Jayman BUILT employees participating in a golf tournament.
Angela Pistore, executive assistant to the COO at Jayman BUILT, worked for some large organizations before she came on board with the Calgary and Edmonton homebuilder eight years ago. From the start, the atmosphere was different. “I think that some companies are just too big, and some groups or individuals get forgotten or missed,” she says.
“There is this whole family feeling. We work really hard but we also have a lot of fun. We’re all in this together. In some companies I’ve been at, you never even see the owners, but here, Jay Westman is in the office, emptying the dishwasher in the morning,” Pistore says.
Co-founded by Jay Westman and his father Al in 1980, Jayman BUILT has been a major, hard-driving and innovative presence in Calgary’s – and later, Edmonton’s – single-family home market from the start. For decades, much of its innovation has focused on environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. By 2019, Jayman became the first Alberta builder to incorporate energy-saving solar panels in every new single-family home. Their six-panel standard increased to 10 solar panels per home in 2023, further reducing energy costs.
“We work hard and we play hard,” says Nicole Westman-Jones, Jayman’s managing director of brand, people and culture, citing the company’s unofficial motto as a way of acknowledging the effort involved in an ongoing reshaping of daily work life. As a literal family member – she’s Jay Westman’s daughter – Westman-Jones also emphasizes the award-winning builder’s larger family feel. “The company asks for a lot, but it gives a lot too,” she says.
“We’re also known for our activities together. On Fridays from 3 p.m. on, we start hanging out together in our pods, and there can be impromptu barbecues on the deck,” Westman-Jones says. “Then there’s our social committee, which has an activity every month, and 80 per cent of the employees go to it. Two times a year, during paid work days, we have skiing in the winter – or snowshoeing for the non-skiers – and golf in the summer.”
And all that is before the company’s intense community involvement kicks in, as much employee- as employer-driven. “Anything to do with shelter or homelessness gets our attention,” says Westman-Jones, whose company has joined with 10 other local builders in committing $15.4-million to construct 10 new buildings for the homeless in Calgary.
Or anything to do with multiple sclerosis, she adds, given the Westmans’ family history – Jay Westman’s sister and her daughter both battle MS. In Calgary, the partnership with the MS Society of Canada is such that the society’s annual fundraising walk is now the Jayman BUILT MS Walk. Over its history, the company has donated almost $9-million to local non-profits and its employees’ charitable efforts.
Pistore, who happily immerses herself in everything from stuffing a truck full of books for Calgary Reads to trying – so far unsuccessfully – to see her Calgary team outraise the smaller Edmonton contingent during the MS Walk, says it’s all ingrained in the Jayman office culture.
“People just show up when they’re needed,” she says, “because mutual trust and respect build quickly here. Right away, you just feel like people have your back. We do work hard — and maybe it’s not for everyone — but I’m not going anywhere.”
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Advertising feature produced by Canada’s Top 100 Employers, a division of Mediacorp Canada Inc. The Globe and Mail’s editorial department was not involved.