Better Employees & Antis Roofing - The Cultural Revolution of Latinx

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Investing in your Latinx workers through providing them with leadership training will transform your business.  

In a recent Partner Webinar, Heidi J. Ellsworth sits down with Eduardo Figueroa of Better Employees, and Charles Antis and Susan DeGrassi of Antis Roofing and Waterproofing to discuss the importance of training in the Latinx workforce. Eduardo has worked with Antis Roofing, teaching leadership skills to the Antis team in Spanish. In this webinar, the four talk about why it’s imperative that trainings are conducted in a person’s first language and the difference it makes in employee retention. Charles and Susan also share the tactical and strategic ROI of investing in your Latinx workforce. 

Susan, the vice president of administration at Antis Roofing, oversees HR and organizational development in addition to serving on the National Women in Roofing (NWiR) board along with several nonprofits in Orange County.  

Under Charles' leadership as the founder and CEO of Antis Roofing, the company has grown into one of the most respected roofing companies in Irvine, California.  

Eduardo is the founder and CEO of Better Employees, which was designed to provide employees, supervisors and managers with quality leadership training. Eduardo has 20 years of experience developing business leaders who prefer to learn in Spanish.  

To kick off the conversation, Susan told a story about a field worker who asked for feedback with his leadership and managerial skills. This led to Susan researching training and leadership programs that were taught in Spanish by a native Spanish speaker. To Susan’s disappointment, a program like this was incredibly hard to find. 

“I didn't want a program that was translated or dubbed in Spanish. I want it delivered in Spanish,” said Susan. “Through the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which we are members of in Orange County, we heard about Eduardo and I ended up finding his website and lo and behold, he's in our backyard." 

Antis Roofing hired Eduardo and has already seen the benefits of his training programs in their Latinx team members. It’s well known that the roofing industry is heavily comprised of, and dependent upon, a Latinx immigrant workforce and Eduardo’s trailblazing efforts to increase the support of Spanish-speaking workers through his trainings has the potential to transform the industry. 

“A lot of companies, in all industries, don't realize how important is to develop the soft skills of their employees,” said Eduardo. “And the economic impact of this in the long-term, not only for the company, but also for the families. When a person learns how to communicate better, how to, maybe change their attitude to a more positive attitude, develop their self-esteem, that family gets also the benefits and the company, of course, gets the benefits. [It] creates a positive impact for everybody, even the community." 

Watch the entire webinar to learn more about Eduardo’s Better Employees training programs and how you can better support the Latinx roofing workforce.