Further growth in 2012 is expected as McCarthy is currently recruiting for more than 60 additional new positions. 

“When employees own the company, as we do at McCarthy, they operate with increased motivation, and that in turn enables continued growth and expansion,” commented McCarthy President and Chief Operating Officer Derek Glanvill. “It is thanks to our culture of ownership and the dedication of our employee owners that we have been able to increase our operations this past year.”

 According to a report from Georgetown University, S ESOPs like McCarthy have been job creators even in tough economic times. While overall employment in the U.S. fell by nearly three percent in 2008, employment at surveyed private, employee-owned firms rose by nearly two percent.

 Further, according to a University of Pennsylvania study, S ESOP companies like McCarthy create not only employee motivation and success, but also $14 billion in new savings for workers each year that they otherwise would not have. This is because profits of the company flow into the ESOP (retirement) accounts of the workers. Moreover, a survey from the National Center for Employee Ownership reported that S ESOP employees can have retirement account balances three to five times higher than the average 401 (k) or other defined contribution plans. This helps to explain why S ESOP company employees can be so successful, as compared with most working Americans who—according to a recent AP poll—think they will lack enough money to live comfortably in retirement.

“Employee-owners work smarter and harder because of their commitment and investment in the business,” said Greg Klein, chairman of the board of directors of the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America. “McCarthy is a prime example of what S corporation ESOP companies can do for workers and for our economy.”

About ESCA
The Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (“ESCA”) is the Washington, DC voice for employee-owned S corporations.  ESCA’s exclusive mission is to preserve and protect S corporation ESOPs and the benefits they provide to the employees who own them.  These companies have an important story to tell policymakers about the tremendous success of the S ESOP structure in generating long-term retirement savings for working Americans and their families.  ESCA provides the vehicle and the voice for these efforts.  ESCA represents employee-owners in every state in the nation. 

About McCarthy
McCarthy (http://www.mccarthy.com/) is one of the nation’s oldest and largest American-owned commercial contractors. Headquartered in St. Louis, the firm has offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  

“McCarthy’s never-ending mission is to be The Best Builder in America,” commented McCarthy President and Chief Operating Officer Derek Glanvill. “As a 100 percent employee-owned company , our holistic approach to wellness flows logically from this mission. In addition, as healthcare costs in America soar, McCarthy employee-owners understand the impact this can have on our business and the role they can play in helping to manage this. Focusing on wellness together, we can to be more productive partners, better family members and in turn potentially control rising costs through prevention.”

Developed and launched in 2010, McCarthy Build for Life is a comprehensive wellness program designed to encourage all employees and their families to strive toward optimal mental, physical and emotional well-being. The program focuses on four key areas: Awareness, Prevention, Activity, and Lifestyle & Stress.

“When it comes to our construction projects, our approach has always been to invest a significant effort up front to prevent issues before they occur,” continued Glanvill. “We have extended this same proactive approach to our Build for Life program, encouraging employees to make wellness a part of their everyday lives.”

To jump start McCarthy’s wellness program in 2010, the company launched an Activity Challenge. All employees received a free pedometer and used an online step tracking program to log daily steps. More than 50% of employees participated in the program, logging 184,974,999 steps. The 2011 Activity Challenge, now including spouses and partners, was completed July 8, 2011 with participants logging 222,775,416 steps.

“The McCarthy Build for Life Program is a grassroots program, supported by Wellness Champions in each McCarthy and MC Industrial office,” explained McCarthy Vice President, Human Resources Al Berardi. “These Champions communicate with employees in their region and encourage involvement.”

Key program features include:

• Rewards program designed to help increase the health of all McCarthy partners while, at the same time, controlling healthcare costs over the long-term. Employees and their spouse/partner can earn points for completing proactive, health-related activities that will be directly applied toward reduced medical insurance premiums;
• Complimentary health screenings for McCarthy employees and spouses/partners, including blood pressure screening, BMI/waist circumference checks, cholesterol/HDL/Glucose screenings, and Prostate Specific Antigen screenings;
• Quarterly wellness newsletter delivered to homes of all employees, in partnership with the Mayo Clinic, and discount subscriptions to health-related publications;
• Regular educational wellness webinars available to employees and their families;
• Wellness areas in all main office locations and at all-employee biannual meetings featuring material on health, nutrition, activity and stress/lifestyle management;
• Wide array of company-sponsored wellness employee events

“McCarthy has made great strides in focusing on improving employee health both here in St. Louis and across America,” concluded Glanvill. “This award honors many leading St. Louis organizations, and McCarthy is proud to be included in this group.”

