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BizVoice
/Indiana Chamber –
May/June 2012
I
t happens all the time. Someone passes along a recipe – their grandmother’s famous cake,
a friend’s delicious casserole – that, under the watchful eyes of the new cook, turns out
differently than the original. Maybe there’s an extra pinch of salt or just a bit more sugar
than the instructions called for. It looks different. It tastes different.
Building a workplace culture works somewhat the same way: Employers set out to
accomplish the same goal – company and individual achievement – but their businesses
can flourish or flounder depending on what they add to the mix and how they personalize their
“ingredients.”
We gathered a panel affiliated with the 2012 Best Places to Work in Indiana program to
discuss what it takes to earn success and a spot on the list.
Hoosier flavor
Best Companies Group manages outstanding workplace programs in 21 states. Burke notes
that Indiana is leading the pack when it comes to employee engagement.
“On average this year, 94% of the employees of the winning companies (see page 55 chart)
are considered engaged with their employer,” he remarks. “Ninety-four percent is unbelievably
high, and it’s one of the higher numbers that we’ve seen around the country.”
Blue & Co., a regional CPA firm based in Carmel, employs 300 people throughout its eight
offices in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. It has also earned the Best Places to Work distinction for
its Kentucky and Ohio operations.
The company didn’t make the Indiana list the first time it participated, but tried again two
years later after implementing feedback from the Best Places report and an internal follow-up
survey. A critical piece of the initiative was sharing results with all employees. The efforts paid
off. For the past four years, Blue & Co. has been named a Best Place to Work.
“We’ve used that (Best Places) survey every year since to kind of benchmark,” Olson reports.
“Are we making progress in the areas that we feel are most important? Are there new concerns or
new issues that have cropped up since the last time that we need to pay attention to?
“It’s very, very helpful; it really gives you a good idea of what the tone is and what people
are thinking.”
“Don’t assume you know what’s going on in your organization,” Burke cautions. “Find out
what your employees are thinking.”
Ice Miller has been a past honoree and the firm’s attorneys work closely with clients in an
advisory role. “It isn’t that every idea or thought that’s put out there is one that the company
needs to embrace, but employees need to feel like they have a voice, and that they’re being
considered, whether it happens at a supervisory level or at the top level from the CEO down,”
Proffitt Reese emphasizes.
Wessler Engineering participated in the program for the first time this year. Established in
1975, the company specializes in the “wet side of engineering,” which revolves around drinking
water, sanitary wastewater and stormwater issues. It has approximately 60 employees.
Peters credits much of the firm’s success to an “employees come first” philosophy.
“We have a very simple formula for what we think (contributes to) our success as a firm: Our
employee is No. 1, our client is No. 2 and then the business is No. 3. We feel that by placing the
Participants:
Peter Burke
– president and co-founder of Best Companies Group, based in Harrisburg, PA
Chris Olson
– chief operations and HR officer of Blue & Co., Carmel
Jeff Peters
– executive vice president of Wessler Engineering, Indianapolis
Melissa Proffitt Reese
– partner at Ice Miller, LLP, Indianapolis
Chamber
Roundtable
By Symone C. Skrzycki
Recipe for Success
Cooking Up a Winning Culture