Embracing Each Step Towards a Successful Career
Kevin Arzu had plenty of experience managing customers and employees when he joined UG2 in February 2018. He had spent three-and-a-half years as a store manager in technology retail, and had demonstrated tremendous success increasing his store’s sales, profit, and conversion rate.
“I’m a little bit competitive,” he laughs. “I took a store from having a conversion rate of 8% a month to a steady 13%. It was a hard road, but the biggest thing is finding the right people. One thing I’m grateful for at UG2 is it’s kind of the same thing – you want to find the right person to do the right job, and I was able to bring that experience into my role here.”
Well before coming on board, Kevin knew firsthand that UG2 was a company that invested in its employees for the long term. His wife, Nereida Barbosa, has worked her way up from cleaner to account manager with the company.
Despite his previous management experience, Kevin chose to start as a cleaner in the Boston Back Bay area.
“I was initially hired to be a manager, but I had been out of the cleaning industry for a few years,” he says. “I took a step back and asked Greg Lanzillo, my operations manager at the time, if it was okay for me to go up the (career) escalator ladders, learn the rules, and get a better understanding of what we do.”
Kevin spent nearly nine months working for Jose Lagares, who quickly saw Kevin’s potential and served as a key mentor in supporting Kevin’s advancement through the company.
“Jose challenged me to see what we were missing, to find the inconsistencies,” says Kevin. “He is just an awesome guy who can help people see things as a coachable moment versus just being told how to do their job.”
Looking to challenge Kevin, Jose put him in charge of a project, and Kevin embraced opportunities to not only learn and excel at his own job but to pay close attention to others’ jobs and how they approached them. His attention to detail along with his penchant for problem solving proved essential when Boston experienced back-to-back snowstorms and Kevin proved himself adept at crisis management, prioritizing jobs while juggling equipment issues.
That hard-earned success brought a new opportunity: working with Alex Pena as assistant area manager for his portfolio of 50+ buildings.
“It gave me a bigger horizon,” says Kevin. “I was able to experience what a manager would do on a day-to-day basis managing multiple accounts. It gave me almost two years of great experience, and then working with Alex when COVID-19 happened was an even greater learning experience. I learned more in-depth about using the right chemicals and avoiding cross contamination and got a better understanding of what we do here and how to be successful.”
When Kevin eventually earned another promotion to his current position, account manager, he wanted to give back by spending time with his replacement, Christian Aguilar, to convey some of what he had learned along the way which is what he had experienced from his own colleagues and mentors.
“One thing I will say about UG2 is the way that I was received when I came on board,” Kevin says. “It was always open arms. It was always, ‘Hey, listen, do you need this? Do you need that?’ And that’s what made me fall in love with the company.”