Slacker Manager

How to Make Your Company a GREAT place to work!

by Phil Gerbyshak on January 30th, 2008

Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For was unveiled last week, and the firm I work for made it for a 5th time in a row. It’s amazing to think that a company that employs 2300 people, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin can get such amazing recognition 5 years in a row. It’s a true testament to our leadership and our associates, for the vision and for the hard work put in, each and every day.

I was talking with our Chief Human Resources Officer about what makes us special, and why we keep getting these accolades. At first, I thought it was just too simple, and nobody would be interested in learning about this, so I was going to keep it to myself. Then I thought about it a bit more, and I realize how special it is to get recognized 5 years in a row, and that you might enjoy how we do it, in hopes of creating something like that at your firm.

Now before you go thinking I don’t realize you have to pay to even get looked at to be on the list, and some companies could care less about this list, stop and look at who’s on the list. Then talk to your CEO or any of your C level executives, and see how much they would pay to be on this list once, let alone 5 times in a row.

Without further ado, here are 3 ways my firm makes us a GREAT place to work.

1) We have a strong open door policy for leaders of all levels - As a vice president of information technology, responsible for taking care of all our associates’ IT needs, I have access to everyone, anywhere in the organization that I need to solve the problems. When things don’t go right, with my team or with an angry associate, I can talk to our CTO, CAO, or anyone else in the organization if that’s what it takes to make things right. If anyone in the firm has a new idea that can improve the firm, the CEO reads and responds to EVERY EMAIL he receives. That also means you better not just complain about the firm to him, as he loves our company as much as I do.

Which leads me to my second point.

2) No A$$hole Rule - From the CEO down, we work hard to eliminate the hot shots who can often run roughshod over a company’s morale. Do we have a few? Sure, who doesn’t, but they are fewer and far between, and we do our best to reign them in.

And if they keep being jerks, we have the open door policy which is a good rule to remind folks about when they’re acting stupid. We record all of our calls into the help desk, and I’ve had to remind folks of that when I’m on the phone with them now and then. Something about the fear of letting the CEO know that you’re a butthead makes people instantly nicer.

3) We let people work in their strengths zone much of the time - Yes, I know, you’ve read Marcus Buckingham’s book Now Discover Your Strengths, you’ve seen some of the articles about strengths based leadership, but come on, everyone talks about doing this. Nobody really does it.

Do they?

I can honestly say we do this a LOT, at least once you get past the entry level job. As I mentioned, I’m a VP in our IT department. I am not the best person to do reporting, not the best person to do account, and definitely not the best person to do any sort of scripting or programming.

I do love leadership training, writing e-mails, memos and instructions, talking to customers, and coaching my team.

And guess what?

I get to do what I love a lot of the time, and I can find someone else to what I loathe. It’s a great mix.

Doing these 3 little things to me makes our company a GREAT place to work. For a job in corporate America, there is no better place to work in my humble opinion. I’ve looked at jobs in lots of other companies, and have talked to my peers from around the country. Nobody has it as good as me, and I owe a lot of it to these 3 little things.

• Open Door Policy
• No A$$hole Rule
• Focus More on My Strengths than my weaknesses

What does your company do that makes you a great place to work? Maybe we can learn together on how to make it even better, or at least shine the light on those firms that are doing the right things. Read the stories behind the list of 100 Best Companies to Work For again. Think about how you can implement even one of those into your department, your team, or better yet, your entire firm.

The better the place to work you create, the more slack you will have to focus on the important things…like the rest of your life!

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