Get on Track

Remodelers often say that they “hire to retire” and “promote from within.” Employees already in the fold know the company's systems, and require less training in the new position than someone from outside would. That means a smoother transition when a position does open up, saving time, money, and aggravation.

For the most part, employees would welcome the opportunity to move up the career ladder. They'd make more money, face interesting new challenges, and develop new skills.

“It's very important to show that the company is interested in [employees] as individuals,” says Jay Jamrog, senior vice president of research at the Institute for Corporate Productivity, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Jamrog adds that people want to feel “employable,” noting that they “can't trust a company to give [them] a job for life.”

So if remodelers would prefer that their employees advance within their company, and the employees would like to develop within the organization, why do so few remodelers have plans in place to facilitate this?

It may simply be that many are too small. “Where can you go?” asks Susan Pierce, co-owner of Commonwealth Home Remodelers, in Vienna, Va., where there are two categories of field employees: carpenters and project managers. “There are no ranks to move up.”

It's a fair argument. Unlike, say, the U.S. Army —which may very well be the best example of how career tracks work — small companies with just one or two employees won't have the same ladder of advancement that a larger company will, and even medium-sized organizations, like Commonwealth Home Remodelers, often don't have much variety in their field positions.

In the former case, Shawn McCadden, REMODELING columnist and onetime remodeling company owner, concedes that those remodelers with very small staffs will have to employ people who aren't interested in “moving up,” or resign themselves to the fact that they'll lose employees at some point.

In a medium-sized or larger company that doesn't have a hierarchy of field positions, the goal should be to challenge employees while allowing them to do what they enjoy and are good at. Last summer, Commonwealth Home Remodelers held a series of companywide meetings and determined that a large part of the staff was interested in green design. The company began taking big steps toward becoming more green, and the new focus “breathed new life” into the organization, Pierce says. “Several people stepped up and said ‘Let us learn about it.'”

Jamrog says that employers interested in retaining employees should be willing to help them develop in any career they want. That could even mean helping them go back to school for a career completely unrelated to remodeling. “If someone works for me for five years while going to law school, I have them for those five years,” he says. “You're going to have some turnover — you might as well keep people for as long as you can.”

It may be that building a career track — and the accompanying development plan — is too time-consuming, although those who have put in the time and effort to develop a system for advancement say it's well worth it.

But Tim Faller, president of Field Training Services, in Westerly, R.I., thinks the lack of career tracks in remodeling companies can be traced to the way many owners started their companies. “Most are brought up in the trades,” says Faller, an industry consultant and regular REMODELING contributor. “They treat their employees the way they were treated. The difference is that as people who open their own businesses, they are more driven” and have trouble understanding the employees who don't seem as interested in advancement.

The mechanics of career tracks will vary based on the company structure, but a typical progression would take a person from helper or laborer to lead carpenter or project manager, with appropriate stops along the way. Of course, it's not necessary that employees start at the bottom level, and employees with the necessary skills and interest can begin to move out of the field by becoming a production manager, a hybrid position that combines field and office skills. A few will move out of the field altogether and into the office as a designer, estimator, or salesperson.

Indeed, letting your employees have a say in how they develop is just as important as providing them the opportunity to do so. Jerry Harris, president of Case Handyman and Remodeling of Tidewater and Richmond, in Virginia, says that career tracks are really about job satisfaction. “It's helping an employee reach a level that they want to get to.”

Jamrog agrees. “Career paths depend on the individual,” he says. “They can't be one-size-fits-all.” Different employees will have different career goals that will keep them motivated to not just work, but work at your company. The only way to find out what their drivers are is to ask them. Putting them on a track that they help develop will satisfy them more than one you dictate to them.

To the extent that it's possible, career tracks should have milestones that employees need to reach before receiving a promotion. At Kowalski Construction, in Phoenix, field employees are divided into four levels. To advance a level, employees must demonstrate specific field skills. “It's a win-win situation,” says company president Steve Kowalski. “It's a definitive measure for people who want to better themselves, and the company gets a better employee.”

At Case of Tidewater and Richmond, field crew members on the project management track must collect signatures from their more experienced colleagues in administration, production, and sales that show their competency in those areas. It's an idea Harris adapted from the military. “Once you've gotten all the signatures, you become qualified to sign for others,” he says.

Establishing a career track is only half the battle, however. You'll also need a plan to help employees on their way up through the company.

Santa Barbara, Calif., remodeler Dennis Allen has eight “associates” essentially running their own practices under the company umbrella. They're responsible for all aspects of a project, from budgeting to negotiating with trade contractors to hiring and firing employees. “We don't hire associates,” Allen says. “We hire people who have the potential to be associates.”

Those people join the company as junior associates, and spend a minimum of one year with the company under the supervision and tutelage of one of the associates.

