This Colorado company has found a niche by performing building department services exclusively for public agencies – allowing
for a reduction of fixed costs during cash-strapped times
Written by Gabe Perna | Produced by Brandon Kuemmel In 1999, when Mike McCurdie bought what was then known as Colorado Inspection Agency, there were four employees providing a small array of building department services to 10 communities. Merely ten years later, under McCurdie’s leadership, the company has a new name, SAFEbuilt, and employs nearly 60 people in 16 offices located in five states across multiple jurisdictions.
Not too bad for a chemical engineer who previously worked in the semiconductor industry. “The vision all along was to grow the business from day one. Our five-year plan from an objective standpoint was to have a presence in multiple states. The scale of the growth has been surprising. We didn’t expect to expand quite as quickly as we did. We had a couple of good years and great opportunities,” says McCurdie.
SAFEbuilt provides full service building department programs, building code reviews, complete project support and building code inspections. Working with SAFEbuilt presents a cost-effective solution for municipalities, allowing them to focus on more critical matters.
Recession-proof
With the services it provides, SAFEbuilt’s clients have not suffered during the current recession as much as other jurisdictions. Because SAFEbuilt’s clients’ building department expenses never exceed total revenue, the money those clients receive from building department fees will always surpass SAFEbuilt’s prices. In other words, SAFEbuilt is always a cost effective solution for its clients, even in a recession.
“In times like this, municipalities are being significantly impacted fiscally. Building activity is down, property tax revenue is down, sales tax revenue is down and they have activity below their typical staffing levels. Since we work with so many clients we can work efficiently across multiple jurisdictions,” says David Thomsen, Vice President of SAFEbuilt, who has been with the company since 2005.
McCurdie and Thomsen say the company has felt a bit of a pinch due to the construction slowdown in the industry as whole. Thomsen says builders are having a hard time borrowing and financing projects. Therefore, many projects have been delayed and the building permitting process has slowed down. Despite this, there is optimism at SAFEbuilt.
“Given some of the trends effecting municipalities, our phone as been ringing with people looking at options to provide service and mitigate the impact of financial downturn,” explains McCurdie.
Continuous improvement
Even though SAFEbuilt is a successful enterprise, the company is always looking to improve its operations. An example of its continuous improvement strategy is the recent implementation of property permitting software that runs the company’s daily operations. An upcoming technological upgrade is the implementation of an electronic plan review that will allow for more efficient building code plan reviews. Allowing the applicant to submit electronic plans speeds up the review process and eliminates the cost of having to print multiple paper copies.
SAFEbuilt is also looking into the use of PDA’s, or similar devices, for use in resulting inspections. “Basically in a typical process, an inspector will go out in the field, he’ll have a sheet of paper for inspection and if the inspection fails, he’ll write it down on sheet, carry it back to the office and submit it there. There is a lack of efficiency in this process. It is normally 18 hours from the inspection until you find out the results. With PDAs they can give them the result in the field, submit those results immediately, upload them to the proper software and the contractor can see in real time how they fared,” says Thomsen.
Coming up with ideas like this one are not only encouraged at SAFEbuilt, they are rewarded. Thomsen says the company’s internal award system honors employees for coming up with continuous improvement suggestions. “It’s something we live and breathe on a daily basis,” he emphasizes.
We the People
Continuous improvement also comes with SAFEbuilt’s constant training of employees. The company is a strong backer of incessant training and it particularly works in accordance with the International Code Council (ICC) certification program. All of its technical staff are ICC certified and have requirements in place ensuring they maintain those standards.
“We feel you need to at least have bare minimum requirement certification. We have folks certified in areas where we need their support. We’re hiring folks from building trades, so we build on that technical background and add on the ICC certifications. Then internally we look to pair people up on jobs where they have certain areas of expertise,” says McCurdie.
The company encourages and pays for training and has an incentive program for obtaining new certifications.
Both Thomsen and McCurdie stress the employees are the reason for the company’s growth and success. Along with offering the standard range of benefits packages, SAFEbuilt presents its employees with the chance to take university related courses for their field. Also, the company has an employee-to-employee reward program where anyone in the organization can give an award to someone else.
It’s this kind of employee appreciation showcases how SAFEbuilt has been able to win a number of industry-related awards. It’s no shock the company has extensive plans to add a significant amount of new clients and open in a new state. It all links back to the people.
“We have people working across the country, each of them making decisions on a daily basis and going above and beyond what they are asked. We have people that demonstrate that kind of dedication on a daily basis. Without these quality people we’d be nowhere, we’d be an also ran. The quality of our personnel and the values and passion in what they carry is what sets us apart,” concludes Thomsen.
View Digital Corporate Profile of Safebuilt in Construction Digital June 2009