Workplace paradise

Our 2007 honorees continue to develop innovation, harmony within the workplace

Story by Sean Fitzgerald

6 years into putting together an annual Best Places to Work list, and we at B2B have become complacently comfortable that we’ve heard everything an employer could possibly offer its workforce.

Even after awarding our prestigious honor to 4imprint of Oshkosh for the third time – the other occasions being in 2002 and 2004 – we didn’t necessarily think we’d hear anything new in the way of employee perks. But yet again, as we had been in the past, we’ve been surprised with the innovative and seemingly simple ways our B2B Best Places to Work honorees have brought a sense of harmony, teamwork and genuine intrapreneurship among its employees.

In the 2007 edition of our effort to seek out the most desirable employers in the South Fox Valley, we recognize 4imprint of Oshkosh and Racine-based Johnson Bank and Johnson Insurance with offices in Ripon, Appleton and Green Bay.
This year we received 21 nominations for local employers to be named a Best Place to Work, down slightly from recent years, but no less an indication of the leading initiatives these companies developed for employees.

4imprint keeps chugging along
There’s not too many employers out there who can boast such a steady track record of innovative workplace and employment practices that their success winning awards in that category ultimately lead to modifications to the rules in bestowing those awards.

That’s something 4imprint of Oshkosh can brag about, after winning its third Best Places to Work Award from B2B since 2002. Not that we don’t want to celebrate the kinds of achievements an employer like 4imprint delivers to its employees every day in the office, but we would like to give others a chance as well. As a result, we’re modifying our rules for this annual honor to limit any employer to winning no more than three times in a 10-year-period.

The 360-employee promotional products marketer and distributor offers the standard benefits similar to those offered by a number of larger employers: a group health insurance plan, 401(k) savings plan, profit sharing, tuition reimbursement and an employee assistance program.

But 4imprint has never been satisfied just going above and beyond.

During past Best Places to Work articles in 2002 and 2004, readers heard about 4imprint’s daily catered lunches in its cafeteria served by local restaurants or caterers. Twice each week breakfast is catered in. On Thursdays, the company provides free popcorn to employees. Tuesdays alternate with free nachos one week, and a more healthy option of free fruit on opposite weeks. And we’ve written about the free coffee available to employees each morning – a Starbucks brew, nonetheless.

Are you full, yet?

We’ve also told readers about 4imprint’s carwash and oil change program that allows employees to have their personal vehicles freshened up while they’re at work. Employees can sign up for a 15-minute stint with a massage therapist that comes into the office once each week,  or can receive a soothing pedicure, manicure, facial or reflexology in 4imprint’s “Spa Room,” the company’s former dark room.

“My husband refers to my place of employment as ‘The Country Club” – and for good reason,” said Lisa Stadtmueller, a nine-year employee of 4imprint.

At 4imprint, employee perks are centered around the idea of freeing up employees’ time away from work, ensuring that their “free time” truly is free time, said Vicky Schroeder, corporate facilities manager for 4imprint.

That concept has driven the development of other employee perks such as dropping off and picking up laundry for dry cleaning, and rental video or library book return. During summer, fresh produce vendors come into 4imprint once a week with sweet corn, squash and tomatoes, among other harvest delights. The intent is to wrap up all of those often end-of-the-workday errands that often make it longer to get home to the family in the evening.

One might think being recognized twice as a best place to work would encourage an employer to rest on its laurels. Not 4imprint. The company has continued to innovate its resources for employees since 2004, the last time the company won our B2B Best Places to Work honor.

Two years ago the company initiated a “buddy system” into its training program which matches up new employees with more seasoned veterans of the staff to have lunch together and show them the ropes. It’s intended to make new employees feel more comfortable as they learn to navigate the corporate culture of 4imprint, giving each rookie a definitive person they can approach to ask questions without having to feel like – well – the new employee.

“Typically, you’d go into lunch and you wouldn’t have anyone to sit with. It would be like going back to school,” said Mary Curtin, 4imprint vice president of administration, about the challenges new employees typically faced before a program like the buddy system was implemented. Since then, the buddy system has helped decrease turnover among new hires, and has helped to more seamlessly engage new employees the company’s culture.

The company also recently began building up its own in-house DVD movie and video game library, developing a program for employees to rent new release video or Nintendo Wii game to bring home to the family. Employees pay $2 and get the video and two packets of popcorn. The proceeds go directly into 4imprint’s charitable giving fund.
Community and civic support has always been a hallmark of the workplace at 4imprint, another reason employees express their pride.

