Easier than it seems

The word certification can be a dirty one to some companies. The thought of taking months to earn a stamp of approval is a turnoff to owners who have businesses to run.

But a certification can set you apart from your competition and be used as a great marketing too. In the snow industry, contractors can earn SN 9001 certification through the Accredited Snow Contractors Association (ASCA).

“It’s something that’s really exciting for the industry, says Neal Glatt, account executive for Attleboro Falls, Mass.-based Case Snow Management.

Glatt’s company began the certification process in advance of the 2013-2014 season.

“It lends some legitimacy to an industry that’s been forgotten for a long time. We’re excited about more companies joining us in this process to help us really change snow and ice into something that’s viewed as a legitimate industry like landscape is,” he says.
 

What certification means.

ISO 9001 is a well-known industry standard for quality management created by the International Organization for Standardization and has been used in the manufacturing sector for years. SN 9001 certification is exclusive to snow and ice management contractors and works in conjunction with ISO 9001.

The certification process starts with a pre-assessment of the business. Then management must configure to address any concerns brought up during that pre-assessment. This may include the creation of or refinement of internal documents such as training materials, check lists for safety meetings, job descriptions and more, says Matt Boelman, co-owner and vice president of Des Moines, Iowa-based Perficut.

Perficut, a landscape management and snow and ice management company with revenue of $15.5 million in 2014, earned its certification in July. They employ 70 full-time employees, but have as many as 160 during peak times.

“When SN 9001 certification became available, the highest level of industry standard certification, it just made sense for us to seek that out. It added some real value to our company, not only from an educational standpoint, but from an operational standpoint,” Boelman says.

Boelman also serves as co-chair of the ASCA educational committee.

“We feel as a company, we need to be involved to the highest levels of education and standards held within the industry. So, it was a no-brainer for us to pursue it,” he says.

After all of the documents were in place, Perficut underwent the three-day audit and passed. If a company passes the audit they earn certification but must continue to adhere to SN 9001 standards and pass an annual audit to maintain their credentials.
 

How contractors get there.

For many contractors, the process was straightforward, although labor intensive. Following the pre-assessment, Boelman says he decided to hire a compliance manager who would spearhead the documentation requirements. That individual is now a permanent part of the Perficut staff. Once certified, contractors must take part in an annual audit to ensure the company continues to follow SN 9001 standards.

Passing the initial audit is not only a big sigh of relief, but it adds credibility to a contractor’s business.

“It’s put us on just a complete higher level of procedures here in our office because we’ve got to follow these in order to pass our audit [again in the future,]” Boelman says. “I would call maybe the first part of getting certified as the easy test and keeping your certification and following up to the guidelines that are set forth, that we set forth as a company now is the hard part. We’re asking everyone within the company to follow a set of procedures and then there is proof and documentation that these procedures are followed.”

Glatt says the initial certification process at his company took about nine months. More than 450 people work at Case Snow during the peak season. Last year revenue was at $10 million.

“The whole thing started with defining where our processes were and how things were handled in the business,” he says. “We found that we were doing a lot of the things already, but we didn’t have documentation of them and so documentation was a really big part of what we did.”

As someone in a management role, Boelman says many of the processes required for SN 9001 were already in his head - it was just a matter of extracting that information and documenting it.

“It’s been absolutely wonderful. It’s for companies who really want to be at that next level. When I say at that next level, it’s peace of mind of knowing that your business is running the way you’re telling the public it’s running,” he says.
 

The power of third-party verification.

An advantage with SN 9001 certification is that its sister certification, ISO 9001, is already well known and respected among other industries – including some clients, Glatt says.

“It certainly gives us more credibility in the marketplace,” he says. “We work with a lot of customers who have achieved ISO certification for themselves and their industries. Having the ISO certification really communicates to them how organized, how detail-oriented, how processed we are.”

For his industrial clients in particular, certification has been integral to business, as these clients already often have ISO certification themselves and understand the value of that third-party verification, says Chad Oberson, president of Oberson’s Snow and Ice Management, a Fairfield, Ohio-based company that just earned SN 9001 certification in December. About 30 in-house employees (plus additional contractors) work at Oberson’s during the winter, and revenue in 2014 was $7 million.

Oberson, too, devoted a single person to help with the bulk of the documentation. In his case, it was an individual in an administrative role that had helped an electrical company through certification in a prior role.

“I’m one of the smaller companies that has done it. I think in the long run, it’s going to help our company have much better operations, have much better paper trails, liability risks will be lowered and I think it will be used as a marketing tool,” Oberson says. “It’s definitely for a certain size operation. You don’t need to do this if you’re doing just a handful of accounts.”

Consultants can also be hired to assist with the process, Glatt says.
 

Tips for managing the process.

Oberson is quick to point out that owner and management buy-in is paramount – from understanding the process, supporting it and financing it – in making sure certification is reached.

“You have to have that admin person that you can say, focus on this, this is what you need to focus on to get this implemented, not the owner,” he says.

Many of the certification requirements are not difficult to accomplish, but take time and diligence on the part of management, Glatt says.

“Understand the commitment, because it is continuous. It’s not something that you go out and earn one time and then move on,” he says. “It’s something that you really live, and you need to be prepared for that commitment before you enter it.”

Oberson was surprised by how smooth the process was, once started. “I think everybody thinks there’s like this whole new plan you’ve got to do,” he says. “The biggest thing is, we already do all this stuff in a roundabout way, we just might have to tweak it a little bit, or put it in writing.”

In the end, the diligence needed to see certification through is worth it.

“Once you’re through the grind, you look back and say, ‘I’m not sure how we did this, how we operated without this.’” Boelman says.

The author is a freelance writer based in Cleveland.