Although Zach Snider focuses on fulfilling the typical goals every residential construction principal has, such as building durable structures and providing an enjoyable client experience, he also puts a strong emphasis on creating a meaningful workplace for his employees.
Snider is the co-founder of Alloy Architecture and Construction, a residential remodeling firm recognized as a Remodeling Big50 company this year and the recipient of a multitude of design awards. A licensed contractor, he runs the 13-staff business with his architect partner, Dan Zimmerman, in Charlottesville, Va.
Beginning in his hometown of Morgantown, W. Va., Snider graduated from West Virginia University’s School of Forestry with a bachelor’s of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism. From there, he worked for a Vermont-based sustainable logging company, where he cut trees. He grew an interest in building homes and thus moved to Charlottesville in 2001 to work for a contracting firm. After about five years, Snider met Zimmerman and soon thereafter started Alloy in 2007.
Driving up to Alloy’s office, one can tell it’s a fun environment just from the exterior, painted bright orange and dark gray. The office boasts a variety of new and reused materials, sustainable technologies, and personal touches. From the shower in the bathroom that encourages bicycle commuting to composting for its on-site vegetable garden, the firm aimed to create an environment where anyone could be comfortable.
Snider’s focus on employee experience was a primary reason for his selection as a finalist for the 2017 Fred Case Remodeling Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
“I spend a lot of time thinking about how to encourage good performance and capture discretionary effort from my staff,” Snider says in his award application. “Since retiring my hammer and picking up the spreadsheet, there are many days when I miss the hands-on satisfaction, but I have grown to love the challenge of managing this remodeling company.”
Tracking and Rewarding
In 2013, Alloy started using CoConstruct, a project management software and now a key element in the firm’s client interface. When team members begin a project, they create a dashboard that displays schedules, specifications, and financials for all parties involved. The value of the program was clear, but Snider encountered an issue: There were too many overdue items in the system.
“When we started using [CoConstruct], it became evident to me that the value of it is diminished if not everyone is engaged,” Snider says. “So, how do I encourage my staff to engage with the system?”
After reading books on business management, he remembered a college psychology class where he learned about B.F. Skinner and how positive reinforcement creates desired behaviors.
Snider created a spreadsheet and point system to track the key elements within the program and general business operations his employees were expected to record daily, such as timesheets or job log entries. If his employees volunteer or pass an exam for higher certification, the team gets more points toward their weekly total.
In the last quarter of 2013, Snider started tracking his employees' performance, unannounced, to create a baseline. In April 2014, he told his employees he was going to begin tracking their performance and provide an incentive if goals were met. The incentive: taking off early on Friday for some adult beverages and snacks.
Plus, Snider added the opportunity to participate in a “swarm,” where all Alloy staff takes the day off to spend time working on an employee’s personal project, once they have 12 Friday celebrations. Examples of “swarms” include removing a deck for a planned addition or putting a roof on a newly-purchased house.
“It not only gets something done for someone that needs it, it’s an awesome team-building and group fun experience,” Snider explains. “It’s good for morale, cohesion, and everyone looks forward to it.”
After implementing the tracking and reward system, the percentage of overdue items in CoConstruct declined from as much as 30% in early 2014 to 13% or lower for the remainder of the year.
Staff Incentives
In a program enacted fairly recently, Snider uses a reward incentive to get his staff to pay more attention to budgets by sharing the firm’s grippage with employees.
The inspiration for the program was sparked by a conversation Snider had with one of his lead carpenters. The carpenter informed Snider that he was most likely going to exceed the labor budget on his task. When Snider responded that “it would be great to find a way to stay within the budget,” the carpenter just shrugged.
After careful review of past project data, Snider found that Alloy’s average slippage was about 30%. The new initiative, implemented in the beginning of 2017, says if a project comes in under budget, the grippage will be divvied up 50/50 between a firm savings account and the employees who worked on the project. Each employee is given a share of the 50% based on the hours that they put into the task.
“There’s nothing punitive about this; even if you blow the budget, you still get paid,” Snider says. “We are not chipping away at your paycheck if don’t do the job, but if you do a good job, you get a bonus.”
The average slippage on projects has remained constant through this year, but there have been a few projects come in significantly under budget. Overall, Snider has seen his staff more engaged with the budget. On the architecture side of the business, the firm has seen improvement. The average slippage for architecture work has decreased to about 15%.
By creating these types of programs for his employees, Snider is also serving his customers. “Our thought is that it is easier to make happy clients when our team is skilled, productive, and happy working,” says Snider. “So, indirectly our employee-focused programs help us to do better for our clients, too.”