Best Places to Work 2019 | SMALL COMPANIES (15-49 employees):
1. New England Construction Co.
NEW ENGLAND CONSTRUCTION CO. – which turns 35 next year – handles preconstruction, construction management, design and build, and general contracting. Its vast portfolio includes work for companies and organizations such as Women & Infants Hospital, Brown University, Cintas Corp. and the Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket.
The owners of the family-operated company believe in treating their nearly 40 employees and clients like family. From that principle emanates management-driven transparency, mutual respect and strong relationships.
NEC believes in investing in its people – and those who may soon be part of the fold – with a solid internship program. These factors add to company strengths, producing a cycle of benefits and excellent customer service.
And fun is also part of the package.
Founded by David Sluter, NEC now is led by his sons, Matthew Sluter, president and CEO; Ethan Sluter, director of finance; and Steven Sluter, senior estimator. Matthew’s wife, Kim Sluter, is director of business development.
NEC has core values that drive its team: embrace the family; do what you say; do the right thing; be a “can-do” team player; and obsess over client success.
Embracing the family is communicated in many ways. Employee surveys ensure feedback flows freely between team members and managers. NEC puts priority on soliciting employees’ opinions.
“I feel my needs are listened to all the time,” said Rosaliz Torres, an NEC project engineer.
At NEC, interns also have a voice. Interns are trained as if they are future NEC full-timers, carefully vetted and interviewed to ensure they’ll mesh with NEC’s culture. “Four or five people on staff now were interns,” said Marketing Administrator Mike Gorman.
The company has gift items on hand such as NEC baby onesies, to help its employees not only celebrate important milestones in their home life, but to “stay up on what’s going on in the lives of clients,” said Gorman.
The office hosts happy hours, raffles, Easter egg hunts, employee-recognition events, wellness fairs complete with smoothies, chair massages, a gym with weights, treadmills and a meditation area. A basketball hoop is the latest addition to promote employee wellness and camaraderie, Gorman said.
The NEC team also has regular events outside the office, such as PawSox Night, group charity 5K participation, a holiday brunch, and brewery tours and clambakes. Efforts are made to ensure that all NEC employees are included.
“We have about 14 or so superintendents out in the field. … But we do [plan] events where we go to them,” said Gorman. “For our quarterly meetings, job sites are closed on those days so superintendents can attend.”
NEC works to reiterate its core values in its language and actions.
Referring to the “team player” concept, Gorman recalls that the entire office staff pitched in to clear out a supply closet, for example. Colleagues help others who may get bogged down.
Humor is also a part of what bonds the team. NEC produced a video for social media comedically depicting employees quickly scattering – complete with papers thrown in the air – on a Friday during summer when the workday ends at 3 p.m.
Gorman started out working in NEC’s front office, but company leadership saw his potential and moved him into a marketing role.
“It was this idea of growing from within,” he said. “They invested in my training and saw potential in the value I could add.” The move benefited Gorman as an individual, as well.
Last year, he gained a deeper appreciation for NEC and the robust benefits package it offers employees. He was hospitalized for 16 days with pneumonia.
“The insurance protected me financially,” he said.
Not only that, he was visited in the hospital by his team several times, he said, and knew that he was missed.
“It’s why I feel I’ve thrived as a professional, and strive harder,” said Gorman.
Employees in R.I.: 38
President and CEO Matthew Sluter
