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In 1972, Ivan Garman built his first home and founded the Garman Builders Foundation. Even though he’s minding his own business, his focus is making sure his team is taken care of.
More than 50 years later, Garman Builders is co-owned by Jason and Shawn Garman, sons of the late Ivan Garman, who continue to fulfill their father’s promise to create an ever-evolving environment that meets the needs of his employees.
For Jason Garman, who is also president of the construction and land acquisition division, there is a sense of continuous improvement in the office. This dedication to improvement is one of the reasons the family-owned company was named to the Best Workplaces survey for the first time this year, ranking 20th among employers with 125 or fewer employees.
“It’s a moving target,” Garman said. “We’re always chasing it. … It’s trying to leverage HR to connect with people, connect with other companies, connect with different survey firms and get information and constantly connect with our team to understand what’s needed next. To master this.”
Garman said he witnessed this as a child, when his father always found jobs for employees during slow construction periods.
“He always cared about his employees or team members,” Garman said. “He knows how important it is to not only have a good job, but a stable job.”
Director of Administration and Human Resources Rebecca Rupley said being named a Top Workplace speaks volumes about Garman Builders’ efforts to put employees first.
“It speaks volumes about what we’ve been doing over the years to make this a great place for our team members,” Rupley said. “[To] Make it a place where people want to work and feel comfortable. “
Rupley said Garman Builders places a strong emphasis on conducting surveys to receive feedback and find ways to improve the overall employee experience. In recent surveys, one word is often used to describe Gaman culture: “care.”
“This makes us very happy because this is our fundamental core value,” Rupley said. “I like that we care about our team as a whole, not just as employees. I think that really makes a big difference.”
Core values are an integral part of Garman Builders’ success, she said. Recently, the company redesigned and updated them, something Rupley is very proud of.
“Last year, we sat down and went through an extensive process of figuring out how to update these values so that they were truly practical and usable in everyday life, and we rolled them out in small groups throughout the company,” Rupley said. What I love about this launch is that we spent a lot of time with the team figuring out their own personal core values before we understood the company’s core values.”
The most important change, she says, is that more substantive values are better defined and shared equally among leadership and teams.
“For example, one of our previous values was ‘Creativity – the enjoyment of innovative craftsmanship that results in unique functionality and unique designs.’ While we still value creativity and innovation, our new values ‘We are committed to Excellence” embodies each employee and the role they play in our collective success, regardless of their position within the company. We often ask employees to recognize colleagues who live these values every day. This allows us to integrate our shared values into our daily lives in a more meaningful way,” she said.
Jason Garman says this level of employee care is one of the key differences that sets Garman apart from its competitors. He said these employees give the company what he calls the “Garman advantage.”
“I think if we had to let go of our employees, that would be the hardest thing to recover from,” Garman said. “I mean, I think you can take a financial hit. I think you can take a product hit. But I think if you lose key people, good people, it’s going to be hard to recover.”
Garman said the best people in the company are not just the people on the payroll, but also their “subcontractors, subcontractors, suppliers.” [and] Professional relationships. “
Working at Garman Builders was out of the question in a growing workforce, he said.
“We’re not going to be a top workplace tomorrow if we continue to do the exact same thing we’re doing today,” Garman said.
Figuring out what’s important to the Garman Builders team comes from their open-door policy, which Rupley says is key to improving work life.
“A lot of places say they have an open-door policy, but here we really mean it,” Rupley said. “We want feedback; we want to be a listening ear. We want to continue to improve the employee experience.”
Serving as a listening ear allows companies to improve work-life balance, including personal time, flexible work schedules and vacations, Garman said. “If you’re not trying to get better now, you’re already falling behind.”
“[When I] To see the whole thing evolve and see where we’re going, I think it’s great,” Garman said. “It’s great to see what team members and employees are achieving today compared to the ’70s…the ’80s and the ’90s.”
Joe Eckstein is a freelance writer.
Garman Builders
No. 20 Small Employers
Established: 1972
ownership: private
department: Building Construction
employee: 97
website: garmanbuilders.com
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