QLM
Seamless skilled staffing services
Since 2007, QLM has been offering total staffing solutions with a competitive edge to clients across a range of industries
With a strong focus on safety, productivity and quality (SPQ), QLM brings talented and dedicated workers into contact with job sites across the US. Striving to serve both its team members and clients, the company provides outstanding back-house support as well as project management capabilities. With specialized areas in cell tower construction, solar energy, general construction and industrial work, QLM goes above and beyond to offer its clients, and teams of hard-working individuals, the support they need.
Unlike many of its competitors, QLM offers its Team Members permanent jobs and a wealth of personal education and development resources. “I think the number one difference between us and other companies is that we take in individuals who are often dismissed as temporary workers, and make them part of a permanent team,” asserts Mark Lang, President of QLM. We try to provide people with an opportunity to make this the last job they ever need to have. In the construction industry, it’s quite common that jobs will have a defined beginning and end, but with us people will find long-term positions, and local assignments that mean they won’t be transferred out of area.
“We also promote things like SPQ (Safety, Productivity and Quality). To encourage that we offer rewards for team members who consistently work safely and conscientiously. Rewarding dedication and hard work is important to us, as we value safety above all else. In addition, we strive to create an atmosphere where people feel they belong, by implementing ‘team member of the month’ we have been able to highlight and boost the confidence of team members across our network.
“A lot of companies in our industry are about body counts – the more people they put through the door the more they get paid – but we follow a doctrine of quality over quantity. I would rather put a quality person to work, who can represent the company correctly, rather than assign lots of people to work who aren’t prepared, or right for the role.”
“We are different because we provide a full mentorship and support service – that means we are not just sending people to jobsites, we are also going onto those sites with people, and supporting them with industry knowledge. No other service actually offers that in the way that we do,” adds Mel Lang, Area Representative and Vice President of QLM Energy.
Today, QLM operates in a number of sectors. In order to manage such a diverse range of personnel and expertise, the company operates vertically, with different teams overseeing specific services for each sector. One of QLM’s fastest growing divisions is in telecommunication tower construction and maintenance, as QLM’s Chief Revenue Officer, Frédéric Guitton, discusses: “The cell tower division of QLM has a veteran-focused mission, and that’s because fellow Area Representative Chad Borek, is actually a veteran.
“When he left the service, he was looking for the next step in his career, and what he found was that veterans have a certain skill set, and a drive to work in more challenging roles. Working in the staffing industry, he realized that those skills are applicable to a lot of construction and maintenance roles in the cell tower sector; for example, the ability to climb, and follow orders, means that veterans make for incredibly safe and reliable workers.”
Chad himself drew on his wealth of experience to develop and expand this branch of QLM, as he details: “I didn’t think I had any correlating skills when I entered the civilian market, so, like a lot of veterans, I struggled when I got out. I had a difficult time, until about four years after leaving the military, when I found out about the cell tower industry.
“It was the dream job, because it appealed not only to my existing skill set, but my desire to work in challenging and complex situations. I knew there were a lot of other veterans out there just like me who would excel at this job, and I also knew that this kind of opportunity could make the transition, when coming out of service, a lot easier. I knew that the staffing industry could benefit from these young leaders, who have gone out and defended our country, and so I began developing the veteran program.
“Our work involves building and repairing cell towers. It has been incredibly rewarding, as we have managed to help a lot of businesses all across the Midwest find better talent. Over the last three or four years we have seen people go from entry level positions to team leaders, earning six figures, which is amazing.”
This dedication to upward mobility and continued learning is an important part of QLM as a whole. The company’s solar panel division works equally hard to offer people major opportunities, as Mel highlights: “We work with clients in the solar industry to provide them with the right highly-skilled people for the job. To find the right workers, we sort through a large pool of individuals, and our logistics team ensures they are in the right place at the right time. All of this is done with the aim of satisfying our client and giving people great opportunities.”
Innovative, people-centric programs such as these characterize QLM’s working culture. The company is dedicated to its people, as Mark asserts: “I preach a lot about the four F’s: Faith, Fitness, Family and Finance. Finance is last on purpose, because, although we spend the most time working, it should never overshadow faith. We don’t have to share one faith, or even the same idea of what it is, but there needs to be that drive and determination to serve a community of people, whoever they are. It’s a critical part of our culture as a company.”
Using its wealth of connections across a range of industries, QLM works to bring about new opportunities for disadvantaged and disenfranchised groups. Heading the company’s educational and outreach programs is QLM Area Representative Debbie Rodriguez. “My main focus is training and education. I am currently in the process of building an LMS – which is a Learning Management System – for QLM. With this new system, our team members will be able to continue their education whilst working. They can learn things like coding, and other skill-based trades, and opportunities will start to open up once they have passed a couple of modules. My vision is to continue along the path that we are on, focusing on developing the skills of our people.
“I also manage iBuild, which is a non-profit I started in 2015. As an entity, we collaborate between the education system and the construction industry, in order to get more people working with us. We also want to fix the stigma that comes with the construction industry, and get more people to see the potential in what we do.
“Within iBuild we also focus on getting people in the prison system an education, so that when they come out they have an opportunity within our industry, at a higher wage. We also work with people who have high-level disabilities, a couple of young men with autism, for example, work for us and they are model employees. We also support women and people coming in from foreign countries. A lot of that diversity is reflected within QLM, we have a large Hispanic population in our workforce, and a high percentage of female employees.”
Despite being a large and diverse operation, the entirety of QLM is guided by one core mission: to be a seamless extension of its clients’ operations, and to provide world-class customer service. “I wrote that mission statement for QLM back in 1994, and it’s still the same one we have today. Our aim is to provide people with world-class customer service. We really focus on how we can provide a seamless service to our team members as well as the companies we partner with,” enthuses Mark.
With its fresh, community-driven approach to human resources, QLM has seen enduring success. Over the next year, and onward, the company is looking forward to continued expansion, and exciting technological developments. “Our core focus for 2022 is a major technology overhaul, which will make it easier for us to gain efficiencies, and create a streamlined onboarding experience for our team members. We pride ourselves on being able to identify the right team member for the right position, and these developments will help support that capability,” says Fred.
“We continuously focus on improving our systems , so that the company can grow at a more rapid pace. We are moving very quickly, and so we have implemented a new timekeeping system for on the job; it increases our team’s ability to get information to and from the customer, so they can track jobs, in terms of cost and progress, better than they have in the past. It’s something that not many people have out there, so it’s definitely going to be a game changer in the future,” Mark concludes.
QLM
https://Myqlm.com
Services:Staffing and recruitment