It’s 51°F on a January day in Omaha, NE and Randy Kersten is weighing his options on how to take advantage of this break in the weather and squeeze out as much work as possible. Because when your job is outside, you have to strike when the iron is hot. But sometimes the summer temps are brutally hot, calling for constant hydration. While rain can be a respite, flooding is an unwelcome visitor to Kersten’s job site. “I keep tabs on the wind chill factor and air temperatures and we work when we can,” says Kersten. Such is the life of underground utility contractors. Kersten is the second generation to run Kersten Construction, a full-service underground utility contractor started in 1965 by his father, Irvin. His father and mother Lorraine are still involved in the business. His sister DeeAnn runs the office and her husband Kyle also works for the family business. An additional 45 employees form crews that provide services to residential, industrial, and commercial clients in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Services include installing water main installations for the Metropolitan Utilities District, sanitary and storm sewer lines in housing developments, septic tank installation, water and sewer line repairs, and even snow removal. The company also provides precast concrete products, namely manholes and septic tanks. The company runs 12 pieces of machinery, a mix of Doosan Caterpillar, Komatsu, and John Deere products. His family’s business is like any other, Kersten says. “We have our ups and downs,” he points out. Overall, he credits his family with having good communication skills that extend companywide to ensure everyone is on the same page. That’s the benefit of a family business, he says. Ask him what the drawback is and he laughs. “Holidays!” he jokes. As much as possible, the Kersten family endeavors to separate work issues from family issues to keep a healthy balance.
What He Does Day to Day
Kersten does whatever the day calls for: getting a smaller crew out onto projects, helping larger crews on larger projects, ordering materials for projects, and getting the materials together. He does the estimating, bidding, billing, and troubleshooting.
What Led Him to This Line of Work
Kersten grew up in the family business and started operating equipment at age 18. He worked for the family business during summers off from high school and his studies at Metro Community College in Omaha, where he earned a civil engineering and tech degree. Anyone growing up in a family business reaches this juncture—where one decides to either be the next generation managing the business, or pursue another line of work. Kersten enjoyed operating the equipment, loved the challenge, and savored the variety of the work. He loved working with his hands and working outside. He chose to stay on.
What He Likes Best About His Work
“You don’t know what’s going to arise at any given time,” says Kersten. “Every day has its own challenges. I like that.” He also relishes the role he plays in continuing the growth of his family’s business.
His Greatest Challenge
As with so many other companies in the industry, finding qualified employees to replace those who leave presents Kersten with his biggest challenge. There just doesn’t seem to be enough people interested in construction work, he laments. His best employees have always been people with farming backgrounds—they know how to operate machinery and work hard—but as farming picks up in the area, many young people with those skills are opting to stay in food production jobs. Those who aren’t “want to be in technical fields where they’re sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day long,” says Kersten. “It’s a shame, because there is good money to be made in the construction business.” To mitigate the challenge, Kersten is working with the National Utility Contractors Association in Nebraska, which is visiting high schools to promote the trade. “Not everybody is able to make $80,000 a year off the bat, but you can make a good living at this if you’re willing to work hard.”
