A Coffee with Karen Fallowfield from Supreme Steel

Join us for a coffee and chat with Karen Fallowfield from Supreme Steel.

Karen, the Construction and HR Manager at Supreme Steel, is a remarkable individual who truly embodies the concept of being a "jack of all trades." Hailing from Edmonton, she has always maintained a strong connection to her hometown and proudly identifies herself as an Achesonite. In fact, her outstanding achievements were recognized when she was nominated as a Women In Leadership nominee at the prestigious 2024 Acheson Business Awards Gala.

Empowering women in trades is a cause close to Karen's heart, and she actively promotes this throughout her work. As the HR Manager at Supreme Steel, Karen is delighted by the company's Culture of Care. From taking the time to know each employee by name to generously offering their Atrium space for community events, Supreme Steel consistently gives back to the local community.

One remarkable initiative that Karen is particularly passionate about is the Bridgespan Cafe and Grill, located within the Supreme Steel building. This phenomenal cafe not only serves delicious food but also empowers and employs individuals with developmental disabilities. If you find yourself in the area and feeling hungry, Bridgespan is definitely the place to go. By supporting this exceptional establishment, you are not only treating yourself to a satisfying meal but also contributing to the empowerment of individuals in need.

Transcript

0:12

Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the ABA Coffee In The Park podcast. My name is Cam Milliken, and I'm here with my co-host extraordinaire, Jennifer Herrick, the executive director of the Acheson Business Association. Good morning, Jennifer. Good morning, Cam, how are you today? Oh, if I was any better, it's a Tuesday after a long weekend. I mean, hey, you know what? It's great, it's a great day. The sun is shining, it's awesome. It is, there's no snow on the ground yet, so I'll take it. That's right, every day without snow is a great day as we head towards winter. But man, it's just fantastic. Did you have a good long weekend? You know what? I had a great long weekend. We were off to beautiful Canmore, Alberta, for anybody outside of maybe Alberta that hasn't been there. You must go. It's a beautiful spot. We, Cam, we were at a hockey tournament. Oh, hockey tournament. Yee-haw! All right. Good times. Hundreds of little kids running all over the place. Oh, yeah. Good times, though. Yeah. Awesome. Well, that's great. We didn't win. Didn't win? No. Oh, well. Better luck next time. The pool is exciting for the kids. Yeah, for sure. Awesome. Well, that's great. And you? I was in Calgary all weekend. Again, not too far from Canmore, actually, about an hour away. And I had a wonderful time. Visited some great restaurants and just had a relaxing time. It was awesome. So it was. It was a good long weekend. Yeah, it was. Yeah. So it's exciting. Well, we're back at it and ready to go. And I'm excited about today's show. And it's going to be great. So, Jennifer, why don't you introduce... No, wait, wait, wait. We can't do that yet. We can't do that. We need to tell everybody where we are. That's right. That's right. We're coming to you this morning from the Wall Coffee Roasters in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson. That's right. So if you hear a bit of noise in the background, maybe some machines whirling, people talking, kids screaming. It's not us. It's just wonderful people who are here in the coffee shop. And so it's great. And hey, why don't you tell us about some very important people that make this all happen? Absolutely. We would like to thank our gold corporate sponsors, which include the MyShak Group of Companies, Genics and Parkland County. Thank you to these individual businesses for all that they do for the Acheson Business Association. That's right. Without you, we could not do what we do. So thank you very, very, very much. Now, Jennifer, I'm excited. You can introduce our guest today. Well, Cam, I am excited to introduce our guest today. We have known this wonderful lady for quite some time now. Yeah. She is, I will call, an Achesonite. An Achesonite. Do you like that word? I do like that word. You know what? You know what? We're going to use that word from now on. Yeah, we are. An Achesonite. And you don't even have to live in downtown Acheson. But you can be an Achesonite. Exactly. I love that. That's fantastic. Okay. I've coined that word. Okay. Yeah. So our guest today is Karen Fallowfield, who is the Manager of Construction