The Hands Behind Horizons

If you ever find yourself in Waukegan, Illinois with some spare time on your hands, you will want to find a way to visit the workroom located at Horizons Window Fashions. While the building is unassuming and the small sign on the door is easy to miss if you don’t know where to look, don’t let the exterior dissuade you. Although you should call ahead to arrange your tour, there’s a good chance that if you drop by, a member of the staff will be more than happy to make time to show you the hidden gem that makes Horizons stand out among the rest.

Danny De Guzman is the General Manager of Horizons Window Fashions, and he has a passion for his profession that’s hard to come by these days. If you have Danny as your tour guide, count yourself lucky, as his time is in high demand. At the beginning of your tour, it’s likely that you’ll start in the main Horizons office. Almost all of the administrative staff sit in the same space, creating an atmosphere that feels more like a small business than a nationally beloved brand.

Don’t be surprised if you see a customer service agent or sales representative get up from their desk, put on a pair of safety goggles, and head out into the workroom. Most likely, they’re off to ask one of the associates on the line a question about a product and whether changes can be made to meet a client’s request. According to Danny, Horizons owes its success in part to this kind of relationship between sales and manufacturing. Questions about products are answered quickly and accurately by the exact people that will perform the Design Modifications.

As you put on your own pair of safety glasses and step out onto the workroom floor, you are greeted by rolls upon rolls of fabric sent by designers all over the country. Horizons is known for their Customer’s Own Material (COM) program, allowing designers to choose their own materials to use in a client’s home. Danny explains that this program is so popular, over 63% of all soft treatments made in the workroom are made with outside materials. As you pass, you might even see a few workers using giant light boxes to check each roll of fabric for cosmetic flaws as the material and project details are noted into the computer.

Horizons is known for their Customer’s Own Material (COM) program, allowing designers to choose their own materials to use in a client’s home.

Continuing your tour, you might see a few folks look up and smile as you pass. Some might even wave to Danny or share a brief greeting. The workroom is a treat for the senses. Huge tables covered with beautiful fabrics, the smell of an iron, sounds of sewing machines whirring and even some music playing. But one thing stands out among the bustle: the people.

Over the past 3 years, Danny and his staff have faced the same economic challenges most businesses experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the beginning, demand for home décor was low, which forced Horizons to make the difficult decision to lay off some of their staff. As the pandemic progressed, something curious happened. With folks spending more and more time at home, the demand for home renovation products and home décor swung the opposite direction and skyrocketed.

Demand for Horizons products grew quickly; however, more unforeseen challenges lay yet ahead. Even as positions reopened in the Horizons workroom, many of the previous staff were not able to return as they had young children to care for at home. Without the return of the previous Horizons employees and their skills, Danny knew he had to do something and fast.

So, he did what anyone in his position would do, he asked what he could do to make returning to the workroom easier. And better yet, when associates on the floor told Danny what he could do, he listened.

As it would happen, building custom window treatments is a relatively niche profession and does not often present opportunities for career growth or advancement. A solution was created to develop a clear career path that allowed current and returning employees to learn skills and advance within Horizons and beyond. Suddenly, Horizons was able to open new doors for self-driven associates looking for better pay, more responsibility, and a challenge. Cross-training associates also allowed for more flexibility within the workroom and helped employees build skill sets that could be applied to other forms of manufacturing. As a result, the new program encouraged employees to stay and grow with Horizons, which supplied the labor force necessary to increase production and decrease lead times.

Even with higher rates of retention, boosted morale and increased opportunity for existing employees, another problem remained: hiring.

According to Danny, hiring for positions within the Horizons workroom was already a bit challenging pre-pandemic. As the labor market got tighter, Horizons had to find a way to adapt and make hiring new employees easier. Simple changes like increasing the starting pay were a no-brainer but figuring out how to hire for a specialized skill set still proved to be challenging.

There’s a reason Horizons has been able to stick around as other companies in the industry have come and gone.

They’re resilient.

Danny and his team got to work building a training program that would allow them to hire people with little to no experience and teach them the proper skills to expertly craft Horizons window treatments. Just like the program developed to offer advancement opportunities to the existing employees, the training program for new employees worked.

In fact, Danny will tell you that most new hires have never built a window treatment or sewn prior to starting at Horizons. New hires usually complete the training program with a mentor over the course of 2 months and teamwork plays a huge role in the training process. When employees are ready to advance, they repeat the same mentorship style training to learn new skills and stations. The process isn’t rushed to ensure that the quality of production stays at the forefront. Dealers and clients haven’t seen quality decrease, in fact, most will tell you they seek out Horizons because they can always rely on receiving a high-quality finished product.

There are testaments to the success of these programs all over the workroom. Photos and feedback from Horizons customers and dealers are posted at the stations where they were made. On the surface, it seems like a sweet gesture and nothing more, however these reviews play a big part in supporting and motivating the quality Horizons is known for.

If you ask an employee out on the floor why quality is so important to the Horizons brand, most of them will give you the same answer. These window treatments are made to be displayed in a home for many years. Each window treatment is constructed to order with an attention to detail that displays the emotional investment that the production specialist puts into their work.

You won’t want your tour to come to an end. There is something mesmerizing about the workroom and the way that everyone works together towards a common goal. The dealers, the administrative staff, and the associates working on the production line all make an important contribution to the process. From the early stages of design to the very last stitches, every single Horizons product is made with a quality that is hard to beat.

The proof is in the people.