The consultant has helped Amundson with a new print ad campaign that pairs the words “art” and “craft” with high-end images. “We want to reflect the idea of design/ build, but say it visually,” he says. This reinforces the firm’s mission to be an “agent of beauty and order.” The company is also redesigning its Web site, and next year plans to promote its 25-year anniversary.
MASTERS OF CRAFT Amundson’s processes extend to the field crew. Instead of using the lead carpenter system, which he believes unduly burdens carpenters, he created a Master Carpenter program. “We would rather carpenters focus on their craft,”
Amundson says. The company mostly focuses on older homes with a lot of detail work. “It’s not wise to take our best craftsman and put that person on the phone,” he explains.
The Master Carpenter system defines job descriptions for a carpenter-in-training, carpenter, master carpenter-in-training, master carpenter, and senior master carpenter. Amundson’s master carpenters are primarily responsible for building and providing quality control for work by trades. A senior master carpenter provides supervision for projects that are more than $500,000.
“You can spend the rest of your life working next to a master carpenter, but unless you are willing to take the initiative, you will always be a helper. We provide information for employees who have the hunger to improve themselves and take on more responsibility.”
Project manager Steve Groff has been with the company for 18 years and has seen firsthand how well the Master Carpenter system works. “It helps to have it in writing. There are some facets of the work they have not thought about,” he says. Carpenters often feel they have the technical skills for the next level, but, Groff tells them, they also need the ability to plan ahead. He says the company often gives carpenters who are close to the supervision level a small job, such as a bathroom. “We give them a feel for what it takes.”
The firm’s carpenters meet once a month to go over the company’s core values. Every other month, one carpenter is charged with expounding on the practical aspects of the company’s 25-item “principles to live by” (for a list of these principles, visit www.trehus.biz). On alternate months, Amundson explains two items. “It helps everyone understand our principles and how to live them out on a job,” Groff says.
He says the company also has checklists that staff can use as a tool to meet expectations. TreHus uses checklists for pre-construction meetings, pre-mechanicals, pre-drywall, the pre-finishing stage, and for after the job is completed.
Subcontractors also play a role. They receive job start notices with their start and completion date and the price of the job, as well as a list of behavioral expectations that are also posted on every jobsite. “If TreHus sets the tone, we can control the process. If we are not setting the tone, other people will do that for us,” Amundson says.