When Allen and the rest of the management team feel that a junior associate has progressed enough to be considered for a promotion — including hitting certain volume and profit targets — the decision is made by a vote among all the associates in the company. “The associates care immensely about the company,” Allen says, “and don't want anybody who they think will be a detriment.”

Despite a different organizational structure, Harris employs a similar strategy, rotating junior field crew members to the supervision of lead carpenters every six months. “They get a variety of experiences from working with different leads,” he says.

At Kowalski Construction, to become a foreman — Level 4 status, for those keeping score — employees must complete a three-to four-month course taught by Kowalski and other experienced members of the team. The curriculum covers everything from technical skills to paperwork to client communication, and includes weekly reading assignments and written tests.

At a minimum, employee progress should be measured annually. Many remodelers conduct evaluations more often than that. Allen reviews his employees every three months, while at Kowalski Construction, supervisors can initiate more frequent evaluations of their charges if they see fit.

Don't underestimate the role that the supervisor — be it yourself as company owner, a project manager, or a lead carpenter — plays in the career development of your new employees. “It's up to the supervisor to be a leader,” Jamrog says. “It's up to them to know the people who are working with them.”

That means knowing which employees need a kick in the pants, and when and how often.

When providing that extra encouragement, don't assume — as most managers do — that the wage increase that awaits at the next level is the carrot for the employee.

Aside from salespeople, remodeling company employees who are motivated mainly by money are rare. That's not to say you can be the lowest-paying remodeler in the area and expect to retain motivated people, but you don't have to be the highest-paying, either, according to Jamrog. “Underpaying will demotivate,” he concedes, but simply “satisfying” with pay is sufficient.

Although most of the movement in a remodeling company occurs in the field, some employees may wish to move into the office. “As someone ages, it's more friendly on their body to hold an office or management job,” McCadden says. Additionally, certain employees may simply be more interested in a design, estimating, or sales career.

This is a trickier move, because field skills won't necessarily translate to the office. The first rule of thumb is to honestly evaluate whether the employee has the potential to succeed in the new position. It's not something that should be done on a whim.

If they do have that potential, however, they can become even more valuable employees. “It's tough to find designers who have remodeling experience,” McCadden says, “never-mind one who can sell, too.”

Be forewarned of the risk involved. Almost all of the remodelers interviewed for this article have had people jump from the field to the office, and the success stories are outnumbered by the failures. And it is even rarer for an employee who fails in the office to successfully move back into his former position in the field.

While a career track won't serve its purpose if your people don't know about it, take care to avoid promising something you can't deliver. Motivating an employee to improve himself only to leave him disappointed when he achieves his goals and still isn't promoted will have the opposite of the desired effect. “I didn't want to make promises right away,” McCadden says. Instead, “our employees understood our organizational chart and that our purpose was to grow.”

A one-page form outlines the guidelines for field career advancement at Atlanta Design & Build, in Marietta, Ga. It gives provisions for how long an employee must stay at a level before being promoted to the next (at least 30 to 60 days) and stipulates that steps in the pay structure can't be skipped. It also notes that employees must request consideration for promotion themselves. “When someone asks me to evaluate them and to make sure they are growing the way I want them to grow, that shows a lot of desire,” says company president H. Dale Contant. “I'm going to pay attention to them.”

This echoes Faller's point about the kind of employees who take advantage of advancement opportunities. “Career tracks motivate people who care, and we want people who care,” he says.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean that you don't want an employee who isn't interested in advancing through the ranks. Many in remodeling are attracted to the industry because they enjoy the craftsmanship part of the job and want to avoid management responsibilities. Force them into a leadership role, and you may end up losing your best people.

One of Kowalski's employees had developed skills to the point where he was ready to take the classes he needed to become a job foreman. However, he had left his previous job in the corporate world because “he had too much responsibility. He was burned out and didn't want any more.” Kowalski recognized the employee's value to the company in his current position, was patient with him, and the employee has recently felt refreshed enough to take steps toward moving up.

Tom Riggs, owner of Riggs Construction, in Kirkwood, Mo., says that he has had a couple of quality employees who don't want the pressure and responsibility of becoming foremen. “They are happy, but they don't get the [considerable] perks,” that would come with the promotion, Riggs says.

It's a choice that employees will have to make for themselves, but as company owner, you should at least nudge them to go forward. On his field crews, Allen has an employee with exemplary technical skills who he's made a concerted effort to get to become a junior associate. The man declined, saying that he didn't want to supervise anyone. Eventually, Allen discovered the problem: The employee, a finish carpenter, had no interest in overseeing people who didn't have the same dedication to craftsmanship that he did. Allen paired him with a younger carpenter who was dedicated to quality, and the senior employee “put in tons of time” training his colleague. There are now four carpenters working under his supervision, and, Allen says, “he's trained them all to be top-flight finish carpenters.”