About Healthiest Employers
Healthiest Employers is an organization dedicated to promoting wellness in business. The mission is to educate on the value of a healthy workforce and reward organizations that are wellness leaders. To be considered for the Healthiest Employers award, an organization must meet: be a business, not-for-profit or government entity; employ a minimum of two full time employees; demonstrate evidence of an employee wellness program; and complete the online application.

About McCarthy
McCarthy is one of the nation’s oldest and largest American-owned commercial contractors. Headquartered in St. Louis, the firm has offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned .

Builder’s Innovative Approach Garners National Recognition from Associated General Contractors of America

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. one of the nation’s oldest and largest privately-held construction companies and a 100 percent employee-owned business, was honored last week with a 2011 Education Excellence Award from the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).

Presented during the AGC Training, Education & Development Conference in Kansas City, the Education Excellence Awards recognize the most innovative and collaborative training and development programs in the construction industry. McCarthy was honored in the category of Supervisor-Executive Management for the firm’s Foundations of Leadership Training Program. This AGC award comes on the heels of McCarthy’s placement on the prestigious 2011 Training Magazine Top 125 list and recognition by Corporate University Xchange for training excellence and innovation earlier this year.

“The key to building great projects is building great professionals,” said AGC President Kristine Young. “McCarthy’s leadership training program is an example of how to turn tremendous talent into outstanding professionals.”

Founded as a family-owned business almost 150 years ago, McCarthy is one of the largest 100% employee-owned companies with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan in America today. The firm has long fostered a culture dedicated to continuous improvement, and “Learning” represents one of McCarthy’s six company Core Values. 
 
“McCarthy transitioned from family to employee ownership in 2002,” explained McCarthy Chairman and CEO Mike Bolen. “This significant shift, together with a combination of company growth and retirements of a number of long-time leaders, resulted in our need to more aggressively prepare our high-potential employees for growth. The opportunities at McCarthy are vast and varied, and training these future leaders is an exciting part of our continuing success.”

The McCarthy Foundations of Leadership Program was designed to accelerate the advancement of high performers by challenging them early in their career to take charge of their own development through an orchestrated “peek behind the curtain” at the unique issues faced by the leaders of a multi-billion dollar general contractor. This fast-track approach was also designed to challenge these employees, keep them fully engaged in the company and heighten the overall level of professionalism in the industry.

“Our senior leadership is 100% behind the development of future leaders at McCarthy and actively participate in our Foundations program as instructors,” noted McCarthy Vice President of Human Resources Al Berardi. “We have invested an incredible amount of time to create an active learning experience that is both challenging and meaningful. To be honored by our national association for our efforts is especially meaningful.”

About the Associated General Contractors of America
The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) is the leading association for the construction industry. Operating in partnership with its nationwide network of Chapters, the AGC provides a full range of services satisfying the needs and concerns of its members, thereby improving the quality of construction and protecting the public interest. The AGC represents more than 33,000 leading firms in the industry,  including general contractors, specialty contractors, and service providers and suppliers.

About McCarthy
McCarthy is one of the nation’s oldest and largest domestic general contractors. While a formal McCarthy Training Program had been in place for decades, McCarthy formally launched an entirely revamped training program in 2008 under McCarthy Build U. Unusual in the construction industry and among best-in-class training programs outside of the construction industry, the McCarthy Build U framework provides the company with the structure, alignment, centralization and flexibility needed to personalize training to meet both individual and business needs. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.

The tot lot, near the newly refurbished basketball courts, is the latest sign of the urban park’s steady transformation. Under the firm’s “Heart Hats” volunteer program, McCarthy led the tot lot’s construction efforts as part of an on-going collaborative Mosswood Park renovation and beautification initiative between Kaiser Permanente, McCarthy, the City of Oakland and neighborhood residents. Mosswood Park is adjacent to Kaiser Permanente’s future Oakland Medical Center, on which McCarthy serves as the project’s general contractor.

