Ozark Striping is Made Stronger by Multiple Generations of Employees

A company with a healthy culture will attract and retain good employees, but a company with an exceptional culture will retain multiple generations of talent. The Ozark Striping employee roster is filled with parents, grandparents, adult children, cousins, nephews, and various other family members who all work together.

“We’re just like any other business,” says Chris Jones, President of Ozark Striping. “Sometimes the work is hard and we get frustrated. But at the end of the day, when our employees are encouraging their children to come work here, we’re doing something right.” 

Ozark Striping has become a family business with employees staying with the company for decades and bringing in their relatives to work alongside them. Keep reading to learn why this company is such an asset to Dale County and the entire state of Alabama. 

Ozark Striping Takes on 600 Road Projects per Year

If you have ever driven around Alabama, the odds are high that you navigated a road painted by Ozark Striping. The company stripes highways, roads, and streets across the state. Its footprint starts in Mobile Bay in the south and stretches up to the border of Tennessee, covering everything in between.  

Ozark Striping has more than 50 years of company history and was bought by Frontline Road Safety in May 2022. It boasts more than 150 employees and handles up to 600 projects per year. Some striping projects can be done in a day while others take multiple years to complete.

“Ozark Striping is one of many local businesses in the region that has a significant impact on the state of Alabama,” says Holle Smith, President of the Ozark-Dale County Economic Development Corporation (ODEDC). “Their hard work and dedication help every industry in the state transport materials and goods more easily. They also make the roads better for residents, creating safer driving experiences.”

The devotion of Ozark Striping employees has helped this company grow. Out of the 18 temporary crews and 10 permanent crews Ozark Striping manages throughout the state, many are run by multi-generational workers who learned the business from their parents or grandparents. 

Several Families Work at Ozark Striping 

Ozark Striping boasts an impressive list of employees who have worked at the company for multiple decades and who have brought their children and grandchildren into the business. Over 10% of current employees are either a child or grandchild of a current or former employee. If you include siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and spouses the percentage is over 50%. Chip Graham, son of James Graham (founder of Ozark Striping), retired at the end of 2024 with over 44 years of service.

Another multi-generation employee is Ashlee Taylor, a contract administrator whose mom, Debbie Sharpe, started working at Ozark Striping almost 40 years ago.

“Several people who I grew up with are now working at Ozark Striping with their parents and my mom and I,” says Taylor. “I’m very fortunate that I have a place like this. It’s not just about having a good place to work every day. It’s literally spending time with family.”

Taylor also emphasizes that Ozark Striping helped her mom build a career and she hopes the company will support her in similar ways.

“Ozark Striping means so much to me because it has meant so much to my mom,” says Taylor. “It helped her build a life for herself. I hope that I and other generations to come can feel the same way.” 

Multi-Generational Employees Make Training Easier 

Many of the second and third-generation employees who work at Ozark Striping learned about the industry by watching their parents. They understand what skills their parents have and what core values are important to the company. This means that new hires, when related to other workers, already know what to expect from the job and the workplace culture, which makes onboarding easier. 
 
“Our multi-generational employees have been around our business and exposed to it their whole lives,” says Jones. “They have a greater understanding than someone who just walked in off the street.”

In Taylor’s case, the bus dropped her off at Ozark Striping each day after school. It’s where she studied while her mom worked. She literally grew up in these offices.

One side effect of hiring multi-generational employees is that parents are training their adult children. Jones says the parents can be harder on their kids than a traditional manager would be when working with an employee. Often, this is out of love. They want to see their kids succeed. 

Discover Other Businesses in Dale County 

Ozark Striping has built a thriving business that improves the roads across the state of Alabama while investing in several generations of Dale County residents. It’s just one company that calls this region home and is committed to helping it thrive. Learn more about the other industries in Dale County that are supported by the ODEDC. Your organization can also call Dale County home and build a legacy as strong as Ozark Striping.