Even Top Workplaces Have Some Work to Do

Today Great Place to Work published this year’s 50 Best Small and Medium Workplaces in the United States – and Marco is among them. The notable list will be featured in Fortune Magazine. It covers a broad variety of industries and locations and recognizes a variety of workplace perks and practices.

As CEO, I am certainly proud of our workplace and the recognition we are receiving for our positive culture. But I also want to recognize that there are parts of our organization that maybe aren’t where we’d like them to be. Here are some that “I’m working on…” (See my blog on The 6 Phrases to Avoid in Business).

  1. We’re losing the healthcare war, too. Let’s start with an easy one first – healthcare benefits. In our annual employee survey, we continue to see healthcare benefits rank as one of the top areas for improvement. Healthcare is a complicated benefit, obviously because of the cost for both the employer and employee and the dynamics associated with each individual’s needs. Sometimes healthcare is the main reason why people work. We need to be responsible about how we budget our healthcare dollars and recognize that certain things are simply out of our control – like the health of our aggregate employee group, for example.

    There are so many variables in what individuals are looking for in a healthcare plan that it makes it almost impossible to effectively meet everyone’s requirements. The spectrum ranges from those who are willing to pay more to get more to those that are okay with minimal premiums and higher risk.  I feel like we have made some progress in recent years by offering multiple plan options, but we still haven’t completely solved the problem. This is an issue we may never solve, but we’re certainly not going to give up. If anyone has a solution, I’d like to hear it.

  2. Money matters and “fairness” is tricky business.
    It’s not unusual that compensation would be an area that ranks lower on an employee survey, and it’s no different with ours. Everyone wants to be compensated “fairly,” but what does that really mean? There are several resources for determining fair pay. The fact is if you’re an employee looking for support for a higher wage, you can find that on the Internet. Conversely, if you’re an employer trying to hold down pay, you can find that on the Internet, too. We use several paid resources to help validate our compensation system. Having hired over 400 people in the last 24 months gives us pretty accurate data on the market’s pay ranges. Compensation satisfaction will always be a moving target, but is one that we’ll never take our eye off of. 

  3. Culture felt across all locations.
    You can feel our culture when you walk around our corporate headquarters in St. Cloud, but we’re still not effectively translating that feeling throughout all of our branch offices. Based on feedback, we’ve taken some steps to improve the frequency and timeliness of our communication. For example, we started using more video for added personalization to our messages. I use video to share our quarterly performance updates, event kickoffs like our United Way Campaign, client presentations and other relevant company information. We also have been bringing new hires to our corporate office for orientation so they get to see firsthand how the back office of the company works. This also gives them a chance to meet the people they will work with on a regular basis. This has helped, but we have a ways to go to migrate our culture within our smaller and often newer offices. We have learned that leadership at those offices is key and can really set the tone for their team.

We’ve been intentional about creating a culture that people want to be a part of and a workplace where people enjoy coming to work. The national award we received certainly validates how our employees feel about working at Marco. But we understand we’re not perfect, and there’s certainly more work to do. Congratulations to all of the companies recognized as a top workplace!  

Topics: Leadership, Culture