Human Resources at Supreme Steel here in Acheson. Right on. Welcome, Karen. Welcome, Karen. Good to have you. Thank you. An Achesonite. I like that. I like that a lot. I love that. That's cool. We'll maybe get that on our t-shirts next time. Yeah, absolutely. I'm an Achesonite. But anyways, welcome. Good to have you. So Karen, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? I am an Edmonton born and bred, one of the originals. I was born in Edmonton. I lived in Belvedere on the east end of Edmonton for a number of years. I currently live in Morinville. We purchased our house there in 1988, 89, somewhere in that range, a while ago. So for people who aren't familiar, Morinville is like how far from Edmonton? Well, it's from Acheson. It's about 45 minutes north. OK, right. So it's pretty close. Yeah. Yeah. In Morinvillite, like Achesonite, Edmontonite. Edmontonite. I'm a little bit of everything. You're all. That's good. No, you're multi all over. That's good. So tell us a little bit about your family. And growing up in the east side of Edmonton, do you have siblings? I do. I am a daughter, a sister, a wife, a friend. I have mom and dad. They're still alive. They're still wonderful. They're still kicking. Still giving us grief. That's in a good way. I have three sisters. There's four girls. I'm the oldest. You're the oldest. I understand. Now, yeah. And I have nieces and nephews and all of them. Well, no, not all, but most of them are over the age of 19, and they give me a rough time because I keep saying that I'm 19. Right. You can't be 19 Auntie. That's right. Because I'm 30. There you go. Details. You stop at 19. That's good. Great. And they all live here? They all live in the? One sister, two sisters are in Edmonton. One sister is in Athabasca. Okay. Yeah. Great. And can I just say, Karen, that I had the pleasure of meeting your mom and dad at the Business Awards Gala, where you were a nominee for our Women In Leadership Award. So it was such a pleasure to meet your mom and dad, and I'm so happy they were able to come. They were thrilled to have been asked. It's huge, well, it's an absolute honor to have been nominated, and to be able to bring my mom and dad and be part of that so that they could see the people that I deal with and talk with every day. And they were all, they were just beside themselves. Isn't that great? Because I did the same. My mom was there. I saw that. And I like the fact that, like you said, you hit the nail on the head when you said they got to see who we work with on a regular basis. And what we do, I don't think they always understand that. No, I don't think they do. And I think our parents wonder, what the heck is it that you do do? You meet the people and they kind of, I know for my mom, it was like, yeah, okay, those are some pretty great people you work with. So that's really neat that your parents were there. Yeah, both of them. And it was really, really good. Jennifer got us into the room early. Yeah. Dad's got a walker. So we wanted to make sure that, you know, he got there with not without wobbling and all of the chairs didn't have arms. So we got one of the fellows from the hotel to be able to bring in a chair with arms. Yeah. And then we got them all settled, moved the table a little closer to him. Yeah. And it was really good job. That's really fantastic. It's great. Again, I think it's good for our parents to see what we do and the people we associate with and gives them a sense of, I think, a confidence. And pride. Pride. I like the word pride. To see you nominated was amazing. So I think that's awesome for them. So proud of that. It's awesome for me. Yeah. I'm very, very fortunate to have my mom and dad still, very much part of our lives. It's been amazing. Yeah. Family's great. Growing up, Karen, what did your parents do? Dad worked for the CN. He was a fleet supervisor for the trucks. So he looked after the guys that drove the trucks. He worked for them for many years. Retired at the age of 52. Okay. It was one of the paid things that they did, the CN did. Hey, if you retire, we'll give you some money, and we'll buy you out. We'll give you an early pension. And it was very good for him. He was like, I think, it was one of those, hmm, two minutes? Yeah, I think I made that decision. Yeah. And then he was mostly a neighborhood husband. He looked after all of the, anybody who needed anything, he would look after them. I get that from him. I also get that from mom. My mom worked, she was a nurse to start with, and then she raised four girls, sold Tupperware, worked at NAIT. I think she went back to work because