FAMILY VALUES

Employees come first at Hunzinger

Hunzinger's crew is wrapping up its work at the Milwaukee School of Engineering's Kern Center. Standing over a portion of the project's crew are executive vice presidents Jim Hunzinger (top left) and Kevin O'Toole and President John Hunzinger. Photo by Sean Ryan

It's no wonder that Hunzinger Construction Co. has ranked first for two years in a row in Wisconsin Builder's Job Satisfaction survey for general contractors.

There are at least 200 people working for the company, yet most would bet that the firm's three leaders - President John Hunzinger and executive vice presidents Jim Hunzinger and Kevin O'Toole — could name any employee on any job site.

It's a company where the safety director doesn't have a budget because he gets whatever he wants. Hunzinger hasn't had a lost-time injury in a year.

Jim Hunzinger said that making Hunzinger a successful business is based on more than just business.

"We're there, we know these guys — a lot of them well — and have for many years," he said. "There's a real bond there that goes beyond what you might see at a lot of companies. It's genuine. It's not contrived."

A big part of Hunzinger's success seems to lay in the similarities and bonds between the company's employers and employees. For starters, the company's Big Three, as O'Toole and John and Jim Hunzinger are sometimes called, started in the industry by pounding nails and pouring concrete. Considering how much time they spend visiting their projects these days, it's safe to say they never really left the job site.

"If all of the sudden there's a new guy here, they know it," said Superintendent Will Wright. "They give everybody out here a sense of importance, and it's not a sense of importance. They are important."

That true sense of importance shows itself in a variety of ways. All employees are given the opportunity to have an important voice in managing the company. Twice a year, Hunzinger creates a board of about 25 people who perform long-term strategic planning, and employees from each department sit in on a rotating basis.

"They have a seat at the table and can think and interact with the company at a higher level," said John Hunzinger.

The Big Three all profess that they want to make Hunzinger the kind of place where they'd want to work. John Hunzinger said that starts with safety.

"The highest responsibility that we have as an employer is to provide a safe work environment and the proper training," he said. "I think that's a good indicator of how a company is managed. When we're talking to contractors that we are going to be working with, we always want to understand their safety practices."

In a state industry that in 2002 lost 10 people on the job, it's important for workers to be confident that their managers really care about their safety. Hunzinger Safety Director Kevin Sandkuhler said the Big Three have given him free reign in establishing safety policies. There are no budget limits, and he can enact things such as the 6-foot rule requiring all workers to wear harnesses at any elevation above 2 yards.

Wright said that since most workers stay with the company for many years, some sending their kids to work at Hunzinger, the workers are as dedicated as the managers to safety.

"I would put our people against anybody's when it comes to safety," he said. "If a friend is off of work, it breaks the community of the team. The safety culture is the most important aspect of our work."

Employees like it at Hunzinger because their bosses welcome their input, make protection a No. 1 priority and mingle with them as friends. It may not be typical in the business world, but it works for Hunzinger.

"They always support us," said Joel Becker, vice president of field operations. "We run our jobs and do whatever our responsibilities are because we think that's the right thing to do."

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