The success of any company can be determined by multiple indicators: profit and loss, growth expectancy, employee retention, among others. To be successful in all areas, company’s need a firm foundation.
With more than 75 years of experience in the asphalt industry, BR has established that foundation. To build upon and grow, the company has established a set of essential core values for our employees to live by every day.
To BR, these core values are not just inspiring words, we put them to work and apply them in all that we do.
BR’s Core Values
The BR core values are Safety, Quality, Respect, Integrity and Commitment.
These core values are not only for our current employees, but a guideline for recruiting new employees. The ability for an applicant to show these core values is important to BR in moving them through the hiring process.
Let’s focus a bit on the commitment core value.
Commitment
Commitment is the bond employees share with their organization and with each other. The goal at BR is to make employees feel welcome and ensure they understand how they can play a part in creating a successful company.
Committed employees bring exceptional value to the organization through their support, productivity, determination, reliability, and quality. Commitment shows and can be contagious.
In the asphalt paving world here in Minnesota, the timeframe to complete work is May through early November. This means we have limited time to complete projects for our customers since weather plays a big role in our project scheduling.
Many times, due to rain or cold temperatures, projects can get bumped week to week. It’s just the nature of the beast.
In some cases, a customer may have a very specific time in which our crews are allowed to come in to start or finish our work. This timing can either work in our favor, or be quite favorless.
There are projects where customers own a property and work can only be done on a Saturday. On these projects, our crews work long hours so we can complete the project in just one day.
In other situations, like roadway projects, scheduling can be difficult. Some projects are located on busy stretches of highway with heavy traffic so finding a time to mill and overlay a certain section may mean we start milling at 1:00am and paving at 2:00am. This minimizes the distribution of traffic flow, but means our people are working odd hours.
To put this in perspective, there are five people on a milling crew, eight people on a paving crew, not to mention the truck drivers hauling the material and the plant personnel there to mix and load the asphalt. More than 20 staff members are affected by this timing.
Above and Beyond
Even though our crew members are paid to do a job, they are committed to each other and the company by working long and odd hours to do what it takes. This can take a toll both mentally and physically. It is not easy to be away from your family for such long days, and it can be hard on the body.
Kent Peterson, BR CEO and President recently said in an employee publication:
“I am humbled by all the examples of commitment shown by BR employees this year. Working long hours in the heat, working throughout the nighttime hours, and working Saturdays to accommodate our customers’ schedules are examples of going above and beyond.”
Staff at BR know how to do a job and they always do it to the best of their ability, whether that’s at 1:00 in the afternoon or 1:00 in the morning. They take pride in their work and want to see it done right.
Now that’s commitment!
Choose Bituminous Roadways for Twin Cities Asphalt Paving
If you’re looking for an asphalt paving contractor who hires and celebrates committed employees, contact Bituminous Roadways, Inc. BR will put our core values to work for you! Get a free online consultation or give us a call at 651-686-7001.