Hillary Hulteen exudes empathy, sounding more like a motivational speaker than a construction executive as she talks about values, human beings and spirituality—not your typical industry topics.

The CEO and co-owner of Lafayette Metal & Glass Co., based in Hauppauge, N.Y., has implemented programs based on a “talent management mindset” to grow young workers and retain them for the long haul or to attract seasoned employees from within or outside the construction industry.

为Hulteen和共同所有人和她的丈夫总统杰克·沃尔什（Jack Walsh）工作的员工使用“像我的朋友”一词来描述他们的领导风格。她承认，与其他建筑部门公司的管理方式相比，这听起来几乎太敏感了。自2011年购买以来，她和沃尔什（Hulteen）谈到她和沃尔什（Walsh）如何经营制造，维修和安装公司。

But there’s no making fun of their success. The pair has grown Lafayette from a firm that had $1 million in revenue, five full time employees and barely broke even to one that is on track for sales of $48 million in 2018 with a workforce of 97—and counting—that required a move last month to larger offices.

扩大劳动力,拉斐特完整模型ted numerous notable interior and exterior building projects that include a $4.6-million portion of the renovation of investment bank Credit Suisse offices at 11 Madison Ave. in Manhattan, completed this month, and the PricewaterhouseCoopers headquarters at 90 Park Ave., with a subcontract worth $2.45 million. Other notable projects in 2017 included Facebook’s office at 233 Park Ave. South, Google’s digs at 111 8th Ave. and the Durst Organization in One World Trade Center. Outside New York and New Jersey, the company has done projects in Boston and Maryland.

拉斐特（Lafayette）在纽约ENR纽约顶级特色承包商名单上的稳定上升新利luck至第20名，2017年收入增长了59％，比前一年的2200万美元相关。它的财务增长和创新管理风格使拉斐特金属和玻璃成为纽约年度最佳专业承包商。新利luck

The Long Island-based company has been around since 1899, beginning as a fabricator and installer of glass, mirrors and display cases for retailers in New York City’s Bowery district. Jumping forward 112 years, Hulteen and Walsh decided to buy “a company we could rebrand,” he says, since banks weren’t eager to loan money to start-ups in 2011. They are the firm’s fourth owners, according to Hulteen.

沃尔什（Walsh）是一位前熟练的旅行者，拥有数十年的现场经验，并且是IUPAT Local 1087的成员。Hulteen的建筑背景涉及变更管理，运营和金融。她如何应对成长和改变拉斐特的挑战。

“I thought it was a great chance to professionalize the industry,” says the CEO, whose past roles include director of operations for Posillico Group and senior consultant to the NYC School Construction Authority.

据赫尔森说：“许多所有者都有巨大的现场背景，但没有业务背景……很多理解的制造，但不知道管理层。他们没有参加战略会议。”她说，这就是为什么许多人无法领导他们的公司改善其业务方法或底线的原因。

“They didn’t have to change … but the trades weren’t growing professionally” at a rate comparable to other industries, the CEO claims.

因此，新老板从头开始。Hulteen说，这意味着“有正确能力的人”的基础，即使他们没有建筑背景。该公司的办公室和支持人员包括从工厂工作公司招募的员工，根据Hulten的说法，这些员工与“交易”类似。她说：“一位在房屋建筑商领域工作的雇员非常适合拉斐特，她说：“您必须与住宅客户高水平交流，而且他们的要求非常苛刻。”

While 70% of its workforce is now younger than 40, Lafayette’s older employees had to learn communications technology to streamline business, says Melissa Di Diego, the contractor’s employee experience architect. Milestone, the firm’s own project management software—what Hulteen calls “Salesforce on steroids”—increases transparency by letting all stakeholders access all relevant project information, but it was a learning curve for both staff and clients, Di Diego and Hulteen say.

Then there’s the firm’s interactive culture. “Some people aren’t used to the collaborative environment here, to interacting with others on a day to day basis,” Di Diego says.

That focus on collaboration extends to the field, says Daniel Cordero, Lafayette’s general superintendent, speaking from one of the company’s latest projects—the site of the new FAO Schwarz store in Manhattan, which opened Nov. 16.

“I have three trades: glaziers, carpenters and ironworkers. I do things a little differently. Everyone works together—a composite crew,” says Cordero, who already worked at Lafayette before the 2011 purchase. He contrasts his jobsites with how other companies hire trades, usually bringing in ironworkers for steel construction first, then the glass installers.

“I keep the crew together, and then they can all learn from each other,” Cordero says. “We all come together as a family, as a team.”

