HITT hands out COVID-19 bonuses of up to $10,000

Dive Short:

• A Virginia contractor is diving into its profits to show its workers appreciation for their determination by means of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• HITT Contracting, centered in Falls Church, Virginia, is distributing $4 million to workers on a sliding scale, commencing with bonuses of $1,000 and achieving as superior as $10,000, in accordance to HITT Co-President Jeremy Bardin. About 60% of the company’s 1,300 employees gained the bonuses, Bardin told Building Dive.
• Even though the bulk of the resources went to the frontline personnel on jobsites, the firm also acknowledged its human methods office, IT professionals and other departments in the corporation for their work all through the pandemic, in accordance to a push release.

Dive Insight:

Bardin said that he hesitated to call the resources “hazard fork out,” and as a substitute referred to the bonuses as “appreciation pay.” When COVID-19 gripped the U.S. last calendar year, development staff at corporations throughout the state turned job designs in how to mitigate the outcomes of the global pandemic. Even with the dangers to on their own and their family members, contractors uncovered methods to preserve operating even as other organizations shut down. 

Even in difficult-strike locations, most design operate was deemed “critical,” necessary to the function of society. Bardin mentioned the company’s bonus method seeks to thank employees for their bravery and devotion.

“When you offer in the development sector, our superintendents and our web-site marshals and our security group associates, they desired to be out there, they required to be utilizing these new guidelines [and] processes that we have on our jobs, and they wouldn’t remain house. And so it really is a lot more of an appreciation for their challenging get the job done,” Bardin reported.

Bardin explained the web site marshal is a new posture, developed in the course of the pandemic, that serves as an unbiased watchdog to guarantee that all the company’s safety and health protocols are becoming adopted. 

“We also wished it form of as a individual chain of custody or chain of command for us so there would be no outside the house influence or other influences, like ‘Oh, wait around a moment, we have to get the career done and we acquired to function late so I can’t essentially clean the Porta Johns or check with the 5 issues at the gate.’ We wanted to have a very focused, laser-centered work, and so we arrived up with the phrase ‘site marshal,'” Bardin claimed.

HITT Contracting experienced a profits of $2.5 billion in 2020, higher plenty of to make No. 32 on Engineering News Record’s record of the leading 400 contractors of the calendar year.

The appreciation shell out is a concrete way the firm can distribute the wealth all over to its workforce. HITT CEO Kim Roy credited frontline employees with trying to keep the small business chugging alongside as the pandemic tightened its grip on the financial system.

“These crew associates built us more powerful, exemplified determination and grit, and kept American development working. The results of our company in the most challenging periods is thanks to our frontline employees,” Roy said