Building a culture of retention

By Emma Peterson. 

Dive into the key role that company culture plays in building and retaining top talent.  

At the core of the roofing industry are the people who represent and advocate for it. Our businesses are all about serving customers, and a strong, talented internal team is the key to success. But building that team can be hard in an industry that has a seemingly constant labor shortage. To learn more about building and retaining a base of reliable employees, Heidi J. Ellsworth hosted Amy Staska, the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA)’s VP of workforce development; Maureen Greeves, Tremco Roofing’s director of field operations; and Mandy McIntyre, WTI's CM development manager for an episode of Coffee Conversations®. 

Retention is a key part of a successful business. Amy explained, “When people leave, you’re not only losing their specific talents, but you’re also losing money and having to spend more time and energy to recruit a replacement for them.”  

So, how do you build a company that people want to stay at? It’s all about building a company culture that is comfortable and supportive. Amy elaborated, “I'm a huge proponent of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and truly believe that when people feel like they're safe and secure, when they feel like they belong, they're going to be able to work better and they're going to stay.” 

A simple way to start building such a culture i by having individual conversations with employees. Mandy shared:  

A lot of building a culture that retains employees is having one-on-one, face-to-face time, where you touch base with new hires, get to know them as a person and see how things are going. It sounds small, but it really goes a long way to build that psychological safety, build that confidence and build engagement. That is the foundation for a strong culture.  

This is something that Maureen and the team at Tremco are working to implement in their operations. She explained, “Culture starts at the top, and our president James McDonald takes the time to have what he calls ‘James unfiltered calls.’ In these calls he talks to individuals in the company at the field technician/foreman level to hear what’s going on, to know them as people and build that culture that retain people.”  

Want to learn more about building a culture of retention? Tune in to the whole podcast with Amy, Mandy and Maureen!