Chester firm a millennial success
It wasn't Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, or Zappos - none of these high-profile new-age companies nabbed the top spot on Fortune Magazine's first-ever list of best workplaces for millennials.
It wasn't Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, or Zappos - none of these high-profile new-age companies nabbed the top spot on Fortune Magazine's first-ever list of best workplaces for millennials.
Instead, it was a home remodeling company in Chester - Power Home Remodeling Group, a privately held firm with 1,511 employees based in a former power plant on the Delaware River.
(Google, by the way, ranked 25th out of 100 for millennials, although the California search engine company has led Fortune's respected Top 100 Workplaces for all workers for the last six years.)
To Asher Raphael, Power's co-chief executive, and, at age 35, just barely a millennial, the acknowledgment by Fortune comes as a vindication.
"We have been fighting an uphill battle, which is fighting [the negative] stigma of the industry and trying to prove you could create scale, process, and professionalism," he said. "What we offer is really, really special, and our people are uniquely happy and they are uniquely passionate about what we're doing here."
Power group workers do the selling, evaluating, and estimating of home improvement projects. Outside companies do the actual contracting, which typically focuses on replacement windows, siding, roofing, and entry doors.
The company, which operates in 15 states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, posted sales of $310 million in 2014. It is forecasting $400 million this year.
Fortune Magazine's top 100 workplaces process is rigorous. Companies apply to participate, and must document every perk, policy, and benefit, which accounts for a third of the score. The rest comes from an extensive and confidential employee survey.
The millennial rankings defined that age group as under 35. They draw only from the survey results, said Kim Peters, director of reviews for Great Place to Work, the San Francisco-based company that conducts Fortune's research.
Peters said winning companies for young workers and all workers score high on questions relating to fair pay and empowerment to make decisions. But older workers also highly value job security, which isn't ranked as highly for young people.
That's high-level stuff. It probably doesn't hurt that Power takes every employee and a guest on a winter trip, usually to Mexico. "The trip to Mexico is very fun," said Corey Schiller, co-chief executive.
Raphael said the trip helps keep their growing company small and provides a way to thank workers and their significant others for their support.
It's interesting that the company has a 31 percent turnover, the magazine said. Raphael said he isn't sure where that figure came from. But he said that it's not unusual for young workers to leave first jobs.
Power's practice of hiring young people and training them means that not all will be a perfect fit, he said.
"Our average employee isn't going to be as profitable early on," he said. "They also aren't coming in with any bad habits."
Raphael said Power group's goal in hiring young isn't to hire inexpensively.
"We want to over-pay," he said. "The people who work here shouldn't feel they can make more money anywhere else.
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