Shawmut Design and Construction, a general contracting and construction management firm, works on a simple formula: Find the toughest jobs with the most horrific deadlines; hire and continuously train smart, creative people; and throw them at the work.
Using this formula, the company put $500 million of construction on the ground across the United States last year. Ron Simoneau, project executive and director of the company’s Rhode Island office, says Shawmut succeeds because it hires capable people and gives them the latitude to use their judgment and push through obstacles.
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“We look for leaders and we foster entrepreneurial skills,” he said. “The employees have the latitude to do whatever they have to do to serve customers. We like to hire people with a lot of drive, and we don’t put restraints on them.”
Headquartered in Boston with offices in Providence and New York, Shawmut was founded in 1982. It now employs about 500 people, including 26 in Providence, and it specializes in institutional, corporate, restaurant and retail projects. Recent work includes renovation of the old Hospital Trust building in Providence as the new Rhode Island School of Design library and dormitory; restoration of Touro Synagogue in Newport; and creation of a large lab for Brown University in the former Speidel building in the Jewelry District. One project famous for its killer deadline was a $9 million upgrade to meet fire codes in Brown dorms in only 11 weeks last summer.
The company’s strength is its employees and the support it gives them. “We hire young people out of college and put them through our CMSP [Construction Management Skills Training] program,” Simoneau said. This three-year program gives new employees a 360-degree view of the construction process over three rotations in project management, project supervision and estimating. “Some of our best employees are developed from within,” Simoneau said.
Training also includes Shawmut University, which offers more than 200 classes, ranging from specific skills of the field to “soft” people management skills. Shawmut is also an employee-owned company with an employee stock option plan. “This helps create an environment of highly motivated people because everyone has an impact on the success of the business,” Simoneau said.
Other benefits include $10,000 annual tuition reimbursement for people pursing advanced degrees pertaining to their work and a back-up child care program in which Shawmut has slots reserved in day care centers for employees caught in a child care jam. “Employees feel the company is looking out for them and their best interests and their future,” Simoneau said. Further, Shawmut will match the private donations that employees make to charities of their choice.
Simoneau said employees’ day-to-day performance drive arises mostly from the atmosphere in the Shawmut workplace. The company’s internal creed is work hard, play hard. An important element the “Shawmut buzz” – is fun. Every Friday afternoon brings a social hour for employees and the company hosts occasional team-building activities, such as a go-cart construction and relay race competition.
Corine Andrade, 29, a project coordinator, moved to Shawmut from another construction company about two years ago. She said had heard that Shawmut cared about its employees, but when she came onboard she discovered the corporate goodwill toward workers was even stronger than she had imagined. “The company sees and notices people who work hard,” she said. “It is good to feel appreciated.” Andrade likes Shawmut’s fully paid medical and dental insurance, as well as the employee ownership aspect because “the hard work we do will come back to us.”
Above all, the benefits of Shawmut await every day just inside the front doors. “I like the feeling and the enthusiasm in the office,” Andrade said. “People are happy to be here.”
