, Gemma believes, whether or not technicians in training work at GEM Plumbing.
“It is not just about one kid getting an education, but changing the way the industry looks at plumbers.”
Innovators profiles carriers and fleets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking’s challenges.
If you know a carrier that has displayed innovation, contact Avery Vise at [email protected] or (800) 633-5953.
