The Holidays will Never be the Same for Beacon Roofing Supply in Austin, Texas

By Heidi J. Ellsworth, RCS Partner

Management helps employees find time for a special Mother’s Day gift.

We recently saw a very cool Facebook post about how the Austin, Texas branch of Beacon Roofing Supply helped their employees celebrate Mother’s Day.  In fact, when talking with Branch Manager, Chelsea Oesch, we found out this may be the start of a great trend for employee engagement. 

According to the recent Facebook post from Beacon, “Branch Manager @Chelsea Carpenter Oesch knows how busy this time of year can be for Beacon employees, so she's made sure workers at our Austin, Texas branch can show the mothers in their lives how much they appreciate them! Employees can choose from an assortment of greeting cards and bouquets to take home to celebrate their moms! Happy Mother’s Day!”

With hastags of #mothersday2019  #beaconbuilds  #EmployeeEngagement, the post could start a new trend of employee engagement that really shows that the Austin leadership team understands how hard their employees in the warehouses and yards of distribution along with the loaders and drivers work every day.

“I was thinking about what I would like as a wife or mom from any of the hardworking guys in our company and I thought I would love for them to bring me home a bouquet of flowers or a card,” smiled Oesch.  “I know I would love it, but I also know how busy our guys are often working 12-hour days, they just don’t always have the time to stop for the extras.”

So, Chelsea and her leadership team of women decided to help them out.  They went out and purchased bouquets and cards and had them on a table for employees working in the yard, warehouse or driving could pick up and take home.  “One of our guys had never given flowers to his wife and this was very exciting for him.  It really hit home for all of us,” noted Oesch.

"It has allowed us to get closer to our team.  They get to go home with gifts and look like all-stars.  It helps us grow employee engagement,” she continued.  “We all spend more time at work then at home, so this is a nice way to send a little love home.  It goes above and beyond monetary.  As we say, ‘The grass is greener where you water it, so we are always watering our grass.’”

The Austin branch’s management team is made up of all women and they wanted to do this for the guys working outside every day.  “The fun part is once we did this, some of our inside sales guys returned the favor and brought candy into the office for all the moms,” smiled Oesch. 

Now Chelsea is thinking about Father’s Day, and the team should be looking for something yummy coming their way.  But it is more about the team engagement, caring and really looking at working together in a fun and different way that drives her.  The branch regularly also does charitable team activities that they call Beacon Gives.  So far, they have packed food boxes at Central Texas Food Bank, adopted families at Christmas and are planning on putting together Back to School back packs in August.  All of these activities are building an unstoppable team that is focused on retention and engagement.

For more information about joining Beacon Building supply visit www.beaconbuilds.com.