An Inter view with Dixon Schwabl
If you focus on
people first, the
profits will happen.
Focusing only on
profits without regard
to people? Not gonna
happen.”
our employees cite that as their favorite even though we have a
bonus program and profit sharing which arguably is much more
expensive. Sometimes when you ask what people like, you are
surprised. We have a company band that had such a huge response
that there is 16 people in it now. You just have to ask people what
they want which, isn’t necessarily going to be the budget busters.
For example, Yoga is very cost effective and it’s a wellness program.
What we do is we ask “what do you want?”, but then we empower
them to implement it. It’s not all on the managing partners, HR, or
department heads. People really feel like they have a voice in what
we’re doing here, which leads to more engaged employees because
you’re giving them what they want. And it usually all makes sense
anyway with our core values and wellness and giving back. That
has been what we’ve found.
5. What was the first non-monetary perk that you gave to your
employees?
KS: It was the Make-It-Happen day where employees can take
time from work to go volunteer and still get paid for it. Ice cream
Thursdays was probably second. We’ve done other things like
hand out squirt guns to people before, besides the profit sharing
and bonus program.
LD: We have another reward called the Jazz Janie award that was
created to keep the memory of one our leaders alive who was such
an amazing human being. She co-lead our public relation team and
she passed away from cancer. So, to keep her memory alive, one
Wednesday a month we award the Jazz Jannie award and we talk
about the person and its keeping all the things she embodied alive.
We demonstrate, in a paragraph, why that person is being named
Jazz Janie because of all of those special things this person did this
past month. And then they get a big trophy before they pass it on
to the next month’s recipient. They also get the parking lot’s most
coveted spot—right out front. So that’s a recognition memorial,
but that’s been around for a while. Its special … We also decided
we were going to set up a scholarship for her at SUNY Geneseo,
her alma mater, for a public relations student … Every year we
do a fundraiser a golf tournament, right now the scholarship is up
to $150,000+.
KS: We’ve had students come back and tell us the scholarship
had enabled them to take an extra class, it really did make a big
difference. It was very nice to have the kids come back from the golf
tournament and tell us. So it did exactly what Jane wanted which
has kept her memory alive and it also reinforce her commitment
to the profession and excellence overall. I know Geneseo is very
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