Employee Spotlights
Two things that truly set The Anderson Company apart are the longevity of our employees and how often they move up through the ranks here. Both of these result from the pride we take in our work, our family atmosphere, and the quality of the people themselves.
Jose Mora
Junior Estimator
“It’s a good company for someone who wants to learn.”
Meet Jose
Jose Mora embodies many of the most enduring aspects of the American Dream. A first-generation American born to Mexican parents, Mora was encouraged to join The Anderson Company thanks to family and friends who already worked for the company.
Eager to learn, Mora happily discovered that Anderson not only was willing to work around his schedule at a local community college, but also by enabling him to grow within the company as quickly as his ambitions carried him.
“It’s been a lot of fun working here,” says Mora. “I started here as a laborer and then moved to lead man and now I’m a junior estimator. So I’ve gotten trained to operate heavy machinery, to use geospatial field equipment, and now I’m learning how to estimate jobs using engineering software.”
Not surprisingly, Mora describes Anderson as “a good company for someone who wants to learn.”
What’s especially impressive about Mora’s rise through the ranks at Anderson is that he didn’t come from the construction industry or have any prior knowledge. Instead he’d briefly worked for a now-defunct retailer.
What does he like best about his job? “It’s a lot of fun – very challenging and rewarding. Every day I feel like I’m learning something new.”
Tom Hickey
Logistics Coordinator
“When I heard about The Anderson Company’s work ethic and saw the culture of professionalism here, I knew this is where I wanted to be.”
Meet Tom
You can tell a lot about a company by the degree to which employees actively seek to engage with one another. But you don’t need to tell Tom Hickey that – his favorite part of the job is “getting to interact with everybody – operators, supers, laborers, customers, truck drivers. I get to deal with everyone here and I love it.”
As Logistics Coordinator, Tom is something of an air traffic controller, albeit for collecting and transporting earth. “We move a lot of dirt running close to 200 trucks a day and my job is to ensure everything runs smoothly,” says Hickey, who has been with Anderson for 18 years. I get to deal with everyone here and I love it.
I knew this is the place I wanted to be. Hickey describes his job as demanding and ‘never dull,’ and says the company’s culture truly starts – and ends – with the man who motivated him to join Anderson, founder Jim Anderson. “It always goes back to Jim,” says Hickey. “The man cares about his employees and works hard to ensure they’re taken care of.” During a recent blizzard when crews were working night and day to keep local highways open and local eateries were closed, Hickey said Anderson showed up with “a big pot of soup so everyone had something good to eat. He had stocked water, food and cots for sleeping – I don’t know many business owners who are doing that in the middle of the night.”
That mindset is precisely why Hickey joined Anderson. “I’ve been blessed to work for only two construction companies, which is pretty much unheard of in this industry,” he says. “But when I heard about Anderson’s work ethic and saw the culture of professionalism here, I knew this is where I wanted to be.” Hickey says that culture of hard work, industry expertise, and professionalism is also why general contractors and job recruits alike want to work with Anderson. “The people here know management will keep them working and they in turn outperform every other competitor in this area.”
Meet Tom
You can tell a lot about a company by the degree to which employees actively seek to engage with one another. But you don’t need to tell Tom Hickey that – his favorite part of the job is “getting to interact with everybody – operators, supers, laborers, customers, truck drivers. I get to deal with everyone here and I love it.”
As Logistics Coordinator, Tom is something of an air traffic controller, albeit for collecting and transporting earth. “We move a lot of dirt running close to 200 trucks a day and my job is to ensure everything runs smoothly,” says Hickey, who has been with Anderson for 18 years. I get to deal with everyone here and I love it.
I knew this is the place I wanted to be. Hickey describes his job as demanding and ‘never dull,’ and says the company’s culture truly starts – and ends – with the man who motivated him to join Anderson, founder Jim Anderson. “It always goes back to Jim,” says Hickey. “The man cares about his employees and works hard to ensure they’re taken care of.” During a recent blizzard when crews were working night and day to keep local highways open and local eateries were closed, Hickey said Anderson showed up with “a big pot of soup so everyone had something good to eat. He had stocked water, food and cots for sleeping – I don’t know many business owners who are doing that in the middle of the night.”
That mindset is precisely why Hickey joined Anderson. “I’ve been blessed to work for only two construction companies, which is pretty much unheard of in this industry,” he says. “But when I heard about Anderson’s work ethic and saw the culture of professionalism here, I knew this is where I wanted to be.” Hickey says that culture of hard work, industry expertise, and professionalism is also why general contractors and job recruits alike want to work with Anderson. “The people here know management will keep them working and they in turn outperform every other competitor in this area.”
Tom Hickey
Logistics Coordinator
“When I heard about The Anderson Company’s work ethic and saw the culture of professionalism here, I knew this is where I wanted to be.”
Juan Ayala
Superintendent
“If you’re proactive and want to learn, you can do anything here. And you’ll feel like you’re part of the family too.”
Meet Juan
Juan Ayala embodies the signature traits that set The Anderson Company apart from its competition: commitment and experience. Ayala’s 22-year career with Anderson has seen him rise through the ranks as a laborer new to the industry, then to foreman, and today as the site superintendent for some of the company’s biggest and most important jobs.
Asked to explain how he scored a promotion to foreman after just six months on the job, Ayala, who hails from El Salvador, explained: “I’m a hardworking man! And I’m outgoing. They like my personality.”
Ayala’s son, who was just a toddler when his father started work with Anderson, is today a 23-year-old laborer learning the ropes at Anderson just the way his father did a generation ago. “He’s quieter than I am, but they like him,” says the proud dad. Ayala believes Anderson is the ideal employer for any individual who is eager to work and learn. “If you’re ambitious, this most definitely is a place you want to work.”
When his children were younger and the company experienced a slow Saturday (a rarity these days), Ayala would occasionally bring his four children along to see what their dad did for a living. “In a way, my kids have grown up with the company,” says Ayala. “They’ve been on job sites, they’ve met the people I work with, and there are all the company picnics and dinners that they’ve been a part of. This company really is like family. It’s wonderful to see the difference we make every day.”
As a site superintendent, Ayala has ultimate responsibility on a job site. Meaning that on any given day, he shows up early to run through the long checklist of people, equipment, site requirements, safety reviews, and other tasks and resources associated with the job. “It’s always changing and is always challenging, which is why I love the job,” he says.
By the time lunch rolls around Ayala usually has wrapped up paperwork from the previous day and is coordinating with his counterparts on the next day’s work. Asked to identify what he loves most about his work, Ayala says it’s watching the job site progress and evolve from one day to the next. “On a big job we might move 300 to 400 loads a day – this company moves a lot of dirt. It’s wonderful to see the difference we make every day. You get the sense that things are happening with this job, and not all jobs give you that.”
What did Ayala tell his son – and, for that matter, would he tell other prospective employees – about working for Anderson? “It’s a great company. If you’re proactive and want to learn, you can do anything here. And you’ll feel like you’re part of the family too.”