Roofing Team: Structure, Building, Training and Managing

How is a Roofing Team Structured?

A roofing team can be structured in various ways depending on the services your business offers, the scale, and whether you offer commercial roofing, residential roofing, or both services.

A typical roofing team structure includes the following:

• Roofer: Roofers or roofing technicians are responsible for removing the existing roof and installing new membranes, insulation, flashing, underlay, and shingles.

Hiring new roofers with some construction experience can be beneficial, but most roofing technicians can be trained.

• Foreman: A foreman manages the job site, the roofers, and sets the schedule for roofing services.  They ensure the roofing project operates smoothly and oversee each stage.

A foreman must have roofing industry experience, understand the various components and tasks for different roofing jobs, and demonstrate good communication, leadership, and organizational skills.

• Superintendent: The superintendent oversees multiple roofing projects at once. They are responsible for assigning work teams to projects and helping the foremen to move the project forward.  

Together with the foreman, they define the daily work plan and guarantee that work is carried out safely and profitably. They also handle resource requirements and ensure crews are properly equipped. 

• Construction Manager: The construction manager oversees the safety, direction, and leadership of your company's construction section. They retain final approval over each project's strategic planning and manage deadlines and budgets. 

Your construction manager oversees multiple job sites and works with the superintendents and foremen to maintain business operations.  A good roofing construction manager has experience in construction, roofing, and/or business and project management.

Depending on the state where you perform roofing work, the foreman, superintendent, or manager may need to acquire a roofing license. However, many states don’t provide a state-issued roofing license, and instead require anyone performing roofing work to obtain a contractor or home improvement license.

How Do You Build a Roofing Team?

Building a qualified team of roofing professionals can feel daunting, especially in a tight labor market with rising material costs.

Furthermore, hiring the wrong people can drastically impact employee morale, productivity, and more — not to mention the financial cost of a bad hire.  

The key steps to build a roofing team are mentioned in the image below:

Let’s look into each step in more detail.

1. Define the key roofing roles you need

Defining the key roles of your roofing team depends on your business sector (commercial, residential, or both), the scale of your business, scope of projects, service area, and operational capacity.

The services your roofing company offers often dictates which roles you need to fill. Do you handle new roof installations only, or doyou also perform roof repairs?  What about roof replacements following storm damage?  Does your team work on new constructions or only on existing builds?

Each of these services requires slightly different skill sets.

2. Create detailed job descriptions for the roles

Your job descriptions set expectations and qualify applicants.  Make them as detailed as possible and outline responsibilities, skills, and certification requirements.

Set clear expectations and establish how each member of your roofing team contributes to the company’s goals and business success.  

Include the salary in the job description, or at least a possible range.

3. Look for potential candidates

Post the job listing on your website's careers page, roofing industry job boards, and social media. 

To diversify your candidate pool, consider distributing the listing to trade schools and roofing associations (such as local veterans and women in roofing).

Ask your existing employees for referrals. Create an employee referral program to incentivize referrals.

4. Interview candidates

Screen your candidates by reviewing the resumes for skill and experience matches.

Also, conduct a technical assessment or job simulation to better understand the technician’s particular skill set.

While technical skills are crucial, don’t forget to assess soft skills (communication, problem-solving, attention to detail) and personality.  Assess if the candidate will work well with your existing employees, match your company values, and how they will handle the non-technical aspects of the role. 

Here are some roofer interview questions you can use:

• Tell me about a past roofing project you’re proud of.

• How do you handle an unhappy roofing customer?

• Walk me through a roof maintenance inspection.

• How do you give a customer peace of mind following storm damage?

• How do you guide a homeowner through an insurance claim?

• Which roofing systems have you worked with?

• What is your experience with skylight installation?

• Explain these financing options to me as if I am your customer.

5. Onboard and train team members

Get your new hires up to speed quickly with a comprehensive, well-structured onboarding process.  This sets your new hires up for success.

Start by creating an onboarding checklist or document that covers the must-know details of your roofing business, such as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), team members, and safety training.

Pairing your newbies with an experienced team member gives them a go-to person who can help answer questions and guide your new starter as they learn their new role. 

Offer learning and development (L&D) opportunities to all employees (not just first-time roofers). Outline this offering in your onboarding guide and inform new employees about the training you offer.

Set a budget for L&D and invest in workshops, advanced training, and certifications for your roofing crew.  This will enhance and potentially expand your service offerings and ensure your team completes quality work every time.

How Do You Train a Roofing Team?

Training your roofing team properly ensures higher levels of customer satisfaction and fosters safe working environments on every project.  Training involved three steps:

1. Assess your roofing team training needs

2. Create a roofing team training program

3. Gather feedback from your roofing team

Let’s look at each step.

1. Assess your roofing team training needs

Identify the areas where your team needs to improve and list new technologies and roofing systems to explore adding to your service offerings.

Aim for technical training, non-technical hard skills (customer service, sales), and soft skills. Training might include conducting individual assessments with your team members, reviewing service calls, and auditing skills to look for blind spots. 

Then, create a comprehensive training program that covers all the skills you need.

ServiceTitan’s Field Reporting Software gives users deeper insight into their technicians’ and front-office staff’s performance through the Technician Scorecard and CSR Scorecard. These reports contain data on key performance metrics for each staff member.