dad retired. That's how it really worked. She worked at NAIT in Employer Services, and she retired at age 65, and they're doing really good. Fantastic. Yeah. So where did you go to high school then, if you were on the East End? East End, I went to M.E. LaZerte. M.E. LaZerte. They were our rivals. I went to Ross Shep here in Edmonton. So I remember playing M.E. LaZerte and some basketball, and some football. I remember that. So yeah, good school, M.E. M.E. was pretty good. It was, we had, we didn't have cheerleaders. We had the Rowdy Club. Right. I might have been part of that. Maybe. Maybe you're not owning up to that, but okay. If anybody listening who knew Karen back in the M.E. days, drop us a line and just let us know how rowdy Karen really was. Yeah, so yeah. I don't know about rowdy. I was chatty. Chatty, right. Chatty. That's good. No, that's good. Yeah, that's good. Cool. So you went to M.E. LaZerte. I went to M.E. LaZerte. I started working right out of high school. I went to NAIT, got my certification with the Payroll Association, which is now National Payroll Institute. So I've got my Payroll Leadership Professional Certification. I've got my HR Certification. I didn't get as far as getting degrees and diplomas. I was working. But I love taking the classes and taking the courses. And the leadership type ones are my favorite. Construction law, that was another favorite. So I've done a bunch of the different things like that. So you left, you did that and started working where? At Government of Alberta. I don't know why we get all excited about that. But anyway, yeah. What did you do? Payroll. One of the most important jobs in the Government of Alberta. Absolutely, anywhere, yeah. I started out in Wages, which is the hourly employees, with social services. I worked there until 93, so from 80 till 93. Left the government, decided that it was too Tunnel Vision. I needed to see what else was out there. I went to Bartling-Gibson for a year. I went to, it's now called Element. It was Funds Administrative Service, which is the benefits for iron workers. Right. And now, I'm with Supreme Steel, and they deal with iron workers, so it was kind of a roundabout thing. But, yeah. I started in with Midwest Constructors in 96, and Supreme bought Midwest in 2003, and I've been there ever since, so 28 years, and I'm only 19. Yeah. Well, you're doing great. Wow. So, I want to talk about that for a minute. And so, you were nominated in the Women of Leadership, and you said something a minute ago that really caught my attention when you said you were working for the government, and it was too tunnel vision. It was very much tunnel vision to me. And you saw beyond that. It was, you were doing one thing, and I'm very much a multitasker. I have my hands in many pies, and to be able to only do one thing just drove me crazy. So can I ask you then, you know, and that wasn't that far back. It wasn't that long ago, but women in those positions, and how was that? Were you, did you see a future? Was it tough? Was it? Not where I was. Yeah. It was all, it was all women, and that's all we did. There was no guys in that in that field whatsoever. It was, it was tunnel vision. It's the only thing I can really think of to say. It wasn't anything that, I mean, I enjoyed doing it while I was there. And it wasn't until I left that I realized how bad it really was. Well, to me, it was bad. Sure. Yeah. Working with Supreme now, like I said, I have my fingers in many pies, and it's not, it's not an old boys club. Women are very much a part of everything in the construction industry as well. Which I think, though, has been a big shift over the years. And have you seen that over the years, Karen? I believe so. Yeah. Because I would say the construction itself used to very much be an old boys club. Yeah. Well, now we've got more people, more females in leadership roles where there weren't before, not in that industry. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And that, again, I think that's, yeah, that's what sort of where we're heading with this is like you've seen that change. Yes. You've seen that morph a little bit. Has it been a tough road? Has it been, was it, you know, was it seeing more women come into these leadership positions? Has it been... how it... was it smooth? Was it, I guess what I'm getting at is, was it tough for women? