A few years ago, I had an idea for a little project I could undertake with our People Services team to address some hiring challenges that were bubbling up at the construction company I have the honor of leading, Lease Crutcher Lewis. But the thing about ideas, especially ones that turn out to be good, is that they tend to take on a life of their own. Through this experience, I learned that for such ideas to grow and flourish and deliver value, you have to give them the space, time, authenticity, and energy they demand.

Lease Crutcher Lewis is a 100% Employee-Owned construction company that has existed since 1886. We are committed to making a positive impact for our clients and our communities every day. Employee ownership is a big part of what drives the incredible investment of our entire team in rising to achieve this purpose every day, and our strong culture stands on the foundation of over a century of commitment to excellence, integrity, safety, and positive impact.

Thanks in great part to our incredible culture and our People First orientation, we have uniquely low turnover — averaging around 7-9% versus the construction industry’s 10-12% average. We have long understood this; it has been a source of pride and success for many years. But as we, along with everyone else in our industry and so many others, began to face an ever-tightening labor market in the early 2020s, it occurred to me that we could do a better job articulating this strength, and that it might help us attract top talent in the tight hiring environment. I decided to see if I could make that happen.

My initial idea was modest: gather a few employee insights, identify a couple of key themes, and distill them into an employee value proposition that we could share with prospective candidates. I initially expected this would be a project that would take a month’s work, tops. What unfolded instead was a nearly year-long process that would involve hundreds of conversations, create deep cross-functional connections, and ultimately yield a living, cultural document embraced across the company. My little idea took off, and it came back bigger, bolder, and better than I ever could have imagined.

As I pondered the challenges we were facing in the hiring process, it seemed clear that making sure applicants understood our special culture was key. I thought, who better to explain what makes Lewis special than the people who choose, day after day and year after year, to stay? The initial idea was to collect authentic employee-driven language that could be assembled in a statement document and used in recruitment. What I didn’t anticipate was just how deeply our team would invest in this effort.

I started by casually asking a few leaders what they thought their teams might say in answer to the question, “Why do you choose to stay here year after year?” Their feedback was clear from the start; if you really want to know why people are here, don’t ask us, go straight to them. We have people who have been here for decades. I’m thinking of one employee who’s been here for 37 years. Who better to explain why, my leadership team suggested, than him?

They set out to start asking this question, and the undertaking quickly expanded beyond a few hallway conversations. A five-person cross-departmental committee formed, made up of people known for being skilled listeners. They launched a series of one-on-one conversations with employees across departments, operating divisions, levels, and geographic locations.

At this point it became clear to me that this initiative had taken on a life of its own, so I made the decision to step out of the way. Our team had the right instincts, and let’s be honest – people are apt to give more honest, open, and thoughtful responses when the question doesn’t come from the CEO, no matter how open and supportive my role is in our culture. It worked.

Importantly, these were not surveys or focus groups. They were casual, human conversations — over coffee or during a jobsite walk. The best answers came when people didn’t feel like they were being interviewed. And the people who proved to be the best at initiating and leading these conversations were not necessarily people who led departments or teams. It was the people who were curious listeners. They were able to sit down and dig deep into comments and responses and get to the heart of what people really valued in their work and their workplaces, even when they couldn’t immediately articulate it themselves. This skill, of curious listening, is powerful and critical and was the key to the success of this initiative. A curious listener will ask open-ended questions and then gently dig deeper. When someone says, ‘I like the people,’ you ask, ‘What is it about the people?’ And then you ask again. You keep peeling it back until you get to something real. That’s the gold – or as I like to say the “True Lewis Blue!”

The committee conducted nearly 100 conversations over two months. They then engaged a broader group of leaders to synthesize the feedback, reducing the potential for bias and amplifying the connection to the output. From the rich data set, five clear tenets emerged. We distilled and refined them and created a new section of Lewis’s internal “Everyday Lewis” culture guide, under a banner that now proudly reads: Why Lewis? Each theme is simple, authentic, and grounded in real employee language:

• Safety is at our core
• Our legacy is built to last
• We take care of each another
• Your voice matters here
• We build futures together

Each of these tenets is supported by a short statement of meaning — easy to understand, easy to repeat.

The success of the employee value proposition initiative has far exceeded our initial goals, and certainly the scope of the project I initially imagined. Not only has this become a wildly effective recruiting tool, but it has come to life within the company and throughout the existing team as well. You hear these tenets echoed in the halls at Lewis and in the jobsite office trailers. Just this morning, I heard someone getting coffee say to a colleague, ‘Remember, safety is at our core.’ That kind of shared language makes an impact. It matters.

Today, Why Lewis is woven into hiring, onboarding, and daily operations. New employees are introduced to it on their first day. It’s not just a glossy document — it sets the tone for their entire employee experience.

One unexpected benefit was how the process strengthened internal relationships. Because interviewers were intentionally selected from different departments than the people they spoke with, people who might never have interacted ended up sharing meaningful conversations. It helped connect parts of the business that don’t usually overlap.

My own personal lessons through this process were significant as well. I had to manage my own impatience and surrender to the reality that if we were going to do this right, it wasn’t something I could rush. The depth and richness of the outcome came directly from allowing the process to take the time it needed. And I had to have the humility to step out of the way when it was time to let others take over leadership. This didn’t mean that I didn’t get to enjoy the journey; people would regularly pop in to give me side-door feedback. They’d say, “I just had my Why Lewis chat. Here’s what I told them.” This was a great confirmation that this process was not only adding value to the company and our hiring practices, but also to the employee experience. Being asked to share your experience and opinion is a great validation that you matter.

The Why Lewis framework continues to evolve. I expect we will continue to find new ways to use it and to let it take shape over time. But beyond any formal program, this undertaking has already succeeded in its biggest goal: making something visible and tangible out of the company’s long-standing, often unspoken culture of employee/owner commitment. We didn’t invent these tenets. We just named them. Our people were already living them. Now the framework is in place to ensure that this remains true for our next chapter, which we intend to extend for another 100 years or more.