 For technicians, business owners can view their generated revenue, sold memberships, average tickets, and other vital metrics.  Users can drill down into each metric by clicking on it to see more information.

For CSRs, users can access call recordings as well as performance metrics.  Trainers  can use good calls as best practice resources and identify bad calls for performance improvement.

The scorecards are updated in real time and let business owners quickly spot areas where extra training is needed.

2. Create a roofing team training program

The best training programs consist of different training methods.

Some of the main forms of training to consider include:

• Courses

• Certifications

• On-the-job training

• Equipment training

• Software training

• Safety training

You can utilize software to assist your training, such as ServiceTitan’s Call Booking Software. This tool records every incoming call so you can listen back and identify what went well and what didn’t.

Furthermore, ServiceTitan’s Sales Pro provides AI-powered sales coaching that enhances your roofing sales training program. The tool records in-person interactions so roofers can skip the ride-along and gain valuable insight into pitching and closing sales.

3. Gather feedback from your roofing team

After an employee completes a training program, ask for feedback on what they liked and didn’t like and for any input or suggestions.

Gathering this insight allows you to optimize and improve your training programs, leading to better training experiences, more successful training, and more willingness to participate in future training.

How Do You Manage and Retain a Roofing Team?

Hiring is expensive and time-consuming, and you don’t want all that effort to go to waste when your new roofer quits after a month. Keeping your employee turnover rate low is vital for business growth and success, so focus on providing quality management to promote employee retention. 

Key tips on managing a roofing team are outlined in the image below:

Let’s look at each tip in more detail.

Define clear roles and responsibilities

Each roofing team member should clearly understand their responsibilities and how they contribute to business success.  There should be no gray areas around who needs to handle a job or make a decision, as this leads to miscommunication and mistakes.

For example, your dispatcher assigns technicians to projects and creates an optimized route. Your roofing technicians are responsible for carrying out the roofing work safely and efficiently. Your foreman is responsible for ensuring your technicians have all the tools and equipment needed for the project.

Maintain open communication

Transparent and open communication keeps every staff member on the same page and fosters a culture of collaboration where everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas and working together to resolve challenges.

Conduct regular team meetings where your crews can discuss project progress, align on goals, and address concerns to encourage open and honest communication. Ensure every voice is heard and prompt quiet members to share their ideas and wins.

Provide tools and resources

When your team members consistently struggle because they lack the right tools and resources, they quickly become discouraged and frustrated, and may even leave your company.

While it’s important to stick to your budget, listen to concerns and try to accommodate requests for new or additional resources.  Making the workday easier or more comfortable helps increase employee morale, motivation, and productivity.

The ServiceTitan Field Service App enables technicians to remove tedious manual processes from the job.  The tool integrates the office with the field so your technicians can quickly access all the information gathered by the CSR during intake.

Technicians can view detailed job histories from within the app, allowing them to see exactly what roofing work has been carried out previously and spot opportunities to upsell effectively.

Plus, with automatic paperwork triggers at different stages of the job cycle, the app makes it easier for technicians to gather all the forms and signatures they need. That means no more missing paperwork or extra trips to the customer.

With ServiceTitan’s Dispatch Pro, your dispatchers can stay ahead of delays and help ensure your technicians arrive on time. The tool provides intelligent schedule optimization, helping your dispatchers send the right technician with the right skills to the right job.

The tool also lets your office staff communicate with your technicians, keeping them up-to-date without clogging the phone lines.

Set team goals

Setting goals at a team level gives your staff a common goal to work toward and creates a little competition to perform at a higher level.  This helps foster a culture of teamwork and keeps business moving forward.

When your team hits its goals, celebrate them accordingly. Depending on the goal, this could be a simple shout-out during the next team meeting, a team dinner, or a party.

Acknowledge achievements

Celebrating wins together helps boost employee morale and serves as an opportunity to thank your staff for their hard work.

Acknowledging team and individual achievements, such as hitting revenue milestones and work anniversaries, is important.

Additionally, you should foster a culture of publicly acknowledging team members who did exceptional work or helped out other employees.  Encourage your staff to share kudos in team meetings or through your work communication tool.

Assign the right team members to the right jobs

Sending your skilled technicians to the right jobs is critical for maximizing profitability on every job.

If experienced roofers are consistently lumped with basic roof inspections and clean-up, they will soon become demotivated. Likewise, if a less experienced team member is assigned jobs above their skill level (and they don’t have a mentor to assist them), they will feel overwhelmed and out of their depth.

These situations quickly lead to low morale, resentment, and increased turnover.

ServiceTitan’s Dispatch Pro leverages AI technology to assess various data points on each job, including technician availability, skill set required, the most optimized route, and other job technicalities to choose the best technician every time.  As this is done automatically, you can free up time for your office staff, too.

Over to You

Building and retaining a strong, cohesive roofing team lays the foundation for long-term business success.

Once you’ve mastered the hiring process, it’s important to manage it effectively and create a safe, happy, and healthy work environment.

ServiceTitan helps trades businesses optimize their team management and enhance business operations. Book a demo today to learn how it can improve your roofing business.

ServiceTitan is an all-in-one home services software solution that offers roofing businesses a suite of features that let them manage their teams, resources, and workflows better.  We are proud to serve over 100,000 contractors around the country.