Ron Puszynski, president and co-founder of concrete protection and restoration company Concare, Inc., recently joined our CoatingsPro podcast series to discuss his career in the coatings industry and potential trends moving forward.

Topics on the newly released episode include how the field has evolved since Concare’s launch in the 1970s; trends and technologies to watch for in the years ahead; analysis of workforce challenges and opportunities; and how CoatingsPro Magazine (now 20 years old!) has helped enable Concare’s success through the years.

“The way that the labor market is today, it’s going to be a challenge to find the talent that’s needed, to train them and get them up to speed, and then to get them to be productive,” Puszynski said of the current market. Going forward, he would like to see the industry emphasize the human element of coatings application projects, and what makes them unique.

“Our industry is a craft,” he explains on the podcast. “Unlike an assembly line, which is very rote and repetitive, there’s a lot of craft to what we do. When you get into a project and there’s some wrinkle there that you didn’t expect, how you handle it, deal with it, and overcome it, is really, really important. You need some creativity when you’re doing that.“

“At the end of the day, we have to be able to attract people to that part of the business. The job isn’t just labor — lifting, moving, and things like that. You’re really creating something that is special.”

“I get no greater pride than looking at a [transformed] facility. It’s amazing. If you can’t get sense of pride out of that, then you might be in the wrong business. And that’s really the way to capture the imagination of people who may not be for college but may have an interest in having a craft that they can count on for their future.”

The complete podcast can be listened to below. For more information, contact: Concare, (866) 266-2273, www.concare.com.