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March 4, 2019 BEST PLACES TO WORK IN CONNECTICUT 2019

Shawmut builds culture around values, perks that resonate with staff

(Top) Shawmut volunteering with Habitat For Humanity Connecticut. (Bottom) Shawmut being honored at the 2018 HBJ Best Places to Work event.
By John Stearns

Winner: Large Cos.

Shawmut Design and Construction

CT headquarters: North Haven

Industry: Construction

Website: www.shawmut.com

Twitter: @Shawmut_Builds

Top CT executive: Ken Procino, Regional Director

Talking with Ken Procino, who oversees Connecticut operations for Boston-based Shawmut Design and Construction, it's clear the construction-management company's core values are more than words on paper — they're a way of life.

Shawmut's seven core values — including delivering “world-class client service above all else,” and growing and developing its people to be the best — define the organization, the company's website says, noting its people “are the reason for our success.”

Those people and Shawmut's culture impress Procino.

“Everybody works together, everybody's a family, everybody helps each other out,” Procino said. “It kind of ties back to the culture of Shawmut, where we're all in this together, we all work hard together, we all work for the common goal and we all support each other.”

Being an employee-owned company helps fuel that common interest, said Procino, who joined Shawmut seven years ago and heads the 35-person Connecticut office as regional director in North Haven, one of nine U.S. offices for Shawmut. Private education projects, including buildings at universities like Yale, Fairfield and Hartford, are a key segment for the Connecticut office. It has a 50,000-square-foot, 1,000-seat auditorium nearing completion at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford.

Shawmut's Employee Stock Ownership Program provides each employee annual contributions averaging 12 percent of their salary toward retirement, above and beyond 401(k) contributions.

“We all have the same vested interest … of working hard together, doing a good job together, completing our projects so our clients are happy so they come back to us,” Procino said.

Another company attribute is encouraging employee growth, he said.

“They really help their people grow and grow quickly and give them the opportunities to be able to show our talents and to support us,” he said.

Shawmut also contributed to a program to help develop new construction-management talent out of local high schools through what's called Construction Management Enhanced Training, or COMET. Shawmut was among construction managers asked to help design and teach the free, six-month program provided by the Meriden nonprofit, Construction Workforce Initiative 2 Inc.

Two COMET graduates from the inaugural class of 2018 are working locally at Shawmut.

“It was definitely a life-changing event, not only for the students, but also for the folks at Shawmut that helped this program,” Procino said.

Finding balance

Procino also appreciates Shawmut's work-life balance initiative, one of many ingredients comprising an attractive work package guided by doing right.

“We have a lot of pride in our work and we have a lot of pride in our name and we always do the right thing for ourselves and for our clients and for our trade contractors,” Procino said.

Hector Bermudez, a Shawmut project manager in Connecticut in his 10th year with the company, appreciates the flex scheduling for his young family. Shawmut Flex allows employees to flex their time, condense the work week and telecommute.

“Shawmut has done a great job in recent years of implementing that,” Bermudez said, adding it reflects company leaders listening to employees.

When announced in 2016, a Shawmut official called flex options in construction “unheard of.”

“We found a way to make it work for everybody,” Bermudez said.

He called Shawmut a much different company today than when he started.

“I think that's a testament of how much time and effort the leadership puts into constantly looking to improve and do better,” Bermudez said. “

Shawmut welcomes ideas from employees and rewards them for those implemented, he said. The company also engages employees on “Feedback Fridays,” when teams provide everything from constructive reminders for improvement to recognition, Bermudez said.

Other benefits include: iPhones for employee use; help paying postsecondary education costs; payment of 100 percent of medical premiums for employees; an annual awards ceremony; annual summer barbecue; regular social hours; and monthly birthday parties.

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