Bill Hayes is CEO of Safway® Group, a $1.2 billion scaffolding and access services leader with a fast-growing presence in additional services such as insulation and painting/coating. Safway serves the energy/industrial and commercial markets through its 10,000 employees across 100 locations in the U.S. and Canada.
Hayes believes leadership is a privilege, not a right. Leaders must serve their teams and make their people successful. They must roll up their sleeves and fight battles with and for their teams. BIC Magazine recently visited with Hayes to learn more about his goals for his position — delighting customers, depressing competitors, winning safely and creating value across the company’s constituent base (employees, customers, communities and shareholders).
Q: What led to your position at Safway?
A: Prior to joining Safway in early 2012, I was president of Honeywell Safety Products. I was aware of Safway’s reputation for and focus on safety. Safway possessed an outstanding position in key markets and offered an amazing opportunity for growth. There was a lot we could build on. In addition, I was quite familiar with the company’s financial partner, Odyssey Investment Partners.
Q: What is the biggest news at Safway right now?
A: We’re growing fast; we’re expanding our offering of services, and our team is highly energized — but our obsession remains on safety. The biggest news is while we’ve improved our TRIR by more than 60 percent over the past couple of years, we’re nowhere near where we know we can and will be. Also, we are refocusing the company on leading indicators of safety — a very exciting initiative!
Safway is at yet another tipping point in our history. We’ve successfully evolved through the years from a scaffolding manufacturer to an access services rental/labor provider, from a commercial focus to both a commercial and energy/industrial focus, and from a U.S.-centric company to both U.S. and Canada centric. Over the past several years, we’ve added insulation and painting/coating to our traditional scaffolding/access offering, and we’re seeing really strong growth as a result. But we’re never satisfied with current results, so we must stay on edge!
Q: What is the most important part of your position?
A: Knowing how to connect the dots across our various functions, branches, jobsites and product-service groups is critical. We have a great team with a healthy mix of industry veterans, coupled with newcomers offering new perspectives. It’s important I keep the team aligned and focused, and stay out of their way and give them room to execute.
Q: What’s the most important thing a person should know before taking a career path similar to yours?
A: Avoid the books that profess the “6 easy steps” and the “10 key points” to being an effective leader. Those are interesting, but there’s no magical formula. I have found the key is this: You need to understand leadership is a privilege, not a right bestowed on you. We are here to serve our teams and ensure their successes, to roll up our sleeves and fight battles with them and to set a living example for them in all we do each day.
Q: What is a fun fact about you most people might not know?
A: I’m not sure how fun this will be for everyone to know, but I’ve been playing piano since I was 5 years old. I fought it tooth and nail for years (my parents convinced me it would help in sports and math!), but I thank them now. Pounding out a tough Mozart sonata is an effective stress reliever.
