restoration technician

carpenter

estimator

technician

customer service representative

Belfor

I’ve worked with this company for several years, traveled within different regions and worked with different managers. This is my opinion based on my experience here compared to what I have experienced at other companies in this industry and beyond.

This is a company that expects tasks to be completed regardless of the amount of time it takes (think long hours when it’s busy) despite of the position or whether or not an individual receives overtime pay.

Not every office regularly has heavy work loads, but when an influx of work does come in, 80-95 hour work weeks are not at all uncommon. Some I know have worked significant more than that. It’s not at all uncommon for 50 hours/week to be standard. Again, this is regardless of position.

Overtime is often viewed as a “bonus” and used in calculations when salary increases are reviewed. It’s difficult to get a raise even as additional duties are added to the work load (and trust me, they will be). This has been the case in my experience even if the last increase was more than three years ago. It seems to be a company wide issue with the corporate office vetoing raises requested locally on occasion or objecting to the amount. There are no regular performance evaluations (there are probably office to office exceptions, but this is not monitored by corporate). If you want a raise or to be reviewed (because an outside perspective on your work product is helpful), you have advocate on your own behalf. I personally find it uncomfortable to have to ask management directly for an evaluation or a raise.

The final piece that causes my rating to be so low is related to growth within the company. I’ve seen rare exceptions during my years with this company, but there is no clear path to promotion. There is an online training system, but it’s not clear how an employee who takes full advantage of this system (which would be difficult given the work load) could move into a different role after completing training. Some positions offer no advancement options unless an individual’s skill set allow them to take on additional work. Again, this additional work normally comes without a raise or a change in title.

With all of this energy being spent by employees on the company’s behalf, employees interacting with corporate staff and in some cases, other regions, are often treated poorly. Corporate focuses a lot or finding fault instead of supporting and this trickles down. In some cases, interactions may be unprofessional because of the level of stress and work load, but often, it seems unprofessional because of the level of ego. For example, individuals of equal rank rudely instructing their peers and ccing several members of management or emails in all caps from an “important” person. Communication in general could be better as there are no consequences for being completely unresponsive or failing to communicate policy changes even on a corporate level.

I stay because I like the pace and the challenge, but I’ve had to have many chats with management to carve out terms that work for me and my family.

I was responsible for opening/closing the office daily. We were a small office, a Restoration business to Minnesota, there were only four employees, and when I left two years later we had 15 employees. This was a fast-paced office Administrative Assistant position. I had many responsibilities in running the office which included, complied daily Lead Sheets that began our process for projects for home owners/business repairs, communicating project assignments to the staff with professional follow up to home owners/business with their work progress etc. I followed all projects in progress from beginning to end while keeping job folders filled with necessary information for the Project Manager. I also ensured all work vehicles were ready to respond to all emergency calls 24/7. Completed Accounts Payables/Receivables on a monthly basis, prepared and managed staff payroll, interviewed, hired, and terminated employees when necessary. Screened and transferred all incoming calls while following up with each correspondence. As our company grew in Minnesota we became well known and our work volume increased making it exciting to come to work and watch our progress grow daily. As our staff grew, we all developed an amazing work environment, leaning on each other when needed. Our General Manager was let go six months into my employment and this is where I realized my direction would be coming from our corporate office in Michigan. It was stressful at first but after we knew what our continued expectations were and we worked as if the General Manager was sitting in the office. We didn’t miss a beat, we were committed in making this a successful business, we were a team. I earned excellent marks on my performance review for excellence in areas including heavy work volume, confidentially, accuracy and quality in work produced and completed in a timely manner meeting all required deadlines. Strong work ethic and commitment while running the business without a General Manager for 12 months. I learned that to be accountable for running a successful office I was very much the individual they counted on. I loved my job!

Office life was great! Very relaxed and kinda fun! Office manager was great!
Techs in the field were amazing and did great work for very low pay! No incentives giving to anybody! Nights and weekends expected and not rewarded or noticed!
Very poor management with in the office and especially the regional manager who let the office go down like a sinking ship over the past few years.
Some of the management was playing video games in office instead of taking care of his business. Of course management had no clue!
They have had some past managers come in and destroy the reputation and left huge receivables and loss revenue!
Belfor has a few subs which are mostly unhappy because they receive pmt in 45-70 days. This is partially why Belfor Tucson has very little subcontractors or means to produce any real business. It is impossible to get  good subs to do the amount of work a person needs to gain commission when they take too long to pay!  
Everyone highly unappreciated... 24/7 on call, no extra pay, just more work
Promise of commissions - Good luck this office in shambles and was loosing big money and there are no subcontractors to do any work if they had it? 
They have had major problems on program work and work had slowed to a halt. 
The reputation in Tucson is shot! 
You essentially have to start your biz from scratch and wait about 2 years before you are able to reach any commissions after you have worked long hours, got your own subs and made your own sales contacts, maintained relationships and collected on your own jobs. The commissions are ok but not the best and most people I talk too never saw any commissions.
Belfor is run with greed and selfishness not recognizing the people who actually are diligent, making good margins and making clients happy.
This was the worse experience I have ever had and I would not recommend Belfor to anyone. You will waste your life and have nothing to show for it!
 