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you have to, or I feel like you have to bully, is not the right word, but bully your way in. Yeah. Because I have a voice too. Right. And I want to make sure somebody hears it. Right. Yeah. And did you face that? Yes. Yeah. And how did you deal with that? Bully myself in. Bully yourself in. I have a voice too. Right. Yeah. Sure. But not every woman's in that position or can do that. So, I mean, good on you for doing that. And that's an encouragement to other women. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, I think we've heard that too from a lot of women. It's, you know, if you're at the table or even to get to the table to have that voice. And sometimes that's really hard to do. Have you seen a shift in the amount of women in trades? So, actually, outside of the leadership positions, do you manage? Yeah, like working in construction and... There's very few. I could count on one hand, how many we have right now that are female. Yeah. There's times where you're going to get two or three in one grouping of people or one job site. Yeah. But you're not going to get a lot. Ironworkers, it's a hard life. Previous with Midwest, it was more the pipe fitters. It was the same thing. It's very rare that you get, but when you get them, they're the ones that want to be there. Right. And they don't want to be... What's the word I'm looking for? They don't want to be seen as a woman. Yeah. They're an iron worker. Right. Everybody's an equal. Everybody's an equal. Yeah. Yeah. You think that's going to change? Do you think we're going to see more women? I know the government is... We try.... has a number of programs. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that's going to change? Is there going to be more women coming into these trades? I hope so. Yeah. Maybe not right away. It's a slow progress. Yeah. So you say you have your hands in a number of things at Supreme. Tell us, what do you do for Supreme Steel? What is... My title is manager of construction human resources. So you'd think I look after the construction boys and I say that because there's women there as well, but they're primarily boys. I have a lot of boys. I look after the construction team, but I do a little bit more than that. I help with executive administration. Don't call me a secretary, please. I deal with the day-to-day office, anything that happens in the office, that kind of stuff. I help out, oversee payroll, not oversee. That's not really the right word. I have my hands in there, but I don't actually press P for payroll anymore. Somebody else, a very competent lady does that. Marcy, she's awesome. The Supreme Steel has an amazing atrium. And as you know, because you've been there, we allow people from the Acheson Business Association, the companies in and around Acheson, to be able to use that space for their events, for their meetings, that kind of stuff. And I coordinate that. Right. Yeah. It's a beautiful space. It's an amazing space. Yeah. You guys, the Leder family, when they built it, just unbelievable. Like, it's great for meetings, it's great for events, all of those kinds of things. It's just a wonderful space. And you guys are so generous with that. You're so... It's part of who we are. Yeah. It's part of Supreme. To be able to give back to the community. Tell us about that, Tell us about that culture at Supreme, because it really is amazing what you guys do. We have the culture of care, is kind of what we call it. We care about the people that work for us. We care about the people in our communities. And we try to make sure that that feeling, that care is out there. By having that space and being able to lend it out, to be able to use, utilize, for people to be able to utilize it, meetings and events and whatnot. There's times when we've got things happening three or four times a week, which is way too many. And then there's other times where it's pretty much empty. We use it for our own space as well. We had a Remembrance Day service there on Friday. So we had every chair in the place was set up, not all full, because there were people who don't work in the offices on Fridays and didn't come in for it, but we still had a service. We had a fellow come in from, I can't remember the name of the company that provides the individuals, but he did come in and talk to us about his service and what he does. And amazing. We had Quinn Leder, who is John's brother. Right. He spoke about the Leder family coming through the Second World War. Okay. So that was very moving. Right. Things that we didn't know about. And we think we know absolutely everything because we're so tight knit. Yeah. But things that we didn't know about. And it was very, very good. Quinn's talking about writing a book. And if he does, that would be so good. Just the story, just that story. Sure. And