BCCI’s mission is to expand the role of builder, providing comprehensive construction services to take projects from concept to completion. Ranked as a Top Contractor by ENR California and continuously ranked “Bay Area Best Places to Work” by the San Francisco Business Times, BCCI is a leading commercial general contractor with offices in San Francisco and the South Bay. As part of our commitment to sustainability, our team of green building experts has completed nearly 60 projects that have achieved or are seeking LEED certification, including the first LEED v4 CI Platinum project in the world.
Employee Response
HOW HAVE THE EMPLOYEES RESPONDED TO THE JUST PROGRAM AND THE WILLINGNESS OF THE FIRM TO DEMONSTRATE TRANSPARENCY ON THESE SENSITIVE ISSUES? HAS THIS PROCESS AND JOURNEY HELPED ELEVATE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT LEVELS?
With Integrity as one of our core values, BCCI is dedicated to transparency in our business practices. This philosophy aligns with JUST’s mission to disclose social justice and equity policies. Our employees appreciate and are excited to be part of a company that honors its commitments and that is steadfast in always doing the right thing.
Key Benefits
WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE MOST VALUABLE BENEFITS TO ANY ORGANIZATION PURSUING THE JUST LABEL?
We believe that benchmarking is the most valuable benefit to pursuing the JUST Label. It gives companies the opportunity to assess current social justice practices, quantify them, and make objective decisions to optimize future efforts. As an example, we took a second look at our charitable activities since it is something that significantly contributes to our culture. Through our pursuit of the JUST label and analyzing how well we performed in the Stewardship category, we were able to quantify our current efforts and set goals to improve future activities and charitable giving.
Leveraging the Label
IN WHAT WAYS ARE YOU LEVERAGING THE JUST LABEL? ARE YOU USING JUST IN YOUR SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING, BLOG ARTICLES, SOCIAL MEDIA OR CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS?
We leverage our JUST Label on a number of marketing platforms. Our JUST label is displayed on our company website. The label is included on our social media platforms and it has been highlighted in company press releases. Internally the achievement of our JUST Label was announced in a company wide email and it has been reviewed at our annual Town Hall meeting. JUST is mentioned as part of our employee onboarding for new hires and it is discussed in presentations about the WELL Building Standard. JUST serves as a compliance pathway for meeting the organizational transparency requirement in the WELL Standard.
Advice for Prospects
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE PROSPECTIVE JUST ORGANIZATIONS?
Prospective JUST organizations should identify a team to be involved in gathering all of the required information. This team should include a JUST champion, a representative from HR, a representative from accounting and/or finance, and a representative from the senior leadership team.
Once the team has been assembled, identify key goals and objectives. Some of these goals may include:
- benchmarking
- to help create new policies or improve existing policies
- a platform to increase company transparency
Finally, put together a realistic timeline for pulling together the documentation and submitting the required information to ILFI. For BCCI, this process took approximately six months.
Lessons Learned
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION AS A RESULT OF THE JUST APPLICATION PROCESS?
The biggest lesson learned in going through the JUST application process was that we did not have automated reporting in place to pull much of the financial data required. Information had to be gathered from a variety of sources and then aggregated for analysis. Now after having gone through the initial application and our renewal, our finance team has a system in place to more efficiently gather the data needed for re-submission.
Changes in Policy
CAN YOU DESCRIBE SOME OF THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL CHANGES TO ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES AS A RESULT OF JUST?
Since our primary goal was to benchmark our current policies, there have been no consequential changes as of yet.
What Worked Well
ARE THERE SPECIFIC POLICY CHANGES THAT HAVE BEEN PARTICULARLY WELL RECEIVED? PLEASE DESCRIBE.
We did not alter much of our existing language, mainly because we used JUST as a benchmarking tool to assess our current policies. Upon our re-certification, we began examining ways in which we could make improvements. For example, we recognized a need to create a policy around volunteering. A commitment to volunteering is embedded in our culture although a specific policy documenting and tracking participation has not previously existed.
Management Tool
PLEASE DESCRIBE HOW THE FIRM INTENDS TO USE JUST AS A MANAGEMENT TOOL AND FRAMEWORK MOVING FORWARD.
In addition to continuing to use JUST as a benchmarking tool, it is used to align the goals of our Community Builders committee, an internal group committed to supporting the local community through volunteering and fundraising. Recognition as a JUST organization has contributed to our company’s commitment to the WELL Building Standard, which is now the standard for all BCCI offices.
BCCI is a progressive organization that is always looking to improve and to adapt to change. JUST is used to track goals for continual improvement as well as corporate accountability. In addition to JUST, BCCI participates annually in the San Francisco Business Times Best Places to Work in the Bay Area survey in order to gather employee feedback and to modify organizational policies, as required, to best suit the needs and interests of our employees.