BD

This was absolutely not the place for me. In my position, there was no room for advancement. I was talked down to by my immediate supervisor on a daily basis. Double standards, making others feel small, talking bad about customers, calling customers names behind their back, making other employees lives difficult at work because they disagreed with you....yes that all happened when I worked at this particular location. I was made to take lunches out even though I stayed at my desk and worked most days which basically limited most overtime I could even get while, in the other room my direct supervisor also took lunch at her desk, didn't claim it on her time and got basically unlimited overtime, she was pretty much the only employee in this office allowed to get overtime (I am talking like 12 plus hours per pay period normally), half the time school work was being done & it was called work related....bull!! I was made to feel stupid and like I had to walk on eggshells. My direct supervisor basically told me that I was lucky I was good looking because I wasn't very intelligent....nice!!! The general manager at this location had a "work it out" kind of attitude which is great if you don't report to a bully. This place cannot retain an administrative assistant and it really isn't, in my mind, a secret as to why. If you can't get along with co-workers and you think you're better than everyone else do everyone a favor and go work where you don't have to deal with different personalities.

I had several roles with Belfor. I started out as an administrative assistant, then was promoted to sales/estimator & learned to inspect & write repair scopes for residential & commercial properties damaged by fire, water, storm, etc. When there were big events(hurricane, devastating tropical storm or other type of disaster), I was asked to do project auditing on the billings for the projects. I also usually was the lead office administrator when we set up a field office. This work was extremely challenging in that we worked in disaster zones so resources were limited to non-existent. I worked with very resourceful & supportive management teams. Long hours, sometimes very uncomfortable environments, sometimes very volatile situations (labor disputes), extremely stressful. I loved this job. It pushed me to the limits physically, emotionally & professionally.

Downside was I was always on the road, 12 - 14 hour days, 7 days a week + holidays...for MONTHS. Pay wasn't that good, either, but they tried to make up for it by making sure our lodgings were comfortable, giving us per diem & a vehicle to use while on the jobs. The jobs were exhausting in the extreme, but very satisfying because were were helping the affected area recover after a devastating event.

Start work at 7 AM and meet with the crews, head out to my Jobs and check on the progress. Run approximately 8 to 22 projects at one time, obviously not running all at the same time typically 5 to 8 are running every day.  Responsible from the start to finish with all paperwork to include the following once I get a project:  sometimes I would estimate the entire project which could range from $5000-$500,000 me estimating it,  negotiate with the insurance company for an approved estimate.  Once estimate is approved from my estimate or from another estimator I would now go out to the job and red pen it and find what's wrong with it.   From there I would meet with the homeowner make any change orders that they want,  sign contract, sign payment schedule that I put together, formulate a time schedule, do material selections, schedule the contractors to the job after each contractor has provided an estimate typically two or three per trade.   Order materials, design the kitchen myself on my 2020, meet with the subs day to day  and complete job as per schedule.

Traveling to all regions of USA and abroud. Coordinate personnel in Hotels, training, safety meetings, rental cars and work activities. Arrange for inventory and address clients needs and wants with management and cooperate to deliver the desired result in an expedited manner. Assure all paperwork; reports, time sheets, safety, materials ordered/used, military forms, Testing results, receipts and all other documentation needed. Translate responsibilities and expectations between workers and employer.
I enjoyed the relationship with field personnel they created a feeling of family. When you work 7 days a week you get to know people really well and your life depended on it with all the life threatening situations we deal with daily. The friendly, hard working, 'GET ER DONE' atmosphere was what made me enjoy every day.
Upper management and office personnel where constantly changing making it difficult to stick to policy and control quality. They never wanted to promote, never understood why.

BELFOR is a water, fire, and natural disaster restoration company. the goal of the Customer Service Representative is to listen the caller and quickly assess their need, document the information they provide you, and get it to the on-call who will dispatch an emergency crew to respond.

I was able to learn, for me, the best way of quickly establishing rapport with the callers and BELFOR employees in order to service the needs of the caller as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The culture of the Customer Service Center is relaxed yet professional, and has a good management team willing to stand behind you and provide you the training necessary to perform the job.

The hardest part of the job was during times of natural disaster (wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods) because the call volume was extremely high.

The best part of the job is knowing that you've done everything you can possibly do to provide the best service and to help the caller during a time of need.

I took this job after being recruited from being a feild claims rep. I was told i would be in charge of marketing and building a marking plan for my office, when it came down to the brass tax of it i couldnt put in add in the yellow pages, use social media, or billboards, or any other form like tv or radio.. all i could do was make cold calls to agents and  claims adjusters, we were a new office and nobody knew who we were and there was lots of other well known competition locally. In the end make sure if you come in and want to be a project manager with belfor make sure you bring a book of business that will keep lots of jobs rolling in or they will screw you over. managment is rude inconsiderate dont the the undercover boss episode you fool you they dont care at all about empoyees.. pay is low, benefits suck and they took away gas cards and company cards now too. dont waste your time with them go to NCRI or some better competitor.

Belfor is a great company to work for - just not in the SoutEastern US.  The regional and office GM's are terrible there.  Understaffed, under- educated staff.  Pretty much everywhere else in the US, it is a tremendous company to work for.  Sheldon, the Owner, is very caring and hands on.   Just wish he was more so in the SE.  

Workplace culture is redder than redncek, good ole boy.  Some are nice people and some are awful, about 50/50. Corporate is encouraging and wants you to succeed, local GM's and regional, are undermining forces. It is hard to build a book of business, when, you offices are under-staffed so badly.  They just do a terrible job and make customers mad. 

The corporate is great about organizational memberships and sharing information.  The benefits are very good.  The company is secure overall.  Just not that great at the local level and not that great if you don't hunt and fish.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Restoration technician 35 salaries reported	$22.99 per hour
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Technician 23 salaries reported	$24.24 per hour
Customer service representative 25 salaries reported	$20.20 per hour

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