BUILDING A BETTER WORLD Chandos Construction does things a little differently By Jim Timlick It’s not very often you will see the owner of a multi-million-dollar company come into work each day with their sleeves rolled up and prepared to get their hands dirty. As unusual as such a scenario might seem at many workplaces, it’s an everyday occur rence at Chandos Construction. Founded in 1980, Chandos is one of a growing number of employee-owned Canadian construction companies and has been since day one. What differentiates it from many other employee-owned enterprises is the fact that its ownership ranks include everyone from frontline employees on job sites to middle management. In fact, every single Chandos employee, including hourly workers, has the option to buy shares in the business and company executives make up less than 40 per cent of Chandos’ nearly 200 employeeowners. The Chandos ownership model is in spired by the one used by the Mondragon Corporation in Spain, one of the largest and most successful worker cooperatives in the world. Former CEO and current executive
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Calgary Construction Association
The Scenic Grande, one of Chandos Construction’s communityfocused projects, provides seniors with independent and assisted living accommodation and amenity space in northwest Calgary. chair, Tom Redl, travelled to Spain several years ago to tour Mondragon firsthand. He was so impressed by what he saw overseas that he determined a similar ownership strategy would be a perfect fit for Chandos and give it a competitive advantage here in Canada. Nicole Monaco, director, marketing and communication, says one of the benefits of Chandos’ employee ownership model is the fact that it encourages a sense of entre preneurship among workers at every level of the company. It has also helped create a stronger bond among employees.
WORKING TOGETHER “In most companies, you really only con trol your own destiny and often times you only think about your own performance or team,” says Monaco. “In this employee
ownership model, someone like me is also contributing to the success of the 200 other owners in the company. We’re all working together. We all earn a share of the profits. It’s a great way to incentivize and it attracts talent as well.” Chandos has been following its own path since it was launched 40 years ago by co-founders Dan O’Brien and Don Coyne. That fact is reflected in the company’s name. Rather than choosing a name that paid homage to themselves, the founders chose the name of a lake in Ontario they both had a connection to so that the com pany would live on even after they were no longer a part of it. Now entering its third generation of leadership, Chandos continues to follow that tradition of doing things a little bit dif ferently.
