Local plumbing company focuses on getting more women involved in trade jobs
KDVR Fox 31
GOLDEN, Colo. (KDVR) — Gov. Jared Polis was recently behind a push to get more people into trade jobs, and one Colorado company is making its own effort.
High 5 Plumbing, a Colorado company, is helping people break into the industry -- especially women. Their goal is to have a different company culture than the typical plumbing office in hopes of recruiting more people to their team.
According to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, in 2023, women filled 21% of jobs within Colorado’s construction industry, which includes trades like plumbing.
For perspective, women represented about 47% of total non-farm jobs in Colorado during the same period. That number has grown over the last 20 years.
High 5 Plumbing is hoping to bring more women into the industry and highlight what they bring to the table.
“With the women that I worked with in our company, I've noticed that clients connect well with them, and so do our other team members. Women do a really good job of connecting with people. When you're in the business and you're going into people's homes and they're stressed out because they have their water that's pouring everywhere, women can go in there and they can calm the situation and handle it well. So, it's been really cool to see, well, even hear from our clients the feedback that they're getting from the experience, from working with women,” said Cassi Torres at High 5 Plumbing.
They are also trying to get more women into trade jobs and have several women in leadership roles and in the field.
High 5 Plumbing has an apprenticeship program where people can come in and learn the skills from starting in the warehouse, shadowing a plumber and eventually going out on their own and even getting licensed.
“We really want apprentices to come in, learn the trade, learn the parts and learn how operations work,” Torres said.
Their goal is to train people whether they want to stay and work for the company or not.
“We really wanted to set up an [organization] chart that we can grow in. So, people need to visually see where they're going and where they can advance to. So, if they start off as an apprentice, you can see there's a warehouse apprentice, and they can move to a different position. So, when you come in here, no matter what position you're in, you can see that there's room for growth,” said Torres.
They also do a lot of work with nonprofits and give back to their community.
High 5 Plumbing has a warehouse and dispatch call center based in Colorado, so they can get a crew out to a customer as soon as possible.
Colorado’s Workforce Development Council told Polis that Colorado is in a deficit of skilled construction workers. For details about a labor shortage, the state compared the level of hires relative to the number of job openings. Right now, it shows Colorado has way more job openings than it does unemployed people.