Springfield Team training

Employee Training

No one or no company rises to the top without an extraordinary effort. Always being on the lookout for new and better ways is a great way to get to the top or keep climbing. Employee training is the way to keep your company thriving.

Three hurdles need to be overcome. Giving up resources for the training time, risk of losing trained employees, and a willingness to change. It’s an investment for the training but how much do you lose by having a less trained employee do a project?

Once the employee is trained another effort needs to be made to put the new ideas/changes in place, follow through is hard to do. Losing someone you trained should not hold you back from training, the percentage that stays usually out weights the ones that leave and it’s worth the risk to have an all well-trained staff then none.

Re-evaluating your processes can seem to be a waste of time but it’s important to keep updating your systems to pump up efficiency. The best way to learn better or new practices is by watching others—either by classes, webinar, videos, etc.

Employees that are kept in training programs and continue to be motivated by their employers usually stay with their job instead of find work elsewhere.

Providing your employees the opportunity of growth will continue to keep them committed and engaged to being the best!

Source: Professional Roofing magazine December 2013 Elevating Professionalism article by Amy Staska

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Springfield Duro_Last award winners

Duro-Last Honored Springfield with JRB Award

Springfield-2013-JRB-Award-Photo-web_largeSpringfield, Inc., located in Kingsley between Traverse City and Cadillac Michigan, recently was awarded the John R Burt Award at the annual Duro-Last® Roofing conference in Orlando Florida.  This award was based on recognition of outstanding achievement in quality workmanship, customer satisfaction and sales in 2013.  We congratulate all of our employees for their efforts to continue to give high quality results even while confronting the elements of the norhern Michigan weather based on our customers needs.

Complete Duro-Last® Press Release for Springfield Award

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Springfield roofers on sloped roof

2nd Place in National Roofer’s Challenge

roofer-challenge-photo-resizedSpringfield Commercial Roofing places 2nd in National Roofer’s Challenge!

Springfield Commercial Roofing brought home 2nd place in the National Roofer’s challenge held earlier this week in Orlando, Florida. Roofing companies from all over the U.S. enter this competition each year. It is judged by 5 inspectors from Duro-Last Roofing based upon quality roof installation, safety, and speed of completion. Employees from Team Springfield included Joe Graham of Cadillac and Nick Pascoe of Traverse City. The team was coached by Mike Abeare of Fife Lake. Springfield Commercial Roofing is a division of Springfield Inc. and is located in Kingsley!

So proud of everyone on our Springfield Team!

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Springfield hiring roofers

Going Above and Beyond

Commercial Construction Internships in northern Michigan!!!

Are you a college student?  Are you interested in learning about Commercial Construction, Business Management, How to perform Energy Evaluations, and practical hands on business management?  If so, you may be a candidate to be the 2014 Springfield SmartIntern.  Springfield strives to stay on the cutting edge of building renovation, energy conservation, and employs a variety of degreed professionals to serve our commercial clients with the latest and greatest technology while knocking it “out of the park” with customer service.  We are looking for a college student(s) that have similar interests to work with our fantastic team during the summer of 2014.  Get more information by contacting Terri Jo at TerriJo@springfieldsmartroof.com

 

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Springfield sign hiring

Hiring Rates Climb

Springfield welcomes our 7 newest employees and is happy to contribute, in part, to the job creation statistics in Northern Michigan.

Employers were hard at work hiring in November, signaling the labor market’s gradual healing continues.

U.S. payrolls expanded by 203,000, the Labor Department reported on Friday, a total well above the gain of 180,000 economists had forecast.

The jobless rate, meanwhile, dropped to a five-year low of 7.0%. It had been expected to tick down to 7.2% from 7.3% in October.

The report also showed about 8,000 more jobs were added to […] Read More

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Springfield smart flat roof with light pipes

Daylighting Becoming the Trend

We are hearing more and more about Roof Daylighting becoming the new trend for residential and commercial buildings. Springfield specializes in evaluating commercial buildings looking for ways to give our client energy savings. Daylighting is just one of the things we look to suggest if the building environment will benefit from it. The Roofing Contractor magazine recently had an article about daylighting and mentioned how “Roofing Contractors are the best resource for the skill, connections, and long-term presence needed to make the most of that investment.”  We will make sure whether is on an existing roof or a new roof that the warranty is not jeopardized and/or included with the roof warranty. Some of the benefits they mention are:

  • reduces/eliminates artificial lighting during the day
  • tax incentives and utility rebates
  • saves energy and improves productivity/employee satisfaction
  • reduces greenhouse gases, water and air polution

Their article is urging roofing contractors and consumers both to seriously consider daylighting and explains that there is a daylighting system for every roof. To read their article in its entirety click here then call us for your free evaluation for your roofs daylighting project! 888-469-0059

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Springfield health insurance

Affordable Care Act

Springfield renewed it’s Blue Cross health insurance plans in December of 2013 helping our employees be grandfathered in for almost another full year before they are required to enroll themselves and their families in the Affordable Care Act.  A longtime buyer of health insurance for our small (under 50 employees) company, Springfield will remain hopeful that the kinks and bugs in the system will be ironed out during early 2014.  We treasure our employees and enjoy providing health benefits to them and to their families.  We are so thankful for our outstanding team of hardworking men and women.

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Problem Solvers

Springfield offices lost power this past Monday at 6:30 a.m. during our weekly production meeting.  The room filled with 8 managers went from fully lighted to pitch black.  Conversation stopped and the room went silent for for less than 3 seconds when one of our leaders,  Joe Graham, pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and set it in the middle of the conference room table.  The meeting resumed without fanfare and ten minutes later the meeting concluded just as the power came back on.

Springfield has a long history of problem solving – – whether it’s losing power at the office or encountering something unforeseen on a rooftop.  We will solve your problem and we will “git R done”

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Employee Training

A training program for employees seems to be a hard project to get started and to finish.  But should there be really a "completed" date?  Probably not, an ongoing training program for employees in your business should be on the top of your "to do" list.  A recent article in SBAM Focus magazine quoted a business expert by the name of Nido Qubein that said: "The best time to train your managers and employees is when you feel your company is so busy it doesn't have the time to train them." 

Probably most businesses, especially small businesses, would be surprised by this quote but it does make sense after you read the complete article by Tom Borg, "Why You Should Invest In Training Your Team" in the September/October 2013 issue of SBAM magazine.  He gives the example of the Detroit Tigers Baseball Club and all of the trainers they have for each position and that they don't stop training to continue maximize their investment and potential.  This should be the goal for every employee for every business, don't you think?

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Hiring Our Heroes

Please participate in the Hiring Our Heroes Program! 

http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/08/pf/veterans-jobs/index.html

How many of you know of a young man or woman who grew up on the neighboring farm or in your subdivision who joined the military right after high school, serveHiring Heroesd our country and then came home?  We LOVE to hire those young men and women coming home from the service.  We are forever grateful for their dedication to our country and they almost always possess a high level of courtesy, respect and pride in their workmanship.  As a veteran-owned company, Springfield makes special efforts to recruit veterans.  Give us a call – we can help you with your commercial building and your project may even be completed by the kid down the road who is now home from the military.

God Bless America!

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