6/20/2008
Utah Companies Honored for Helping Employees Balance Work and Life
Annual Work/Life Awards Announced
by Natalie Hollingshead
Some companies only care that their employees put in an honest 9 to 5 workday.
Other companies see the face behind the timecard and strive to create an environment that caters to both the work and life needs of their employees.
Every year, the
Utah Department of Workforce Services honors such companies with its Work/Life Awards. This year, 21 local companies were selected for the award because of their dedication to creating exceptional workplaces and businesses by addressing employee work and life needs.
“Every year this award gets harder and harder to win,” said Lynette Rassmussen, Director of the Department of Workforce Services’ Office of Work & Family Life. “The success of Work/Life Award-winning companies shows up in many forms, including improved productivity, customer relations, retention, recruitment and marketing.”
Nearly 190 companies statewide applied for a Work/Life reward, with 21 businesses garnering awards. Awards were given in three size categories: Micro (fewer than 50 employees), Medium (50 to 500 employees) and Large (more than 500 employees). Top awards in those categories were given to
Cirque Corporation, Cooper Roberts Simonsen Associates and
1-800-Contacts, respectively.
The winning companies will be honored by Gov. Jon M. Huntsman at the annual Work/Life Awards Celebration on July 16 at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. The event will include educational workshops and best practice exchanges and is open to the public.
Recognized nationwide for the rigorous evaluation and application process, the Utah Work/Life Award is Utah’s premier workplace excellence award. Now in its 10th anniversary year, interest in the award has risen dramatically from the award’s early days, Rassmussen said, with new companies undergoing the entry process each year.
While some participating companies are new to the Work/Life Awards, many of the companies have been contending for awards for several years. For example, Futura Industries, which placed third in the Medium Category, has entered the contest for 10 years, said Susan Johnson, president of Futura Industries, manufacturer of custom aluminum extrusions. 1-800-Contacts, the top winner in the Large category, is on its fifth Work/Life Award.
“Every year we’ve applied for an award we’ve got one,” said Seth Pickett, human resources manager for 1-800-Contacts, a direct-selling contact lens company that had $249 million in sales in 2006. “It has been really to neat to see how the program has grown. When we got our first award in 2003 there weren’t many people (at the celebration) and now there are 1,000 plus people in the hall. There are employers out there that aren’t out to nickel-and-dime their people; they’re out there to help them because they understand the benefits of doing so.”
1-800-Contacts initially become involved with the Work/Life Awards because company executives wanted to find out “where we sat in regards to everyone else.” They also wanted to take advantage of the best practice tours and exchanges that are an integral part of the Work/Life Awards.
“We wanted to use it as a learning mechanism and find out how we could adapt some of the things that other companies are doing in their workplace so our employees can enjoy their lives a little more while working here,” Pickett said.
While company employees enjoy some “perks” that are original to the establishment — including an eight-chef gourmet cafeteria, fitness center staffed with personal trainers and flexible work schedules — some practices have been integrated into the 1-800-Contacts way as a result of the Work/Life award program.
For example, Pickett and others learned about a local company that routinely gave fresh fruit to its employees on the manufacturing line. 1-800-Contacts management liked the idea so much that they have instituted a “Fruit of the Month program,” where they spotlight an exotic fruit and make it available all day, every day to everyone in the company.
Pickett was also inspired by a Blue Cross’ employee recognition program and tweaked that company’s model to create a 1-800-Contacts program.
It may seem like a lot of trouble to go through for employees, but these days it isn’t enough to just create jobs, Pickett said. Business owners and chief executive officers have to create an environment in which their employees can not only survive but thrive.
“As the job market gets tighter and tighter in Utah, people are looking for places where they actually enjoy work. They need time with their family, time for personal needs. This award helps us put our name out there as one of the premier employers in Utah where you can get that.”
Although large corporations may seem like the only places to experience perks like an on-site eatery and in-house gym, the Work/Life Awards also highlights small-and medium-sized companies that cater to their employees.
Cirque Corporation, the innovators behind capacitive touchpad technology on laptops, has only 32 employees and won the top award in the Micro category. Although the company is small, employees enjoy a wide-range of benefits at work because the company is so successful.
“We have stable jobs, excellent health care and all of the things that are reasons why people go to a big company, minus the red tape of a larger organization,” said Nate Coy, sales manager for Cirque Corporation.
Cirque management is incredibly open with its employees, Coy says, and everyone is privy to a once-a-month sit-down where the company’s progress is revealed. No matter what an employee’s position in the company — on the sales team, a software engineer or an engineering manager — he or she is treated as an integral part of the team.
“They put a lot of time into finding the right employees and they treat them really well,’ Coy said. “Some places do all kinds of crazy rewards but here you are just treated like a valuable employee. People come to work and they’re just happy.”
In addition to the openness and respect employees get at Cirque, there are also some unique programs. Every employee gets two community service days a year — paid time-off that doesn’t come out of their vacation time where employees can give back to the community. There is a $500 yearly fitness allowance per employee, which can be used to hire a personal trainer or purchase a gym pass.
Like many companies, Cirque buys season tickets to Jazz basketball games. However, all of the tickets are raffled off so that every employee has an equal chance of scoring great tickets.
That action is telling of the attitude around Cirque, where every employee is valued equally, said Trevor Clifton, a software engineer who has been with the company for seven years.
“We are a tight-knit group,” Clifton said. “Everyone is very friendly and uplifting. As far as the work we get to do here, we see immediate results and long-term results and that is very satisfying. There is nothing I’ve found that compares with what we have here.”
Winners of 2008 Work/Life Awards
MICRO (fewer than 50 employees)
1. Cirque Corporation
2. Fehr & Peers
3. Petzl America
4. The Intrepid Group
5. Utah Foster Care Foundation
MEDIUM (50-500 employees)
1. Cooper Roberts Simonsen Assoc.
2. Forever Green
3. Futura Industries
4. Intermountain Financial Group5. MVCI Owner Services
6. Software Technology Group
7. The Leavitt Group
8. TURN Community Services9. Westminster College
LARGE (over 500 employees)
1. 1-800 Contacts, Inc.
2. ARUP Laboratories
3. Citi Cards
4. Comcast
5. Mountain America Credit Union
6. Nicholas & Co., Inc.
7. USANA Health Sciences
held on July 16, 2008. This is their second consecutive year.
held on July 16, 2008. This is their second consecutive year.
