O&G Industries celebrates centennial with community
When O&G Industries set out to celebrate a century of doing business in 2024, Vice President Brad Oneglia said the leadership at the family-owned company realized that the only celebration worthy of its hundred years would be one that also celebrated the people who made it possible.
“The community and the people that go to work for us every day – presently here, and those that helped get us here in the past – it was really about recognizing them and the communities,” Oneglia said. “Without them, we wouldn’t have made it 100 years, and they deserve special thanks.”
From that notion, the Centennial Charitable Giving program was launched – an initiative that aimed to capitalize on O&G’s reputation in the community by allowing employees to vote and select the charitable organizations the company would partner with.
That program’s high level of success and employee engagement led to O&G winning NAPA’s 2024 Community Involvement Award.
COMMUNITY CALLING
Oneglia said what emerged was a two-pronged approach to caring for the community, with the first aspect of the program focused on financial giving.
Board members and the family leaders proposed a slate of different charities, then let the employees vote on how the funds should be prioritized. The giving was prorated based on the voting results, allowing worker input to determine where the greatest needs could be met.
“We tried to focus on more local organizations,” Oneglia said. “Connecticut is where we do the vast majority of our work. It’s where most of our employee base comes from, and our customers, and we felt it important to keep the money locally within our geographical area.”
The second phase of the Centennial project focused on the communities where the company has had a longstanding presence, like providing 100 days of operations budget for a shelter serving food to the needy in Stamford just around the corner from one of their multi-plant facilities.
“We felt like we wanted to focus on some of the communities where we have permanent facilities as opposed to one-off jobs,” he said, noting that besides O&G’s asphalt plants, they have concrete plants, masonry showrooms, and would probably be considered the largest school-building company in the state. “If you build a highway in Connecticut, you’re going through multiple towns. That’s a one-off deal, but some of our locations, Torrington is an example – we’ve been there 100-plus years.”
He also said that other facilities have been in place for four to even six decades.
“And those are the communities that we interact with on a regular basis that we felt an obligation to give back to – the people that have supported us over the years.”
“It’s not just about getting your name on the banner and the logo on the program, it’s about supporting the community.”
– Brad Oneglia, Vice President, O&G Industries
ASPHALT AMBASSADORS
Workers were used to giving back through the company’s sponsorship and participation in road races, charity walks, stair-climbing events, and other local events, but Oneglia said channeling their community support through new channels had an unexpected benefit.
“When you go and participate in a trash pickup along a river with a few of your employees, those employees are now interacting with people that maybe they didn’t interact with before. They are telling the story of our company and the work that we do and the jobs that we provide and the benefits we bring to a community,” he said. “So instead of somebody seeing a quarry, or an asphalt plant, or a concrete plant, or getting stuck in traffic on a road job, now maybe some of the public is tying that to ‘I know why they’re out there at night now.’ It allows the company to tell the story of the industry, not just the company.”
Oneglia said telling that story is one that some road construction companies have shied away from in the past but added that he is noticing a shift.
“I would go so far as to say most of the companies involved in our industry have always given back to the communities they’re involved in, but they do it without a lot of fanfare, and they do it without looking for a thank-you,” he said. “They do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
Oneglia said social media and public relations have led more companies to embrace their storytelling opportunities, along with workforce pressures.
“It’s not just about getting your name on the banner and the logo on the program, it’s about supporting the community,” he said. “And by actually going out and doing the boots-on-the-ground work, it provides that added benefit and employees feel good when they work for a company that supports their wishes to go do those types of activities.”
In the end, Oneglia said the community engagement, 100 years in the making, was about celebrating the fabric of the Connecticut community and O&G’s long history of connecting the state through roads and schools.
“We have always given back to the various communities in different forms and certain organizations we have continued to support over the years,” he said. “But when it came to our 100th, we definitely wanted to do considerably more than we have ever done in a given calendar year because it was a momentous occasion. The company would not have gotten to 100 but for not only the people within our doors, but for the communities that support us, whether it’s providing team members, providing work, contracts, or customers. And for our employees, while not everybody is there to hand over a check or be there for some sort of turnover with a piece of equipment that we donated, they should all be equally proud because without them, none of this would have been possible.”