January 23, 2026
The Workforce Therapy Files team attended the 2025 Kentucky SHRM Conference, in Louisville. We took the opportunity to interview over 20 professionals who stopped by our booth.
Jason Heflin caught up with Aaron Heflin, the HR Director for RCSS Holdings, Inc., which manages an employee-owned group of road construction companies including Reynolds Sealing and Striping. With over 300 active employees across Kentucky and neighboring states, Aaron shared that his crews particularly love their recurring project striping the roads of Smoky Mountain National Park because of the beautiful scenery and wildlife. This year marks a major milestone as they celebrate 10 years of being employee-owned, a model that has seen share values skyrocket by over 600%.
Aaron emphasized that the ESOP structure is a massive culture driver, fostering collaboration and efficiency because the workers in the field are the ones truly driving the business’s success. It serves as an incredible recruiting and retention tool, often getting new hires eager to start the very next day once they see the actual wealth progression of current employees.
When asked about company culture, Aaron defined it as a “common sense of ownership” and the collaboration required to complete dangerous road projects as a unified team. He stressed that because road construction is a “team game,” their success relies on everyone holding down their own fort while working together. To wrap things up, Aaron left this insightful question for the next participant: “On your next hire, what are the main skills or attributes that you’re looking for?”.
To learn more, visit reynoldscorporation.com
Aaron Heflin, thanks for stopping by to speak with us!
That’s where we’ll leave the conversation for today. Before we close the file, we invite you to reach out to us with questions, suggestions or other comments. We’d love to hear from you.
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We hope you found this file insightful and helpful. Thank you for listening!
By Jason Heflin
Jason Heflin is one of CrowdSouth’s owning Partners and brings years of marketing experience from his past lives as a corporate marketing manager, writer, and freelancer. He also plays the ukulele for fun, which is cool.