Welcome to Owner Impacts, a series dedicated to showcasing innovations, solutions, and leadership driven by our employee-owners—and powered by our people-first culture.

Shawmut has launched an all-new training series to ensure our teams come back stronger than before the pandemic, sharpening skills across the business and enhancing the creative solution-finding we’re known for to continue providing unparalleled client service. Hosted by subject matter experts across the company, the Come Back Stronger live virtual trainings focus on fundamentals spanning safety, finance, construction and field operations, legal, technology, and more.

Since April, our workforce has fully embraced and engaged in Come Back Stronger—there have been 162 sessions, with 11,280 completed trainings and 16,880 registrations for both previous and upcoming trainings. A major focus has been on our enhanced Covid-19 safety protocols and new technologies, complemented by our recently-unveiled new Standard Operating Procedures, which help our teams continue to excel in project execution, enhancing efficiency, quality, and value to clients.

Our employee-owners have not only participated in these trainings at record levels, but have applied what they’ve learned to their projects, already producing results.

Establishing Safety Expectations

Prior to the pandemic, project manager Dan Oot had established Shawmut’s safety expectations on-site, with a zero tolerance policy for violations. Swift actions when subcontractors were noncompliant ensured everyone on the jobsite understood their part in creating and maintaining a safe environment. This allowed Dan and the project team to quickly build on the already solid safety foundation following Covid-19, establishing the new and enhanced safety protocols shared in the trainings to adapt in real-time to the extreme safety challenge.

Finishing Ahead of Schedule

Structuring the typical closeout meeting in a new way based on trainings, project manager Mary Jreisat completed Shawmut’s closeout process quickly and efficiently, finishing ahead of schedule and with a very pleased client.

Knowledge-Sharing

Taking what he learned from schedule-related sessions, superintendent Luke MacDougall created a project-specific training for the entire West region based on his Downtown Los Angeles restoration project, sharing experiences and lessons learned to share with peers how best to create and manage a schedule to drive efficiencies and success.

Creating a Roadmap to Success

Senior project manager John Feustel created a roadmap for his project that incorporated feedback and input from a wide group of Shawmut team members, becoming an early adopter of the kickoff process from one of the Come Back Stronger sessions. This ensured a high level of delivery throughout the project, and allowed the team to immediately mobilize after a long pause due to Covid-19, restarting without any setbacks.