The heart of a business is its employees, customers and the community it serves. At HCC our real accomplishments center on these three things.
The employees that have dedicated their careers here are our number one asset. At present, we employ 50 people which is down from our high of 108 but significantly up from the original 4. Of those 50, ten have been with us for over twenty years. And well over half have been here for over ten years. Retaining long-term employees has a lot of advantages. When you work together over time, you know each other’s tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses. This makes problem solving much easier. Our customers, vendors, and building officials know many of our people by name. We have been through mutual struggles, the highs and lows of business volume, and life’s many challenges.
It’s not an easy task keeping good people together. However, we provide incentive packages, profit sharing, paid vacation, holidays and personal days. Health, dental, life and disability insurance is also available. When employees leave us with the perception that the grass is always greener, many of them return and are better employees for it.
Without our customers, there wouldn’t be an HCC. We have been so fortunate to have worked for and with a large percentage of our customers for most of our 25 year existence. The bulk of our installation of pool and patio enclosures, aluminum rail and fence, soffit, fascia and gutters are with new home builders and pool contractors. Working for the same people for years has the same advantages as having long term employees. This has also helped us grow. When a superintendent or purchasing agent leaves a company, in most cases they have taken us with them. Our long history with our customers drives our retail business as well. With so many enclosures in our marketplace as well as the number of supers we have worked for, the majority of our retail leads have come from referrals.
The greater Tampa and Sarasota communities we are so fortunate to work in mean the world to us and we make a strong effort to give back. Community service has been integral throughout our history. One of our proudest moments was a volunteer project at a veteran’s retreat, My Warrior’s Place. Twenty-two employees and family members showed up to rebuild all the enclosures on the property. We have donated pool enclosures to disabled vets, volunteered for Habitat for Humanity and donated trucks to Family Ministries of Florida. We’ve participated in and donated to Tampa Bay Watch, CCA, MS, Metropolitan Ministries, Feeding America, Special Olympics, Susan B. Komen 3-day Walk, Pony Baseball, Golf Tournaments and the Guardian Ad Litem program.
As times have changed with stricter building codes and an ever changing economy, we have adapted. We are now a paperless office; all our files are virtual using Laserfiche software. This allows all our office personnel and field supervisors to look at any file simultaneously. When wind loads increased, we designed heavier shapes than industry standards to set us apart from our competition. Very little of what we use to build our enclosures are standard parts – from the gutter down to the doors. Our financial strength allows us to buy direct keeping us competitive and building a superior product. Our latest innovation is working with our engineer to design an improved picture window style screen, which is becoming increasingly popular. Hartshorn Custom Contracting intends to remain a market leader building upon our proven record of rapport with employees and customers and the ability to adapt to changing times.