Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging

A Michigan electric company strays from its origins to find significant success in plumbing and sewer work

Jun 19, 2024 | by Ken Wysocky |

Michigan Plumbing Drain Cleaning Business Growth Pipe Lining Pipeline Rehabilitation Pipe Bursting Supreme Corporation Spartan Tool LLC ServiceTitan RIDGID Picote Solutions Perma-Liner Industries Morgan Corporation Milwaukee Tool J&M Products Isuzu Commercial Truck of America American Pipelining Supplies

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging — Marcus Piwonski, co-owner of Hoover Electric, Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, with some of the company’s 74 employees at the Hoover shop in Troy, Michigan.

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging — Connor Murphy and Trevor Gilbert use an M18 series inspection camera from Milwaukee Tool on a residential job in Oak Park, Michigan.

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging — Gilbert and Murphy prepare for a sewer lining job. Lining is a growing part of Hoover’s business.

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging — Gilbert and Murphy go over the specifications of a lining job. The pair average about four lining jobs per week.

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging — Gilbert and Murphy move equipment into place for a lining job. Among Hoover’s lining tools is a steam-cured system from Perma-Liner Industries.

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging — Gilbert attaches an air hose to a Perma-Liner system before beginning work on a liner installation.

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging — Murphy grabs more equipment out of the truck on a lining job.

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging — Hoover’s employees, like Murphy and Gilbert, have a lot of autonomy when they’re out in the field working. “I just stay out of the way and let them do what they need to do. People love that management style,” Piwonski says.

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging — Equipment and materials at Hoover’s shop in Troy, Michigan, have to keep the company equipped to handle a diverse array of work — drain cleaning, trenchless pipeline rehab, plumbing, HVAC, and electric.

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging

Contractor Achieves Good Employee Retention by Avoiding Micromanaging

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When Gary Hoover established Hoover Electric back in 1980, the company only did new-construction electrical work.But in the ensuing decades, the company — now owned by Hoover’s sons-in-law, Marcus Piwonski and Matt Hedges — has completely reinvented itself, as evidenced by its current name: Hoover Electric, Plumbing, Heating & Cooling. Plumbing, sewer and drain cleaning services are the backbone of the company, based in Troy, a far northern suburb of Detroit. And electrical work now brings up the rear.“It’s pretty crazy how we started out in electric and now it’s the smallest division in our company,” says Piwonski, who joined

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