San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
ChesmarHomes builds loyalty, family feel
ChesmarHomes has a big selling point when it comes to recruiting employees and keeping existing ones.
It is employee-owned. Every worker is vested in the ownership plan after five years at the homebuilder.
The Woodlands company’s San Antonio office was named the Top Workplace in the small employer category. The company has 69 employees who work at the company’s San Antonio office on the far North Side and at 14 housing developments in the San Antonio metropolitan area.
“Our hope is that you leave here in a better place than you arrive,” said Ken
Glass, president of Chesmar’s San Antonio division.
About 6,500 U.S. companieshavewhat is knownas a ESOP plan, or employee stock ownership program, according to the National Center for Employee Ownership.
Monica Livingston, a Chesmar administrative assistant who works in purchasing, said she was taken aback last year when she found out about the thennew employee ownership program.
“I’ve never had that in a company,” she said. “When I got my packet, I sat down with my husband and we went through it, and hewas just like, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ ”
Livingston said she’s worked at Chesmar for six years and everyone is treated like family.
She said company CEO Don Klein has made her think about her and her husband’s financial future by introducing the ownership plan.
“I’m grateful,” she said. The company started in 2005 in Houston and expanded to San Antonio in August 2009. It has built 3,000 homes in San Antonio. Chesmar also sells homes in Austin and Dallas.
Glass said 2020 has turned out to be a banner year for the company in San Antonio despite COVID-19, with more than 300 homes sold. He said that has helped salespeople in the field who work on commission.
Chesmar’s homes in the
San Antonio area sell for between $260,000 and $700,000.
One advantage of working for Chesmar: Commissions are 2.5 percent of the purchase price, higher than the 1.75 percent that is standardformany builders, said Will Sherman, vice president of sales and marketing.
Sherman said the pandemic helped new home sales. He said people started taking existing homes off the market because they were afraid of would-be buyers walking through their houses.
“There was still a demand for homes, but less supply,” Sherman said. “All of a sudden, our sales started to increase when you would think they would be going down. We’re actually setting sales records.”
Treating employees well also translates to treating customerswell, which leads to house said.
The pandemic has created challenges.
“It’smade thehouse-buying experience a little different,” he said. “One of the biggest things we do is connect with our customers, and when we’re wearing masks, that hides our employees’ smiles and expressions. We’re not able to shake their hands. We have to work a little harder to make that connection, but I think we’ve adapted pretty well.”
Chesmar employees were given the option of working fromhome, but only two or three did, said Terry Jermolajevs, vice president of operations for the San Antonio division.
Glass said staying atwork helped build team spirit.
“Most people figured out a way to stay in the office with the team here, and it
sales,
Sherman
also was by their own choice,” he said.
Glass said office personnel work with salespeople, who work out of Chesmar’s development sites, to offer support and encouragement during the ongoing pandemic.
“We have a saying that people will forget what you said, forget what you did, but they won’t forget how you make them feel, andwe start with our employees,” he said.
Still, COVID-19 has changed some things. For now, the company has stoppedthrowingparties attended by employees’ spouses and kids.
“We love to celebrate,” Glass said. The celebrations, he added, show appreciation for the employees’ long hours, including weekends, which are standard for sales employees. “We want to show our appreciation of all the spouses who have to sacrifice for their husbands or wives.”
Kelly Howard, a Chesmar administrative assistant, said she’s impressed with how much management cares about its employees.
“I absolutely love the peoplewhowork here,” she said. “People care so much about each other.”
Howard, whohasworked at Chesmar for about a year, said it was her first job after graduating from college.
“I didn’t necessarily know a lot about building, and I still have a half-a-million questions and everyone helps answer them,” she said. “They are so willing to explain it a different way until I can understand it.”
Employees at Chesmar’s San Antonio headquarters are also cross-trained to help each other out.
“I think the cross-training is a big deal because I’vehad a couple of family emergencies and I’ve had to leave. I didn’t have to feel like, ‘Oh, my gosh’ and worry about the workload when I got back,” Livingston said. “I could concentrate on my family anddowhat I needed to do, and I knew the girls had my back.”
Jermolajevs said a key requirement to work at Chesmar is the ability to think independently.
“I’ve had people that I’ve hired from other builders that are used to being micromanaged,” he said. “They can’t do anything that’s not in black andwhite in front of them.”
It can take months, but finally, the operations vice president says, employees start understanding.
“We tell them they can make choicesanddothings, and they feel empowered,” he said.
Glass said when it comes downto it, all homebuilders use the basic building materials of “sticks and bricks.”
He saidwhatmakesChesmar unique is the support and family atmosphere that flow from employee to employee.
“We tell them they can make choices and do things, and they feel empowered.”
Terry Jermolajevs, vice president of operations for the San Antonio division