Surface Shield Scales for Growth with ProService Hawaii
A “great partnership” has helped Surface Shield save money on group healthcare insurance and workers' comp, take on new government projects for the first time, and complete a merger with their sister company.
ProService Helps Surface Shield Build Hawaii
Visit www.ssrchi.com
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Industry: Construction
Employees: 65+
Joined ProService: July 2012
Founded in 2007, Surface Shield Roofing & Construction (formerly Surface Shield Roofing Company) provides full-spectrum roofing and construction services for commercial, residential, and government projects across the state. Over the last 15+ years, Surface Shield Roofing & Construction has completed 2,500+ projects with clients, including DonQuijote, Local Motion Hawaii, Pizza Hut, Jersey Mike’s, Y. Hata & Co., Limited, Hawaii Department of Education, Hawaii Department of Transportation, United States Army.
The company has also celebrated many milestones, such as:
- Recognition as one of BIA’s Top 10 Roofing Companies
- Ranked as one of 185 companies to make Inc. Magazine's 2023 Regionals Pacific List of the fastest-growing private companies in the pacific region
- Winning a big contract with the Hawaii Department of Education to repair school roofs across the state
- Merging with its sister company, United Pacific Builders, a licensed general contractor and ProService client, to form Surface Shield Roofing & Construction in 2020
- Receiving Hawaii Business magazine’s 2022 Small Biz Editor’s Choice Awards for Specialty Construction
CASE STUDY
When Surface Shield Roofing first started, they managed everything from a small room outside their garage...before meeting ProService Hawaii.
In 2007, the team at Surface Shield Roofing was using Quickbooks to run payroll and needed to purchase group health insurance and worker’s compensation coverage, one-by-one in order to stay compliant with Hawaii laws. It was a very cost-prohibitive approach and by 2010, Surface Shield Roofing knew they needed a different path forward. The company turned to a local payroll firm for bundled HR services but after 1.5 years of growing pains and problems Surface Shield Roofing decided it was time to explore new options. In July 2012, Surface Shield Roofing turned to ProService Hawaii not only for its payroll services but for its one-stop-shop HR offering…and the rest is history!
“We originally joined ProService Hawaii with the idea that it’d be a great partnership. More than 10 years later, it continues to be a great partnership, and today our company doesn’t just have 20 people, we have 65 employees so there’s a lot more for ProService to do.” – Amanda Gregory, Deputy CEO
SOLUTIONS
Lower Labor Costs, New Sector Support, Tools & Insights for Surface Shield
Here are the top four reasons why Surface Shield Roofing & Construction partners with ProService Hawaii.
01. Saving money on healthcare & workers' compensation
Before teaming up with ProService, Surface Shield Roofing & Construction was paying “incredibly high rates” by individually purchasing group health insurance and workers’ compensation directly from carriers. Even when they partnered with a local payroll and HR company for help, Surface Shield was still facing high insurance costs. This all changed when they switched to ProService Hawaii. Immediately healthcare costs dropped by 25%. Workers’ compensation costs were also cut in half. But the savings didn’t stop there. Over the 10+ year partnership, rates for healthcare and especially workers’ compensation didn’t increase substantially. “ProService, because of their expansive representation of employees and employers in Hawaii, have been able to keep it [our rates] pretty stable and it's never super astronomical,” says Amanda Gregory, Deputy CEO of Surface Shield Roofing & Construction. “They don’t come at us with hidden fees either,” she added.
List to the audio clip for the full story!
See how labor costs instantly dropped after Surface Shield joined ProService.
ProSerivce helps Amanda stabilize her company's workers' compensation rates. Listen to learn how.
02. Expanding into a new sector: government projects
When Surface Shield Roofing & Construction decided to expand into a new sector of work, government projects, ProService Hawaii had their back. To take on government-funded jobs, Surface Shield needed to be compliant with a new set of rules that had heavy documentation requirements. This included submitting weekly certified payroll reports to prove that their workers were being paid according to the predetermined prevailing wage, also known as the Davis Bacon wage.
Instead of manually compiling information to fill out this time-consuming report, ProService set up a streamlined process with reports that did all the heavy lifting. “It would be really challenging without the support of ProService providing all our certified payroll reports, [and] fringe benefit letters,” says Amanda Gregory, Deputy CEO of Surface Shield Roofing & Construction. “It would take so much internal staff and they aren't equipped to handle this type of legal rigor,” she added. Amanda recalls one situation where the company was working as a subcontractor to a general contractor and needed to use their specific program in order to get paid. “ProService created a report that I could import specifically into the [general contractor’s] program,” said Gregory. “It probably would’ve taken 5-10 hours for somebody to manually put that in, but they automated that process,” she added.
Given the pay complexity involved in the construction industry, especially companies that hold government contracts, partnering with ProService gives Surface Shield peace of mind that their certified payroll will be handled on-time and accurately, and also gives their clients peace of mind too. “When we bid for new work, we say we are with a PEO, ProService, who is well-known to be incredibly accurate and has integrity,” said Gregory. “I think it adds power to our bid,” she added. “It’s not like we just have one gal in the office cranking out checks, hoping she’s doing it right. With ProService, we have a whole team…so you are always in compliance because if you're not in compliance, you can't get paid.”
List to the audio clip for the full story!
Hear how ProService supported Surface Shield with important reporting they needed in order to get paid by their general contractor.
See how Surface Shield & ProService collaborate on complex certified payroll reports and other key data for the company.
03. Navigating the merger of two local companies
In 2007, Shon Gregory founded Surface Shield Roofing as a coating specialist operation before expanding to become a full-service roofing company in 2010. Simultaneously, Shon also started United Pacific Builders, a construction company, with a lifelong friend who had his general contracting license. For nearly a decade, both companies operated in parallel with support from ProService. But by 2020, Surface Shield Roofing was experiencing tremendous growth and the need to use its sister company for building became more apparent – so much so that both organizations made the decision to merge, becoming Surface Shield Roofing & Construction.
“ProService played an integral part in making sure that [the merger] happened because they were able to provide all the documentation for workers' compensation, validation of good standing, all these different things,” says Amanda Gregory. “They effectively off-boarded 40 workers from one company, 15 people from another company, added nine new employees…and here we are rolling into Q2’21 strong,” said Amanda. “ProService supported so much with onboarding the company’s employees, workers' compensation codes, proper taxation, all this stuff. I didn't have to think about any of that,” she added. In the end, it was a clean process for turning the lights on for the new company.
List to the audio clip for the full story!
Learn about Surface Shield's approach to compensating employees and how ProService's data helps them make better decisions.
04. Using ProService tools & insights to make decisions about employee compensation
Surface Shield Roofing & Construction has always aspired to be an example for their industry. While some companies reward employees because of emotional drivers, Surface Shield validates their workers by the outcomes they deliver – whether it’s building a beautiful roof or their ability to lead and manage a team of people. Leveraging their ProService client portal, Surface Shield accesses the real employee data they need to make informed decisions about rewarding and compensating employees.
“ProService has great tools in their online portal,” says Amanda Gregory. “You can see how many hours an employee has worked, how much they've been paid, how much taxes have we paid on that individual, how much have we paid for their healthcare, etc.” she added. “This data is important because not every raise has to be a dollar on the hour,” Amanda explained. “Maybe it’s rewarding an employee by changing them from being paid hourly to salary, or maybe we now offer medical care for their family. ProService has all this data in their portal so we can make informed decisions.”
List to the audio clip for the full story!
See how ProService helped when two sister companies decided they wanted to merge into one entity.
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