Fulfillment in Every Job

RCS Influencer Charles Antis says jobs need to be tailored to the individual worker so everyone can succeed at a higher level.  

Editor’s note: Listen to the full interview to hear the results of Antis Roofing’s investment in thoughtful and intentional employee development programs and why they allow employees to bring their pet to work. 

Susan: Good morning, Charles. 

Charles Antis: I thank you for agreeing to join with me on this month RoofersCoffeeShop question, which is what unique or new benefits do we have at Antis Roofing for our employees? So, before I'm going to let you really take the tangibles, I'll speak to the spirit of what we want to do. I want people to come to my roofing company and imagine that this is the best job ever, which means the job's going to be built toward what fulfills them. But there's a lot of things that we have to do to do that. But imagine coming to work at this company and being fulfilled, where you know that everything you do really matters to other people's lives. That's what we want to do. And Susan, can you tell our audience some of the ways that we're able to fulfill that and how, I believe, we have the best culture we've ever had today at Antis Roofing? How do we do that? 

Susan: Well, first I would agree with the culture, and that assessment. And that's because we are very thoughtful and intentional on what we do to grow and develop our people and listen to them. So, one of the things we heard out of the performance review process a few months back was we had leaders, managers, supervisors, in the field that wanted more training and development, not on the technical part of their job, but on the soft skill part of their job. And we found a trainer locally, but he's got a program that's virtual, that's delivered in Spanish. The sessions are once a week. All of the conversations and breakout sessions. Because of course, everything's by Zoom right now, are all in Spanish and they are leading it themselves. They love it. It's a 28-week program. It was a big investment for us as a company. We put a set of 13 employees through the first group and I was so excited about that, to find it, and to roll it up. 

Charles Antis: And Susan, these are mostly immigrant employees, correct? 

Susan: Yes. Never had anything like this before in their life. It's all brand new. And for those of you that have had a lot of training development in this area, you can imagine how that feels. The first time you were taught how to be a more effective leader or how to really listen and communicate. The second thing, that's kind of fun and you championed this, Charles, was about pets. We have a lot of pet owners here. We allow people to bring their pets to work. We have pet insurance. And then we rolled out into our employee handbook that employees could take three paid days off for issues regarding their pet, whether they adopted a pet, there was a death of a pet, and/or a major illness that they needed to be there for with their pet. And that's darn unique. 

Charles Antis: Thank you, Disneyland. Thank you, Disneyland, by the way, for putting that in my ear. 

Susan: That's right. That was one of their ideas. And then the third thing is we do a lot of giving back here and we want our employees to do that as well in whatever way is best for them. So, we offer 16 hours of paid time off to volunteer in the year. And we also do a company donor match, up to a thousand dollars per employee for any personal donation they make to a nonprofit, a 501C3. 

Charles Antis: Yes we do. And we invest. We invest in and by the way, Susan, you have some big passions like the American Red Cross and like the National Women in Roofing. 

Susan: Yep. 

Charles Antis: And we invest in that in your time and, and other spends because we want you to be the best you can be and we want this job tailored for you so this is the best job you've ever had. Now I'm going to ask this question because I think I know the answer, is this your favorite job ever? 

Susan: It really is that I can say that without reservation. 

Charles Antis: This is my favorite job ever too. It truly is. We're a team working together that allowing each other to grow and question everything and how to make it better and be relevant and be heard and make a difference in the community. So thank you, Susan. And thank you for joining us this month on RoofersCoffeeShop. 

Susan: Scene. Bye. 

Charles Antis is the founder and CEO of Antis Roofing & Waterproofing. See his full bio here.