“Many times you think of a good place to work on what they can offer you. Not as much as what they can offer to others. 4imprint does a better job at looking at what they can do for others than any company with which I have ever worked,” noted employee Steve Curtin in his nomination of 4imprint.

Regularly sponsoring kids’ sports teams, the company always attempts to find ways to support the community organizations and functions in which employees and their families are involved. As part of its extensive list of employee benefits, 4imprint allows employees up to eight hours per year of paid time off to volunteer in the community.

Like any harmonious workplace, quality leadership from the top on down through the ranks of employees sets the tone for work and team expectations. Though 4imprint President and CEO Kevin Lyons-Tarr generally deflects personal praise back toward the accomplishments of staff, employees rave about his down-to-earth, hands-on style and true open door policy.

“When he was listed in the top 20 of The 50 Most Powerful and Influential People in the Promotional Products Industry, he told us that the credit goes to all of us,” said employee Anne Miller.

Like all of the company’s management team, Schroeder said Lyons-Tarr is a genuine leader who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

“He started out in the trenches and is always willing to go back to the trenches,” Schroeder said. “He’s one of us.”

Johnson Bank/Johnson Insurance
Though only in their fifth year in northeast Wisconsin, Johnson Bank and Johnson Insurance come from a 5-generation-old tradition of placing employees at the top of their priority list. Both companies are owned by the same Racine-based family that started S.C. Johnson Wax in 1886.

After expanding into the Ripon area this year, Johnson Bank and Johnson insurance have about 110 employees in northeast Wisconsin, and have quickly introduced their unique corporate culture which places employees above all else, said Brian Kult, regional president for both of the Johnson Family financial companies.

The Johnson Family’s values give top priority to employees, Kult said, followed by its company’s customers secondly, then its community third, all before looking out for the interests of the shareholder.

“With that as a foundation, that’s where all of these employee opportunities come from,” said Kult.

The financial services provider’s Team Unity is comprised of non-management employees and charged with organizing special events and services to enhance the work-life balance. Like 4imprint, the company offers oil changes for employee vehicles while they work, as well as stress-relief massages on a regular basis. A client of the company brings take-and-bake pizzas in on Friday afternoon for employees to buy and bring home to their families. A local florist comes to each office once a week to sell flower arrangements for busy employees to take home to their spouses.

Team Unity also arranges quarterly all-employee social gatherings. A recent event included a wine tasting.

The company’s generous tuition reimbursement program encourages employees to advance their education and their job capabilities. Employees can earn a full reimbursement of their tuition costs if they are pursuing a degree field that parallels itself with Johnson’s business operations.

Group health insurance and an aggressive wellness program promote employee health of both the mind and body. The company offer employees health club reimbursement for up to 50 percent of the cost, and its semi-annual Be Active Program encourages employees to track their physical activity with incentives such as an iPod.

But more than the tangible benefits employees can touch and feel, it’s the nurturing culture of support that sets the Johnson financial services companies apart from their peers.

Johnson employees are extended a great deal of autonomy and are given the freedom to make mistakes. Kult said managers and employees actively understand the distinction between empowerment – where an employee acts of their own accord – and delegation, where an employee acts on someone else’s behalf.

“We do strive to empower employees,” Kult said. “Along with that comes occasional mistakes. Mistakes are a by-product of empowerment, but it’s a by-product we’re comfortable with.”

Johnson bank and Insurance employees average 50 to 60 training hours per employee per year, Kult said.
The company also has a well developed flexible work program, which allows employees to modify their schedule and even their office status to accommodate their family and personal lives. A number of employees work entirely from an office set up in their own homes. As a result of its flexible workplace policies, Johnson has received the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility and the Families in Good Company Award from the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce.

Like 4imprint, employees receive paid time off to participate in community service activities. The amount of time off is at the discretion of the manager, and varies depending on the level of involvement the employee has with a volunteer initiative, Kult said.

As a family-owned company with more than 120 years of tradition behind it, employees don’t get concerned about being sold to a publicly-traded conglomerate where they’d loose the security they currently enjoy, said Jane Shea, the human resources representative who submitted the nomination on behalf of the Johnson companies. That peace-of-mind goes a long toward fostering an innovative, risk-taking environment where employees can thrive and contribute to the company’s ultimate successes.

“When we’re looking at a quarter of earnings, we’re looking at a quarter of a century,” said Shea. “That’s what we like to say.”