Construction companies with staying power are the ones that focus daily on a strong work ethic, quality work, and excellent customer service. One such company is RKS Plumbing and Mechanical Inc., a contractor headquartered in Arizona. The company recently celebrated 25 years of business in the construction industry. Owner and President Bob Sornsin and Executive Vice President Joe Stachel spoke with CBO about what it takes to not only stay in business, but also see continued growth in the construction industry.
According to a recent press release from the company, the need in the commercial industry for more upfront planning with general contractors was an area of opportunity that RKS embraced early on. More contractors are now at-risk and design-build, through which the subcontractors share in the design of the project. From its conception, RKS delved into highly-specialized chemical and process piping for water and waste water treatment plants. RKS has worked in approximately 20 treatment plants in Arizona.
Diversified divisions within RKS have allowed them to better serve their clients. The company has plumbing and HVAC divisions for commercial, industrial and service. This has led them to work on projects of all sizes, including ground-up commercial projects, water treatment plants, tenant improvements, schools, hospitals, prisons, assisted living projects and high-rise student housing. In an industry that thrives because its services are needed by everyone, Sornsin said it’s still important to understand and embrace new trends to appeal to the educated consumer. RKS saw the growing need for green standards in the industry, and became a leader in LEED by dedicating an entire team to introduce the latest renewable energy concepts and green built innovation to design. CBO: With your industry experience, do you recommend that contractors specialize in a specific niche or stay general? Bob Sornsin: I’d have to say both—we actually specialize in four or five different areas. We are quite skilled at commercial plumbing and HVAC, tenant improvement and process piping. We work in chemical and water treatment plants and we also have a service department. To be successful, we marry the building we are working on, in a sense. The property managers often want someone who is not a one-truck kind of outfit—so we have a lot of stuff going on at any one time. Joe Stachel: By having different revenue streams and different work, we are able to lean on them as they come up. This has helped us grow, even throughout a recession. CBO: What is your advice for being a contractor with staying power? BS: I have two different answers for this:
- We put money into the business and kept it there in the good years. We didn’t make a dollar and spend 95 cents of that dollar—we made a dollar and spent maybe 5 cents. That way, during leaner times, we were stable.
- I have a saying from when we started: During a recession, hang in there and preserve your company. When the recession ends, the bad contractors and the unlucky ones will be gone and your guns will be loaded.
CBO: Do you have any specific practices or structures for retaining employees and keeping those employees satisfied in the workplace? BS: We have an open door policy at RKS Plumbing. We get to know our employees really well, and we are good at mentoring young people. You have to treat these new generations like family as their family dynamics are different than past generations.’ Ask employees how they are doing and how they are learning what they are learning. It’s important to encourage them frequently and keep them engaged. We become their family, in a sense. We expect our superintendents and our foremen to be mentors and they are graded on their performance in that respect. JS: We talk about all of this in a weekly foremen’s meeting, in which we go top-down to see how each employee in each position is doing. BS: We have a constant teaching mindset. For example, if a mistake happens on the jobsite, we go over it in front of all of the foremen so the others don’t make the same mistake. We are careful to relay this in a teaching manner, though—it’s meant to be productive. CBO: You mention a focus on customer service as being important to your company. What does that involve on a regular basis? BS: We communicate with them. We have a lot of general contractors that really like to use us because we aim to make their life easier. I tell this story often: one of my foremen was saying that the foreman for the general contractor on this specific job was asking him to fix a break on a particular area of the site. Our guy said, ‘We didn’t do that work.’ The GC foreman was disappointed. When we asked why, he said, ‘I knew if it was your work, it would have been fixed right away. Now, it will be a hassle trying to get the other contractor to fix his work’ Our goal is to communicate well with our customers and the other contractors on the site and make their work as low-maintenance as possible. CBO: How is RKS Plumbing a leader in sustainable building? What innovative LEED practices or processes do you employ? BS: We recently had a project where we put in a rainwater collection and storage system. They were using it as their backup water. We help engineers design a more efficient system of low-flush toilets and urinals, for example. JS: The shower heads are the same way—we help them design them with the goal in mind to keep the water flow from being excessive. There are so many areas on the jobsite where, if we get into the design, we can help improve function and flow. For more information, visit RKS Plumbing.
