What our values mean to you: Empowerment
By
Painters USA Team — Last updated July 11, 2022
Empowerment
Painters USA is guided by eight values that strengthen our business for the benefit of our clients, prospective clients, and business partners.
This article is about Empowerment, with a focus on women to encourage more to consider the construction trades and facility maintenance industry.
Yet all Painters USA employees—including operations, sales, and the crews we send to your facility—are empowered and encouraged to work together, to remain vigilant about project details for safety and on-time / on-budget delivery, and to share ideas for continuous improvment.
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Empowerment starts at the top
President and Co-Founder Meg Cook has always believed that Painters USA is much greater than painting and coating services; the company changes lives in many positive ways:
For customers
Solving problems and improving facilities to enhance safety, productivity, and the useful life and value of capital assets.
For employees
Developing skills, providing a career ladder, and offering a positive, supportive work environment where their contributions are recognized and valued.
For the community
Creating nicer, safer industrial and commercial facilities for all the people who use them and see them every day.
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Painters USA President Meg Cook
As Meg likes to say, Painters USA’s quality outcomes are:
Not a pigment of your imagination.
Empowerment through WPO and WBENC
Two ways we are enhancing our value to clients, growing and strengthening our business, and empowering our female managers and employees is through our participation in two amazing organizations, WPO and WBENC.
Women Presidents Organization
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WPO membership includes over 2000 women business leaders around the world leading privately-held companies with at least $2 million dollars in sales for a product-based business or $1 million for a service business.
Painters USA is a Platinum member, which requires a minimum $10 million dollars in gross annual sales.
The WPO 2022 Annual Conference was May 4-6 in Montréal and attended by Meg, whose key takeaways on leadership and high-performance include:
- The importance of building and recognizing the dignity and worth of every individual. According to speaker and conflict expert Dr. Donna Hicks of Harvard University, when leaders fail to respect the dignity of others, conflict and distrust ensue.
- Respect is a 2-way street and requires us to “walk a mile” in the shoes of the other person for greater understanding and better mutual outcomes.
- Growing the awareness and recognition of Painters USA through WPO is a key benefit; we can only help companies that know our existence and capabilities!
Meg says she joined WPO to feed her soul and become a better leader, manager, and mentor for all her employees. She will tell you that she sees herself first and foremost as a mentor.
Women's Business Enterprise National Council
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Painters USA has been continuously certified as a woman-owned business since 2014.
This rigorous recertification process truly keeps us on our toes, and it has a significant impact on our business growth and sustainability.
WBENC certification adds value to our customers, prospects, and partners in three ways:
- It validates our financial and operational strengths and our commitment to sustaining and growing our business.
- It demonstrates our commitment to supporting women and women-owned businesses, a commitment shared by many of our clients.
- It supports the vendor management and supplier diversity efforts of companies that place a high value on those goals.
The WBENC 2022 Annual Conference was June 7-9 in Atlanta, and once again Meg and some of her team were active participants at the event.
Woman Owned
As a WBENC certified woman-owned business, Painters USA delivers added benefits like tax incentives, new procurement channels, innovation, and commitment to supplier diversity. Plus the certification / recertification process validates our operational and financial strengths.
WBENC certified since 2014
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Empowerment makes good business sense
We have found over 40 years in business that employees who are empowered are also more engaged, more effective in their jobs, and more committed to the company and their coworkers.
As one of our core values, Empowerment will continue to be a driving force behind the quality outcomes we deliver every day.