Amid the Great Resignation and an overheated talent war we haven’t seen in decades, finding ways to put People First is a vexing question for entrepreneurs in almost every industry. Before I share how we’ve answered it in our Evergreen company, it makes sense to start with a brief history.

My father started Hoffmann Brothers back in 1988. He was a mechanical engineer at the time, working here in St. Louis for Anheuser-Busch, and he worked closely with a mechanical contractor to air condition several of their facilities. He really loved the exposure to the HVAC space. He’d wanted to get in business for himself for some time, so he put in his two-week notice with Anheuser-Busch, joined a small, four-person heating and cooling shop, and enrolled in a local trade school at night—making him the first mechanical engineer with a professional engineer license to enroll in this trade school and complete the program. From the start, the business focused on delivering superior service, and my father realized early on that in order to deliver maximum value, it was essential to attract—and equally important, retain—the right people. The roots of our People First philosophy were there right from the beginning.