SmartRoof, Inc. - Growth-Oriented, Continuously Improving General Contractor
Pros
* Young, "hungry" team of Millenials that habitually work around the normal 9-5 operating hours in order to keep up with projects in their queues. * EXPLOSIVE company growth * Company-wide incentives-trips, bling, pro-dev, "Smarch Madness" tournament brackets for Sales Reps & Project Mtg Reps resembles NCAA "March Madness". Camaraderie amongst teams/individuals-regular outings. Teams intentionally include new personnel & make them feel welcome. Managers understand family situations; allow employees to arrive earlier in order to leave earlier to beat D.C. traffic and pick up children of split-family homes. Scheduling Department, Accounts Receivable, Project Management, Sales Dept very good at what they do and personable, professional. Employees who get their own roofs/gutters etc replaced receive significant discounts. Installation happens within a few weeks of the Project Meeting. *Sales Reps handle objections well and aren't deterred by Homeowners who have initially had their claims denied by Carriers for full approval (or even at all), especially when rival general contractors have previously cited 80% (or higher) confidence levels of approvals for full replacement. *Jeremy Minnick is an excellent communicator and does an excellent job with the recruiting/marketing, interviewing employees, and providing feedback to candidates, while even passing on that feedback to others in a transparent, timely and straightforward manner. Jeremy is an active listener and asks the right questions, exercises sound judgment. Various department heads, family relatives are friendly, approachable, and are seeking to improve.
Cons
*Noisy work environment. Employees come in on their telework days, creating additional noise. *Unprofessional at times-some employees do a poor job of maintaining composure after calls with Adjusters/Carriers/Homeowners, which is evident by their emotional outbursts and profanity. *Unrealistic expectations- not possible to "touch" 50 separate projects in a 9-5 workday. Lengthy phone calls with Adjusters, Insurance Carriers, Homeowners, appear necessary at times in order to resolve issues concerning Original Estimates vs. Supplemental Estimates and move the project out of the Supp Dept. to the Proj Mgmt team. Granted, an Estimate Coordinator may "touch" a project by leaving a voicemail or sending an email, but this is stressful *Subjective, ambiguous guidance on telework. 90-day initial probationary period. Supposedly 2 days, and everybody progresses differently, but there should still be some sort of written metric. *No method in-place to "wash-rinse-repeat" Estimate Coordinator training. Essentially a slide deck and shadowing team members for 1-2 weeks. By now there should be a codified system in-place. *Starting April 2022, Estimate Coordinators will have to wait until project is completed (which could take another 8-10 weeks after Project Meeting is set) to see the 2% commission based on the supplemental value they add to any given Original Estimate. *My 3 in-person interviews focused on the ability to negotiate and resolve conflict. However, the company didn't negotiate at all during salary negations, even when I cited Bureau of Labor Statistics showing 7.9% inflation in just the first few months of 2022, and the fact that that I'm declining all company-provided health care benefits. Also stated that the company would receive up to $9,600 in tax credits just for hiring me as a Veteran. *Management claims to be open to suggestions, process improvements, yet this was just not true in my own case. *Ensure the briefers/facilitators have reviewed their content and have rehearsed their talking points before "going live" with the company employees. Full-time employees have to make up for the time away from their workstations somewhere, and have increased anxiety when attending a pro-dev session where it's evident that the Principal and subsequent presenters/facilitators have not adequately prepared. This includes having the data beforehand, interpreting it, and working through any IT contingencies. Again- time is money.