Building a Healthy Culture with Dual Customer And Employee-Centric Strategies at i2 Construction

This is our second blog post about i2 Construction, a successful general contractor in the metropolitan Denver area. In this blog post, we would like to focus on how the company managed to provide job security for its associates. 

The construction industry in northern climates is a seasonal business. Most of the work is performed when the weather is hospitable, or at least above freezing. This often means layoffs are common in the winter months. I2 Construction designed its business and employment strategy to avoid these seasonal layoffs.  

From its beginning, i2 Construction decided to build its business on both customer- and employee-centric strategies. Let’s first address the company’s approach to customers. I2 Construction prides itself on building trust with customers. Each of its 40 projects per year is assigned a partner who acts to both provide oversight and serve as a liaison with the customer. The company’s approach is to develop a strategic partnership with each customer from the design through the construction phase of the project. Every employee is assigned to a project. There is no “dead wood” at i2 Construction, and each employee is dedicated to serving the needs of the project. If a mistake is made, no matter whether the company or the customer is at fault, i2 Construction will fix the problem. The company’s reputation for trust has allowed it to grow around 20 percent per year, with an average project growing from $40,000 to $2 Million. The company’s repeat business with customers is well above the industry average for this scale of project. This sustained growth offers each employee both career opportunities and job security.

In our last blog post, we discussed some of the employee-centric features of the culture of the company. Here, we would like to focus on how the company deals with job security.  First, we would like to acknowledge that, in its 20 years of existence, the company has never had a layoff. Employees leave the company for two reasons. The first is a poor fit with the company culture, and they are asked to leave. The second reason is employees who find opportunities with other companies. From our experience, when companies lose employees, the company’s attitude is often “good riddance.” Anyone who leaves is perceived as rejecting the company, and all ties are cut. I2 Construction has chosen a different approach. Anyone who leaves but later decides to reapply for a position is given an opportunity to return. The company has learned that these returning employees have come to realize first-hand the importance of culture. The result is that over the past several years, 10 employees have been rehired in what the company leadership calls “a boomerang effect.” By allowing employees to leave with no malice, they return with even more commitment to work within the company culture, often bringing newly learned skills and methods back to their work. In one case, a returning employee brought a software solution that enhanced communication between employees.

Another strategy that eliminates layoffs is the company’s use of subcontractors for much of the construction work. The company is able to choose the best subcontractors on an as-needed basis, eliminating the ups and downs of seasonal work for their permanent workforce.  

By choosing dual customer- and employee-centric strategies, i2 Construction has managed to grow with both customer and employee retention. Their building of trust and adoption of no-fault management of projects are centerpieces of a healthy organizational culture with job security for all its employees.