While gratitude is something to practice year-round, this time of year provides a perfect opportunity to reflect on a few important things we are particularly thankful for at Miller Electric.
Our People
Miller Electric Company is proud of our people, and not just because we’re employee-owned. Identifying the best local electricians in the industry, hiring them, training them and retaining them is the secret to our success. It has allowed Miller Electric to sustain the largest core workforce in the area while providing the finest talent for every job.
This year, our continued growth has allowed us to hire more wiremen and cablers, expanding our ability to help business thrive in Omaha.
Our Customers
We know we’re only as good as the customers we serve and this year, that meant wiring, installing and servicing many fun and important new projects in the Omaha area. Here’s a look back at just a few project highlights we’ve been privileged to work on in 2019.
Toast Headquarters
Restaurant Point of Sale (POS) tech company Toast made headlines when it announced it would be building its first U.S.-based office outside of Boston in Omaha. Miller Electric provided commercial electrical services including wiring, lighting, communications cabling and security system installation for the Toast Omaha office location.
After about a year of work across four floors, the Toast Omaha office is wired to power business growth for restaurants.
UNO Biomechanics Building
Twenty years ago, UNO didn’t have a biomechanics program. Today it is on the cusp of opening its second dedicated building, which will double the space for the thriving program. Miller Electric was privileged to provide commercial electrical and low voltage services for both the original and UNO’s new biomechanics buildings.
Wiring the original building and maintaining a close working relationship with the UNO facilities maintenance staff helped Miller Electric be considered by UNO when it bid out the building addition. A competitive bid and solid plan helped Miller Electric win the work.
Our Community
We’re ever mindful that we power a community we are a part of and that our success is connected to its safety. Working safely is critical to our own culture as a company and to the overall success of our business community. We make it a point to protect ourselves and our clients by offering safety training classes and making safety an integral part of our culture.
That commitment to safety was rewarded this year with recognition from our community as one of Nebraska’s safest companies and an Integrity Award from the Better Business Bureau.
Electrical Safety Without Shortcuts
“In our line of work, when what you do can easily result in life-threatening injuries, it’s of critical importance to make sure every one of our electricians, wiremen and even our customers follow the protocols and codes designed to keep us safe,” says Miller Electric Safety Director Scott Love.
Many of the codes we follow have their origins in unfortunate past accidents.
“It’s important that we learn from our mistakes and be vigilant about working safely on every day, and every job,” says Love.
Low Mod Score
Our culture of safety resulted in a low mod score, or experience modification rate. A mod score is like a golf score; the lower, the better. Our most recent score of 0.56 is the lowest in our history. Fewer employees are experiencing on the job injuries, which we couldn’t be happier about.
Integrity and Safety Go Hand in Hand
In an age where some try to do the fastest work at the cheapest rate for the highest profit possible, we believe in performing excellent work at a rate that allows us to continue to improve and always doing so in a way that protects the personal and professional safety of all parties involved.
We were honored to win a Bronze Award of Merit from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in its 2019 Integrity Award competition. Award winners were chosen by an independent panel of judges consisting of metro Omaha business leaders and members of the academic community.
The judges’ decision was based on the score of our application in comparison with other businesses with 500 or more employees. Only a few organizations were selected as winners.
These Awards focus on demonstrated ethical business practices with key stakeholders including customers, employees and community at large, rather than a company’s growth, profitability or popularity. An Integrity Award is a strong mark to customers and the community that we operate ethically and can be trusted with any project.
For us, integrity has always been the only acceptable way to work.
ACE Mentorship Program
This year, as in years past, Miller Electric employees partnered with other area Trades industry professionals and educators to provide more than 70 high school students with an opportunity to gain hands on exposure to a career in the trades. Supporting the development of a highly trained, educated and skilled workforce capable of supplying the labor needed to support infrastructure and manufacturing projects in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa is an essential aspect of our culture at Miller Electric.
We don’t just work here. We live here and want to see Omaha thrive for generations to come. We’re thankful to have the opportunity to support Omaha through the ACE Mentorship Program.
Looking back, around and forward, we can see the fruit of our labors in the ideas we help bring to life; the people who go to work in the facilities we wire; and the families who thrive in a safe and supported community. Our participation in this work is a responsibility we don’t take lightly and one that we want to continue to be trusted to perform for the next hundred years.