SMALL WORKPLACES

said.

Early in the pandemic, Glass said employees were given the choice to work in the office or at home to avoid contracting the coronavirus.

While most employees opted to work in-person, others valued having the option.

Sheri Rackowitz, a purchasing coordinator, worked from home for two months during the onset of the pandemic. She said she wanted to be with her toddler at home and stay safe.

“It was a really scary, really weird time. But I moved my entire workspace home,” Rackowitz said. “The fact they were so supportive and didn’t give me a hard time about wanting to work from home during that time period — it was really nice not having that pressure to feel like you had to come in and be scared.”

And Glass preaches a work-life balance. If employees need to take their kids to a dance recital or to coach a little league game, he encourages them to take the time.

“What’s it all worth if we can’t have fun along the way, and we can’t be there for our kids?” he said.

For Doebbler, whose family is on the East Coast, having that flexibility to be able to take care of her son has been invaluable.

“When it comes to our son being sick and needing to be cared for, it was really hard to get that taken care of with my past employer,” she said. “Here, the way they care and the way they say ‘family first,’ it has brought me to tears on a couple of occasions.”

But Chesmar offers more than just an accommodating office environment. In addition to medical benefits and bonuses, employees also receive an ESOP — employee stock option plan. At the end of each year, workers are given shares in Chesmar that are valued based on how the firm did that year.

“For some people, in two years of ESOP, they’ve almost doubled their salaries,” Glass said.

“Its exciting,” Schnuriger said of the ESOP. “Because it’s our company, and we’re making contributions to something for all of us.”

The culture and compensation have helped Chesmar to retain its people, even amid massive churn in the labor market over the last year and a half.

As companies in virtually every sector of the U.S. economy have sought workers over the last year, many firms have turned to cash signing bonuses and other incentives to lure new hires. Even so, Chesmar has had just one employee leave the San Antonio division since last summer, Glass said.

“The entire market is just throwing cash at people, so our guys have obviously gotten offers to go work for another builder,” Glass said, adding workers at times get offered salaries worth tens of thousands of dollars more elsewhere.

“You’re not just staying here for the money — you’re staying because you’ve got a work-life balance, because you love being in this environment,” he said. “You’re staying because you feel supported, and that your opinions matter.”

William Luther / Staff photographer Tara Doebbler, a housing start coordinator who began at Chesmar in June, called the culture tight-knit.