Training and Education Opportunities for Every Employee

RCS Influencer Pete Harding says workers who perform one of the most dangerous jobs in the world deserve the best from their employer. 

Editor's note: Listen to the interview to hear what Pete Harding has to say about creating a company culture of support, engagement and fun.  

Megan Ellsworth: Hi, my name is Megan Ellsworth, and this is the April influencer topic here at RoofersCoffeeShop®. And today I have Pete Harding with me. Hi Pete. 

The April 2021 influencer question is, "What unique or new benefits do you have for your employees?" 

Pete Harding: Well. Unique. I would say, we give a massive bonuses away every Christmas, but everybody does that. Training. Train, train, train. Whatever you want to learn, I will pay for it. If you want to go back to college, give me your college. We'll help, but it has to be applicable towards the roofing trades, right? So if you want to become a better project manager, I'm sure that some of the construction project management is doing well in college and the junior colleges around here, so if they want to go at night, we'll help paid for that. It depends. 

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome. 

Pete Harding: If it's like, "Oh, I'm going to go become a plastic surgeon. Can you pay for that?" No, but if it's applicable towards the blue collar trades and it can help the company, I'm down, whatever. We have the normal benefits any large national company has because number one, it's the employees. 

I didn't build the company. I had a dream. I wrote a dream down. I went after it. And I surrounded myself with people who are way smarter than me. So I need to do that constantly. We have mentoring programs. We have training programs. I bring in college students that, what's the word? I forget what they call it... A training program, and I start them off with simple cold calling to train them for sales. So, if they have a marketing degree or a business degree or something, and they come in and I train them on the madness that I've done to get to this point and basically how to talk the smartest people you know into hanging out with you. 

I constantly think about that. How can I help everybody here? Because I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I also have courage. I know failure very well. I know suffering very well. So all I needed to do was be able to get the smartest people around me. And if I can attract them from the colleges and all the young people who may think, "I want to be a computer programmer. Roofing's not for me." Or something different that I can give them to be, to come in for a while and do an internship here and go out. There is a lot of possibility. I do get to cruise around all over the place. I get to meet tons of different people, tons of very interesting people. 

Then I will figure out a way to do it, and that's what I want. We have great benefits. We have huge Christmas parties. We give tons of Christmas bonuses away, tons of presents. It's a family affair. That's why this company was started because I was sick of being a tool and being looked down on at other companies. Those other companies showed me exactly how not to do it. So I'm like, "I'll just do it this way." So any of the guys out in the field, they want to try their hand at sales. Sure. Come on in. I'll train them because sales training can benefit you in so many different ways just in life. 

Megan Ellsworth: For sure. 

Pete Harding: So training and education is huge. It's the number one. Well, safety, of course, but talking about benefits. Training, and education, whatever they think of, there is no bad idea and I will help them in some way. 

So during this little bit of slow time, that's when I bring in all the manufacturers, all the machine operation companies to train us on new and better ways to do things. 

Megan Ellsworth: Love it. 

Pete Harding: And I wouldn't say it's new or innovative. I think everybody's probably doing it on... I call it the LinkedIn level for contractors. I don't think there's a shoddy contractor on LinkedIn because these are very articulate, very educated people on LinkedIn for roofing companies. I think we're all probably doing all the same stuff, maybe with a little different tweak on it. You know, reinvesting in our people who have actually built the company is paramount. That's it. 

Megan Ellsworth: So true. Well, thank you for sharing what you're doing in this new year with all the new things, and I love that you put employees first and it's just a big family. So thanks, Pete. 

Pete Harding: You got to. Like I always say, we're doing the [inaudible 00:06:20] dangerous job in the world. I mean, United States. You got to make it worth it. You can't expect somebody to risk their life every day and be a jerk to them. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. 

Pete Harding: That doesn't make sense. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. Completely. 

Pete Harding: Our company is all about the employers, all about family and all about the employees. So, that's all I got. You guys are the best. Thank you so much. 

Megan Ellsworth: You're welcome. Thank you. 

Well, this has been the April influencer topics with Go Green Roofing, Pete Harding. And I will see you in May for the next topic discussion. 

Pete Harding: Can't wait. 

Megan Ellsworth: Woo hoo. All right. Thank you so much. 

Pete Harding: Thank you. 

Pete Harding is the founder of GoGreen Roofing. Learn more about them here.