“Mosswood Park is in an underserved area of Oakland, and in observing the depleted park from our Kaiser Permanente jobsite across the street, we embraced the opportunity to lead the construction efforts in building a playground and safe haven for the community,” said Angeles Garcia-Tapia, senior project manager with McCarthy. “McCarthy was excited to partner with our client Kaiser Permanente and the city of Oakland in this community project.”

McCarthy donated all preconstruction and construction management services for the tot lot.  Project scope included underground utilities, irrigation, landscaping, turf grasses, chain link fencing, existing tree protection, site concrete, playground structures and site furnishes.

“It’s really satisfying to see everything come together,” said Carla Paliaga, a neighborhood parent who spearheaded the campaign to get a new tot lot installed at Mosswood. “I’m thrilled parents will now have a good place to visit with their kids.”

For years, the parents of young children in the neighborhood sought a safe playground for their kids, Paliaga said. The old tot lot, located near the historic house at the park, was in disrepair. The closest tot lot was miles away in the Piedmont Hills.

Paliaga’s parent group received a city grant and soon after, sought other support. In addition to McCarthy’s role, Kaiser Permanente contributed capital funding and NBBJ Architects volunteered design.

“The story of the new Mosswood Park tot lot began with a wish from the neighborhood to have a safe and clean area appropriate for their preschoolers to play and experience the outdoors,” said Michael J. Lane, Kaiser Permanente’s project director on the Oakland Medical Center Replacement Project. “Working with the neighborhood, the city of Oakland and McCarthy, Kaiser Permanente was able to make that wish come true.”

For the fifth year, McCarthy, Kaiser Permanente, city of Oakland and community volunteers planted flowers, painted park benches, bleachers and buildings, and added fresh mulch to park trees and shrubs as part of the annual Mosswood Park cleanup day.

“At the end of each clean-up day, we always are left with a sense of satisfaction for having been part of this event and sharing the experience with our client and the community,” said Garcia-Tapia.  “Through our dedication to improving Mosswood Park, we feel that we are part of the community in which we are building.”

In addition to building the new tot lot, McCarthy held a holiday season toy drive for the underprivileged neighborhood children who utilize the Mosswood Park Community Center.  Mosswood Park was also a beneficiary of McCarthy’s 2009 golf tournament, the company’s largest annual fundraiser.

About McCarthy Heart Hats
McCarthy employees are as passionate about building better communities as they are about construction. The McCarthy Heart Hats community involvement program is dedicated to encouraging, supporting and recognizing McCarthy employees’ volunteer efforts in a variety of causes to ensure real needs are being met in communities where employees work, live and play. In addition to recognizing outstanding employee volunteers and providing a company-wide paid volunteer day, McCarthy donates countless hours of in-kind services and monetary contributions to improve communities each year through the program. More information is available on line at http://www.mccarthy.com/.

To make sure your project is smooth sailing, check out the latest edition of McCarthy’s Insights That Build^sm newsletter. You’ll find specific tips about what to look out for if you are planning a project but have been out of the market for a while.

Feature articles in this edition include:

Speed-to-Market: How to move from concept to delivery in record time
by John Buescher, P.E., LEED AP BD+C, McCarthy Vice President, Operations

In the building industry, the old saw ‘time is money’ has never been more accurate. Here’s how owners can take best advantage of all that speed-to-market has to offer.

(Re)Building Healthcare: The cure for an ailing market is already here, if you know where to look
by Steve Mynsberge, LEED AP BD+C, McCarthy Executive Vice President

Attentive healthcare owners are starting to build again. Learn more about what to look for if you’ve been out of the market for a while as well as some pitfalls to avoid.

BIM in Action: St. Jude Medical Center Northwest Tower
by Marc Howell, McCarthy Design Manager

See how a truly integrated and collaborative team is using BIM to achieve success.

Mandated Air Quality Controls and New Generation: Is EPC the path?
by Ryan G. Miner, Director of Business Development, MC Industrial

This deep recession combined with regulatory uncertainty has much of the industrial construction market paralyzed. In light of all this uncertainty, owners considering construction must carefully review options for timing, determine the best method of execution, and evaluate the mechanics of cost recovery before moving forward.

See the National Edition now.

Readers can also view region-specific content by selecting from the drop down menu titled View Other Editions. These include Central, Nevada/Utah, Southern California, Northern Pacific, Southwest, Southeast, Texas and MC Industrial.

