Mike Hammes Wins Lifetime Achievement As RAM Construction Celebrates 30 Years
Construction is in Mike Hammes’ DNA. Always fascinated by massive equipment, at age 12 he started working for a couple of uncles in the business, cleaning up construction jobsites, picking up debris, learning to drive a backhoe. “They were feisty old guys,” Hammes says now of those relatives. That occasional work evolved into weekend jobs, then summer jobs, then an apprenticeship to an electrician. Ever curious about how big stuff gets built, in the early years he worked a myriad of jobs, learning every skill he could.
He also learned what he didn’t want. In this rough-and-tumble industry, he was hollered at, called names, and now and then, belittled. He promised himself, if he were ever in authority, he wouldn’t do that. Now, as owner and CEO of RAM Construction, with 70 employees and annual sales of $50 million to $60 million, he’s known for employees who stay, and for encouraging them to prioritize family. He’s known as a community-builder, as evidenced by the awards from various organizations, of which the Whatcom Business Alliance’s Lifetime Achievement Award is the latest. One real-estate company called him a titan in the industry. Hammes is uncomfortable talking about all this, even less so being interviewed. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, but this is a rare opportunity, and I am grateful,” he said.
All this hasn’t come without cost. More on that later. But first, let’s look at how that 12-year-old created what became RAM Construction.
How it Grew
RAM Construction designs and builds commercial buildings and civil infrastructure, and performs site development, environmental clean-up, and industrial demolition. Clients include public and private entities. Jobs go up to $100 million. It varies, year to year, whether government or commercial jobs bring in the most revenue.
As a young adult working construction, Hammes was sometimes part of the “swell,” meaning hired by a company that had landed a big project, then let go when the project ended. That upheaval didn’t sit well with his desire to marry and start a family, so he joined the fire service full-time, for the city of Redmond in 1993, then for Bellingham in 1997. He kept his nascent construction company going but pushed it to the side. “I was good to the citizens, but my commitment to the fire department was holding me back from large construction projects,” Hammes said.
Still, he kept at it, doing both jobs through the ‘90s. He was RAM’s only employee, managing just about everything, carrying around a little 10-column checkbook for accounting. On one notable day, Feb. 6, 1995, he received his state business registration for RAM Construction; took delivery of his first excavator; and with wife Wendy welcomed their first child, a daughter. Wendy joined RAM that year, taking over accounting and administration.
Life became a blur of busy-ness, working seven days a week for years. One Sunday evening, needing to prep a construction site before heading to the fire department next morning, Hammes was driving that Hitachi 200 excavator as Wendy, nine months pregnant with their second child, was out front shooting grade (using a laser to measure elevation, for drainage and foundation placement). Their toddler daughter was asleep in the cab of the excavator, tucked into a snug little shelf, asleep on her dad’s Carhartt jacket.
“Wendy and I made sacrifices, so our employees today don’t have to,” Hammes said. “I thought then, if I’m ever fortunate enough to be managing people, I wouldn’t want that for them. Now we can prioritize family and extend that to everyone.
“I am in that position now. I want to provide the opportunity to do things with your child, your spouse, then come back and work. All of us, we’re smart, we work our butts off, we work hard so we can have a flexible schedule.”
But back then, as the millennium dawned, Hammes’ two-job conundrum came to a head. His fire department job was constricting his construction work. It was time to choose. The fire department delivered a steady paycheck and public employee benefits, attractive to a man with a family. But he didn’t want to someday look back over his life and think, what if? What might I have accomplished in construction?
Hammes quit the fire department. His chief understood, but added the fire job would not be there waiting for him if he ever wanted back in.
“Chief,” Hammes answered, “even if I fall flat on my face, I’ll be a happy loser because at least I’ll have answered the question.”
So, in June 2000, Hammes ramped up RAM, borrowing millions, buying equipment, hiring employees. His first two hires (not counting himself and Wendy) are still with the company. Forty percent of RAM’s workforce has been there 10 years or more; 60 percent has been there five years or longer.
“When you know your workforce, you can leverage risk,” Hammes said. “Construction can be a high-risk business, with trucks on the road, heavy equipment, working deep in the ground or extra high on a building. But we have a workforce that’s been here a long time, we trained them, we know their capabilities. We can start to look at more interesting projects, I can push our boundaries, they’re eager for the challenge. That’s what I mean by leveraging risk. That’s how we grow the company.
“We don’t do ‘swell,’ meaning take on a big project, hire 200 people, then lay them off when the project’s done. We’re specific and intentional about what we go after. When we hire, you can count on being here for a long time if that’s what you choose.
“That creates career positions. We see young single employees get married, have babies, buy houses, raise children, become empty nesters. It’s rewarding to be part of that.”
Speaking of employees, it’s their safety that keeps Hammes up at night. “Our safety director has an unlimited budget,” Hammes said. “Every employee has my cell number. If they disagree with their supervisor, if they can’t get resolution, call me, I’ll come.
“I tell employees, have the courage to speak up. I tell supervisors, have the humility to listen. Nothing is more important than all of us going home at day’s end. It goes way beyond the hard hat and safety vest. Do you feel you can dream, plan for your future? Are you making your coworkers feel safe?”
Part of that springs from Hammes’ fire-department background of responding to industrial accidents. “Once you’ve witnessed that, you have a greater sense of responsibility for the people in your care.”
Hand in hand with safety is treating employees kindly, Hammes said. That too is buttressed by his memories of early jobsites. “When you’ve been treated aggressively, you can perpetuate it or break the cycle. I don’t allow it. I say, be the supervisor you wish you had. I’ll give you everything you need to do that.”
Despite making safety priority number one, humans sometimes make choices that put themselves at risk, Hammes said, and that remains a source of stress. Even during the pandemic, with money flying out and nothing coming in, with the workforce divided about government mandates that changed weekly – it was stressful but manageable. “The scariest part, the part I can never outrun, is: Are our people safe?”
The pandemic wasn’t the worst. During the Great Recession, Hammes was suddenly once again working two jobs, consulting for local governments during the day to generate revenue to pay his construction company’s office staff, managing RAM at night, and wondering if his company would survive. “I didn’t want to fail personally, but I really didn’t want to fail for the families who were counting on me, who had mortgages, kids in school. I take that seriously. It comes at a price.” In October 2010 at age 43, he wound up in the hospital with a heart attack.
But that’s in the rear-view mirror now. This year, RAM celebrates 30 years in business. Hammes said he’s proud of surviving and thriving, proud of honoring obligations, proud of contributing to the community, proud of his family-oriented company. It’s good to look back; it’s good to look forward. As Hammes said, “It’s been a great ride, and it’s not over.”mmes said, “It’s been a great ride, and it’s not over.”
