Hiring Great People

Bakeris Roofing takes steps to ensure that we’re hiring the best people. First of all, employees should be willing to take a drug test, they should have a valid driver’s license, and they should expect to have a background check performed on them. We do these things simply because as a homeowner, we want the security of knowing that the person visiting our house is of good character.

There are many prospective employees that do not have a valid driver’s license, but they do have a clean background. We will not rule them out, per se, but we will obviously hire someone with a license over someone without one.

It is a welcome challenge for us to find employees that meet our standards here at Bakeris Roofing. Sometimes, people apply thinking that they will not have to work year-round because of the type of industry this is. This isn’t the case here—out of four years, there has been about a month and a half total that employees have not been busy at work. During the wintertime, we do metal roof installations (we prefer not to do asphalt roofing due to the cold weather). We also conduct regular training in our shop during the times that we cannot go outdoors.

Bakeris Roofing offers employees medical insurance, where the company will pay for half of the person’s single plan. (While we won’t pay for their family plan, they still have it as an option.) We also offer a simple IRA, where the company matches 3% of the gross amount put into the account. (Employees must receive a W-2 form before having this option available to them).

We also pay for seven holidays every year—these are the six normal holidays plus the person’s birthday. We give everyone one week vacation after they have been here for six months. In addition to that, we have a fairly flexible schedule. Family is very important to Jeff and the Bakeris Roofing team. If there are any family issues, or something important is going on, we make sure that the employees are able to take part.

Bakeris Roofing has a maintenance program called the Overhead Care Club. All employees are able to sell memberships to the club. As an incentive, for every year of service that they sell, we put $10 into a little bank that we then give in December for holiday money or whatever else they would like to use it for.

The company has team events such as bowling or golfing, and we even have occasional dinners. For Christmas this past year, we had a catered candlelight dinner here at the office with fancy tablecloths and china. We even have contests and games like charades and Heads Up. Heads Up is an iPad game where one person has to guess the topic while the other person acts it out.

These kinds of activities get everybody on the team comfortable with each other. During the workday, there isn't often an opportunity to talk about family and personal lives. These events give people a chance to connect on a more personal level.

Finally, we have meetings twice a week where we try to involve employees with engaging activities. At a minimum of once a month, we have hands-on training. We also have additional training for personal growth. We attend expos for Success Group International (SGI), and employees are given the opportunity to go, usually once every year. We send them to places like St. Louis or Arizona to roofing industry trainings that help them to feel comfortable talking with the customer or to get better at selling repair or maintenance service.

If you would like to find out more about how we hire great people to work with us here at Bakeris Roofing, give us a call at (515) 967-8199.