Under its signature “Tools for Schools” service program, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. held a volunteer day on August 13 at Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) Skyline High School.  As a result, students will return to the 2011/12 year with a beautified – and safer – school campus. 

Due to scarce public resources, funding for landscaping at OUSD schools has decreased in recent years, leaving grounds unmaintained.  This lack of funding is strongly felt at Skyline High School in the Oakland Hills, an area predisposed to fire danger, where overgrown brush is both a safety and a landscaping issue.

The Tools for Schools effort at Skyline focused on overhauling the landscaping on the 36 acre campus, which included weed abatement, brush clearing, bark spreading and other landscaping maintenance.  McCarthy partnered with GKK Works and, collectively, the more than 30 volunteers worked to ensure that a safe and attractive learning environment would be ready for Skyline students on the first day of school.

McCarthy is a premier builder of educational facilities.  Its Northern California Tools for Schools service program was instituted in 2005 to ensure real needs are being met in school districts where McCarthy employees work, live and play.  To date, six campuses at Oakland Unified have received makeovers from the Tools for Schools service program.

The 12-story, 349-bed hospital is scheduled to open in 2014, and will replace the existing hospital across MacArthur Boulevard. The construction is part of the state-mandated earthquake safety retrofit of all California hospitals. NBBJ serves as the project’s architect.

“For more than 65 years Kaiser Permanente has served the health care needs of this community.  We recognized and celebrated the significant achievement of placing the last steel beam on top of the new Oakland Hospital Tower, confirming our commitment to that legacy for future generations,” said Nate Oubre, senior vice president and East Bay Area manager for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California.

“We are thrilled to be an integral part in fulfilling Kaiser Permanente’s vision to expand its offering of exceptional medical facilities in California,” said Rich Henry, president of McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.’s Northern Pacific Division.  “As the general contractor, we’ve streamlined project delivery with a special emphasis on utilizing innovative technologies throughout the design and construction phases.  It was exciting to come together with Kaiser Permanente and the local community leaders to place the final beam on Kaiser’s new “flagship” hospital facility here in Oakland.”

The first of three phases of the project was completed in May 2009 with the opening of the Broadway Medical Office Building and Cancer Center and an adjacent parking garage. The second phase of the project includes the new hospital and a Specialty Medical Office Building, which will house 99 medical provider offices, six outpatient operating rooms and seven outpatient procedure rooms.

A 1,200-stall parking garage is complete.

“The ‘topping out’ was an exciting milestone in the construction of Kaiser Permanente’s new, state-of-the-art Medical Center here in Oakland,” said Dr. John Loftus, physician in chief at Oakland Medical Center. “The physicians and staff believe this new facility will provide superior technology for the complex tertiary adult and pediatric services that we provide for the Oakland community and patients referred to Oakland from throughout Northern California.”

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.7 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to www.kp.org/newscenter.

About McCarthy
With more than 145 years of experience, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the largest American-based healthcare builder and one of California’s premier commercial builders. In addition to San Francisco and Sacramento, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Dallas; Houston; St. Louis and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

The team will be responsible for the construction of housing for 1,722 patient-inmates, a diagnostics and treatment center, program spaces, and administrative support spaces. The contract is valued at approximately $512 million.

CHCF Stockton is an intermediate-level medical and mental health care facility for patient-inmates within the California state prison system. The total project is approximately 1.2 million square feet. The first phase of construction includes on-site and off-site utilities, road work, grading, secure perimeter fencing, and a central utility plant and was previously awarded to a separate design-build team.

The construction of CHCF Stockton will result in a significant positive impact for the Stockton/San Joaquin community, creating more than $1 billion in economic activity and 5,500 regional jobs.