if that's just the beginning, like there could be more, right? So things like that. But yeah. Karen, what do you think the biggest challenge facing people today in the area of human resources? Oh, keeping everybody happy. I don't know. Is that even possible? I try. Yeah, sure. There's so much. There's human rights, there's the labor laws, and all those things that you need to know about, and you've got to be able to keep everybody happy. Keep everybody happy is my biggest thing. But you've got to do it legally. Right. You have to do it by the book. Sure. And you have to make sure that everybody works the way they should. How many people does Supreme employ? Because you have branch offices. We have. We've got the shop in Acheson. We've got a shop on the east end of Edmonton. Right. We've got a shop in Saskatoon, and we have an office in Vancouver. Okay. So about 300 now, somewhere in that range. Yeah. I did not look this morning just to double check that, but in that range. So we've got the field guys, which are, I keep saying guys, there is a couple of girls in there. The shop. So we've got unionized. The field is unionized. So they're through the building trades, through the Ironworkers local night, 720 in Alberta, 97 in BC, 771 in Saskatchewan, 728 in Manitoba, because there's Manitoba jobs. And we've even got a job in Ontario that starts in January, 786. I've got to set that one up, because I never had that one before. So it's a new learning curve. And then the shops also unionized through the Ironworkers as well. And that's 805 in Alberta, 838 in Saskatchewan. Okay. Yeah, it's big. 300 people. It's a lot of people. It's a lot of people. Yeah. Spread out over the country. And John, as the owner, may not know all of them, but he used to. He used to be able to, or he still does for the ones that have been there for a while. But he would know you, he would know your husband, he'd know you, he'd know your wife, your mom. Like he would know the family. John's amazing. And he is an amazing, amazing man. Yeah, he really is. Yeah. And I think that just goes back and speaks to the culture. When you have that culture, I think from your leadership down, I think it makes a huge difference for people. I 100% believe that. You guys have something, I think, is really cool at your operation here in Acheson, and you have a cafe. We do. And that doesn't belong to Supreme. Right. But in the building is Rehoboth. Yes. And they have started the cafe, and it's called Bridgespan, which kind of spans between the bridges between their company. Tell us a little bit about Rehoboth and what they do. Rehoboth? Oh, jeez. Where's the girls that work there? Rehoboth handles, now I'm probably screwing this right up, but they look after individuals who have developmental disabilities. And we hire, Supreme hires the staff, some of the workers, clients, and as our cleaning staff. Okay. And they are wonderful. They come in every day, Monday to Friday, and they clean the offices. They're there for a couple hours or an hour. It depends on the day and how they're feeling. And I'm fine with that. Because they could walk in. They're over in the atrium coming towards the door there, and my office is clear across the back. And I come out, and I only hear is, Hi, Karen. Mark, he's wonderful. And you reply back, Hi, Mark. And he just turns around and continues on his way, because that's what he's done. He said hi to me. That's good. The individuals that they have, one of my cleaners, because they're mine, they're all mine, they're all my people. Tammy married one of the workers that was in the back at Bridgespan, who works in the kitchen, Kevin. We had their wedding in the atrium this summer. It was amazing. That's cool. I love that. I just think that Cafe is, I think the fact that you've given them space, and you give opportunities and jobs to people who have some difficulties and some struggles. I just think that's fantastic. It is. Not many businesses can do that or would do that, and you guys do do that, and it's phenomenal. It is. I think it's amazing. It is. The Cafe is open from 7 until 2. Sometimes, I see the sign. If I go flying out of the office for whatever reason, I see the sign. It says that it's whatever the soup of the day is. The spicy Thai. I love that one. And I'm going to have that today. I know I brought lunch, but it doesn't matter. That's my favorite. And it's after 2 o'clock, and I missed it. But again, I think it just goes to the culture of Supreme. I agree. It is 100%. Yeah. And it's an amazing cafe. They do so much for Acheson itself. They're delivering. They do