Cordero was the company’s only “field guy” before Hulteen and Walsh took over. He verifies that those were lean times, and that he almost quit out of financial necessity. Since the acquisition, he’s risen from installer to foreman to general foreman to superintendent to his current director role. “I’m very big about growing with the company,” Cordero says. “I have guys who were apprentices with me, and now they’re foremen.”

沃尔什（Walsh）现在称之为“我的右手人”的科德罗（Cordero）只是霍尔森（Hulteen）在行动中的“人才管理心态”的一个例子。Di Diego谈到公司的招聘策略时说：“我们希望找到想要进步的人，然后尽可能长时间地保持他们。”

That means linking veteran workers with 30 years of experience to millennials who hope to learn from them and hone their craft. It also means developing managerial professional improvement programs; departmental training to help employees obtain certifications such as OSHA safety training; and creating, for example, a career track from journeyman to foreman.

布列塔尼·斯科蒂（Brittany Sciuti）是该公司的一个成功故事。在31岁那年，她是1087年当地的唯一女性旅行者Glazier，现在是一名工头，在建筑行业中看似破坏了年龄和性别的障碍。

“我会内华达州er have had this opportunity” with her prior company, Sciuti says. She joined Lafayette in March 2017, a day after being laid off. From the get-go, “I would say I was very motivated in wanting to work my way up.” While those who know Sciuti credit her abilities and hard work, she says she’s thankful that “the bosses saw something in me.”

That’s led to an environment in which she was respected as a supervisor by all “the guys,” leading teams of up to 12 subordinates. To firms that want to increase the number of women in their field ranks, “Just give them the opportunity,” Sciuti advises.

她补充说：“他人的鼓励使我相信自己。”从生产力的角度来看，主管的这种支持也很有意义，因为Sciuti说：“工作安全使您更加努力。”

Developing their workforce with advancement opportunities is a necessity for Lafayette, which touts it prominent clients. Hulteen and Walsh say their client list has grown “organically,” employing no sales team but rather relying on word of mouth and existing relationships.

沃尔什说：“我们开始以几千美元的价格做一门简单的玻璃门。”“我们非常有选择性。我们没有随机出价总承包商，我们与我们没有关系。我们采访了他们，他们采访了我们。”

The PricewaterhouseCoopers project, for example, happened because the owners of 90 Park Ave. recommended Lafayette to Gilbane Building Co., which was the project’s construction manager. The scope of work included backpainted glass, canopy and storefront, and specialized doors and plastics. “It was the perfect example of our new installation division,” Walsh says.

Lafayette has been increasing the type of services it offers. There’s also a repair and maintenance division that can fix, replace or prevent damage to glass. And starting in 2019, Lafayette will launch a new custom metal fabrication business. Walsh notes that projects are now becoming 50% metal and 50% glass, compared with 90% glass when he and Hulteen took over the firm. General contractors and construction managers prefer to award a single metal and glazing package rather than separate contracts for efficiency and costs purposes, he explains.

“Architectural metal is the largest aspect of our business now,” Hulteen says, surpassing glass and forcing the word “metal” into the firm’s name. The company has already promoted a project manager for the impending factory, which will fabricate metal for elevator lobbies, storefronts and staircases, among other uses.

Clients seem to approve of Lafayette’s services and process. Jason Spector, general superintendent at Holt Construction in New York, says the firms have worked together on projects in various sectors, such as tenant build-outs and improvement projects for developers Vornado and Tishman Speyer, and multimillion-dollar airport lounges for American Airlines, United Airlines and Dubai-based Etihad. The two are currently working on Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge in LaGuardia Airport’s new terminal.

Spector说：“业主采用动手方法，与霍尔特的模式非常相似。”He also praises the way Lafayette shortened time frames thanks to “expediting and utilizing multiple sources for material solutions,” its labor force that “has exceeded our expectations” and the firm’s reputation for being “exceptionally adaptive and responsive with submittals, shop drawings and project execution.”

Spector adds: “They have excellent experience in architectural metal and specialized bronze, which has been a great asset when collaborating with projects’ assigned architectural team.”

Despite its strengths, Lafayette isn’t immune to industrywide challenges. With so much construction happening, schedules are getting increasingly tighter, and that particularly affects the metal and glass contractor.

“对我们来说最大的障碍是最后一个交易de out the door,” Walsh says. “There are 10 to 20 trades that go before us, so when they start losing time, we start losing time .… The time you have for error is almost none, so it’s important to be proactive. The minute you’re reactive, you’re dead in the water.”

Being proactive is clearly the name of the game for Lafayette, whether by implementing worker development programs, new lines of business or technology that offers greater transparency to employees and clients alike. But the challenge is to keep on improving in an industry that isn’t always cutting edge. Says Hulteen: “When you’re in an archaic industry, you can’t look at it [for innovation], you have to look beyond.”