Clark and McCarthy have partnered on several healthcare projects in California. The companies completed the 1.5 million square-foot LAC+USC Medical Replacement Facility in 2008 and are currently constructing a 500,000-square-foot hospital at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

About McCarthy
Ranked among America’s top ten domestic builders by Engineering News-Record, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. has called California home for nearly 30 years. Today, McCarthy is California’s top general building contractor (California Construction Magazine, April 2010), having under contract or completed nearly $17 billion in construction projects across the state. Along with its Northern Pacific Division headquarters located in San Francisco, McCarthy also has full-service offices in Sacramento, Newport Beach and San Diego. In addition to California, McCarthy has offices in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

Over the next two years, all McCarthy LEED AP’s will complete the required 30 hours of training through the McCarthy Green Curriculum to maintain the new credential. Existing green training programs typically focus on design issues. The McCarthy Green Curriculum is unique, presented from the builder’s perspective. This curriculum focuses on what McCarthy and the building team can do during design, construction and operations to have a positive impact on the sustainability of the project.

In addition to employee training, McCarthy’s commitment to sustainability requires continual review of day-to-day operations affecting the environment to look for different ways to do the same or more, while reducing the environmental impact. McCarthy has also implemented the following:

Policies—McCarthy has established office, field, wellness and transportation policies to track and reduce the firm’s impact on the environment. These include use of recycled materials and improving fleet efficiency every year.

Carbon Footprint—McCarthy has adopted a carbon footprint methodology, established a company baseline and is working towards a 5% reduction over the next five years.

Leadership—In addition to sustainable leadership at the national level, each McCarthy project has an identified sustainability leader and champion.

“Green building techniques and materials are being incorporated into every one of our projects today, and clients and partners need a builder they can count on,” explained McCarthy Vice President, Quality and Sustainability Chad Dorgan. “The GBCI program provides a consistent framework for our industry and at the same time provides owners with a green standard they can trust. By upgrading all of our employees, we are providing this same level of consistency for all clients nationwide.”

About McCarthy
McCarthy is one of the nation’s oldest and largest privately held commercial construction companies. More than a decade ago, McCarthy formalized a national in-house green knowledge network to capture and build upon the best green practices across the country. Today, the McCarthy Green Team is comprised of approximately 400 USGBC LEED Accredited Professionals (ranking the company in the top 10 for LEED AP’s by Building Design and Construction and among the nation’s Top 20 Green Construction Companies in America by Engineering News-Record). The firm’s resumé of sustainable projects is valued at over $6 billion. Nationally recognized on the Training 125 list for the firm’s outstanding employee training and development programs, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information is available online at www.mccarthy.com/about/green.

“McCarthy has a strong national partnership with the American Heart Association,” commented Tracy Brazelton, AHA executive director in St. Louis. “As a company, they have made great strides in focusing on improving employee health both here in St. Louis and across America. This award recognizes the best-of-the-best companies, and McCarthy is certainly one of these.”

Developed and launched in 2010, McCarthy Build for Life is a comprehensive wellness program designed to encourage all employees and their families to strive toward optimal mental, physical and emotional well-being. The program focuses on four key areas: awareness, prevention, activity, and lifestyle & stress.

“When it comes to our construction projects, our approach has always been to invest a significant effort up front to prevent issues before they occur,” noted McCarthy President and COO Derek Glanvill. “We have extended this same proactive approach to our Build for Life program, encouraging employees to make wellness a part of their everyday lives.”

To jump start McCarthy’s wellness program in 2010, the company launched an Activity Challenge. All 1,400 employees received a free pedometer and used an online step tracking program to log daily steps over a 3-month period. More than 50% of employees participated in the program, logging 184,974,999 steps. The 2011 Activity Challenge, expanded to include spouses and partners, began on May 1.

Designed as a grassroots program, McCarthy Build for Life is supported by Wellness Champions in each McCarthy office who communicate to employees in their region. Key McCarthy Build for Life program features include:

• Regular wellness webinars available to employees and their families
• Quarterly wellness newsletter delivered to homes of all employees, in partnership with the Mayo Clinic, and discount subscriptions to other health-related publications
• Complimentary health screenings for McCarthy employees and spouses/partners, including blood pressure screening, BMI/waist circumference checks, cholesterol/HDL/Glucose screenings, and Prostate Specific Antigen screenings
• Wellness areas at all-employee biannual meetings featuring material on health, nutrition, activity,  and stress/lifestyle management
• Wide array of company-sponsored wellness employee events

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies. Committed to the construction of high performance buildings, the company provides general contracting, construction management, and design-build services for healthcare, educational, commercial, parking structures, science and technology facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; mixed-use; bridges; and highways. McCarthy has full-service offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Newport Beach, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and St. Louis. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.