catering. We've got people that come in. The seniors apartment that my parents live in on the east end of Edmonton, they have a bus that comes to the cafe. Really? They do. So I see the bus come by. Yeah. But my mom and dad aren't on it. Like, mom, you guys were here. Why aren't you there? And she'll say, well, I can still drive. So I feel bad about taking the bus and somebody else's seat. Mom, come and have lunch. That's right. Come visit and come have lunch. That's fantastic. Yeah, that's really fantastic. I just think, again, it goes to the culture of the Leder family of Supreme Steel. And if you're in Acheson, if you work in Acheson and you've never checked it out, you have to drive over to Supreme Steel and check it out. Yeah, because it's awesome. Yeah. Again, 7 till 2. Yeah, 7 till 2. Don't come for a late lunch because they're not going to be open. Nobody there. No, they do. They have amazing food and the culture is amazing, like you said. And Karen, I think you just bring so much to that culture. I just love working with you. And anytime we have an event there, you're just so fantastic. See, and I love it when you come and have an event there because you're so easy. I just say, yeah, it's available and make sure that everything is there for you. And then I can walk away. It's, you know, you do it so well and it's awesome. So thank you. Oh, well, thank you. Well, it truly is a little gem in an industrial park. Isn't it? It's a gem of a place to be able to hold meetings or events or those kinds of things. Or Christmas parties. Christmas parties. That's right. We're having ours there this year. And we actually, we got to talk. We'll talk to you off air about what we're talking about for the spring. Oh, yeah. That's going to be exciting. We think it's kind of exciting. So anyway, it's great. So yeah. So final question. Time has flown by, Karen. Because I can continue to talk forever. What's the best piece of advice you've been given either personally or professionally that you carry with you to this day? The world is like a mirror reflecting what you do. And if you face it smiling, it'll smile right back at you. Wow. Oh, I love that. That's good. I love that. I got that in junior high, I think it was. Okay. And it's one of those things that has stuck with me. I've had it put on to, I've had it embroidered on things. Right. I try to instill that on people who are answering the phones. The first thing that you see or you hear is your voice. And if you are smiling when you're talking, you can hear that. Sure. Say it one more time. The world is like, oh, jeez. Oh, here we go. Put me on the spot. Put me on the spot. The world is like a mirror reflecting what you do. And if you face it smiling, it'll smile right back at you. I like that. I want to put that on my whiteboard when I go back. Yes. I love it. That's good. That's fantastic. Wow. Well, man, Karen, this is fantastic. Time has flown by. It's gone by really quick here. And what a great conversation. Really appreciate everything you do. Thank you. Appreciate everything you do for us, which is fantastic. And yeah, it's amazing. You're an amazing person. And yeah. So Karen, tell everybody the address of Supreme Steel and Acheson, including where Bridgespan Cafe is. We always put our guests on the spot with the address. I know, we do, with the address. Yeah. Here she goes. I have to look at my business card because I can never remember it. I hear you 100%. I don't even know my own phone number. I have to look at my business card. 28169 96th Avenue, Acheson, T7X 6J7. We are in Acheson what- Zone 5. Your Zone 5. We are 2 kilometers from the highway. Continue down the curvy road. And on the west side of the building is Bridgespan. And they've got signage there as well. Sure. And I think there's websites for everybody. www. supremesteel.com. Okay. Bridgespan, I think is Bridgespan.ca. Don't quote me on that. I'd have to look it up. Fantastic. Wow. It's Bridgespan. Yeah, if you search Bridgespan, it'll come up. Okay. Fantastic. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. This has been an absolute pleasure. Yeah, it has. So thanks, everybody, for listening. We really appreciate it. Thanks for tuning in to us. Make sure you tell your friends, your neighbors, your business associates. If you don't have any friends, make one, so you can tell them about it. And if not, just go to wherever you get your podcasts, or if you don't know how to do that, go to www.Achesonbusiness.com, and you can download it from there. But thanks, everybody. We appreciate it. We'll see you next time. See you next week. Thank you.