MUKILTEO — Free breakfasts on Fridays. A 37.5-hour work week. An occasional surprise cocktail party on the job.
Benefit Solutions mixes it up for its 100 employees.
“We work in an intense industry and it can be a dry industry — insurance,” said Shannon Jurdana, president and CEO, of the Mukilteo company. “We believe happier employees are more productive employees.”
Her company won an award last week from the Association of Washington Businesses for the most innovative benefit/compensation program.
It was one of several Better Workplace Awards given out by the association at a luncheon in Olympia. A panel of workplace benefits and safety managers reviewed the nominations for the awards from the 8,300 members of the association.
Benefit Solutions’ efforts are aimed at improving morale, said Jurdana, who founded the company in 1993.
“Our employees are our competitive advantage in the market and investing in them truly makes sense,” Jurdana said.
Benefit Solutions provides technology and benefit administration for about 10,000 businesses and unions throughout the Northwest. Jurdana said the company usually works with businesses with 100 employees or fewer that may not have their own human resource departments.
Over 20 years, the company has had a 100 percent retention of clients, she said. And part of that has been the employees, including her first employee who has stayed with the company since it opened.
From the outset, her company has offered 40 hours of pay for 37.5 hours of work. She said that means that employees arrive at 8:30 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. on most days.
She said it’s been a close-knit company with employees often doing things together outside of work.
As the company has grown, Benefit Solutions has attempted to keep that atmosphere with summer barbecues, parties on Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day and Christmas and other benefits.
Benefit Solutions started free breakfasts on Fridays about a year ago. She said they make sure to offer healthy options.
“I saw it as an opportunity for increasing communication,” Jurdana said. “Sometimes you can get really busy in your everyday life. This was a chance to bring everybody together in a social setting.”
And that’s not the only socializing at the workplace. She said she also has held cocktail parties for her workers on the job.
“I’ve had surprise gin and tonics on Fridays,” she said. “We monitor to make sure nobody overindulges.”
She’s also brought in latte carts, ice cream trucks and masseuses to help her employees get through the work week.
Her employees are invited to do what are called “walking meetings.”
“We just encourage people rather than do their meetings inside to go outside into the fresh air and go for a walk,” Jurdana said. “We support their happiness and well being and health.”
Benefit Solutions has also invested in leadership and personality assessments for its workers. The company started with its management team and then expanded it out to everyone in the firm down to the file clerk. She said it’s allowed people to communicate with each other better and also allowed the company to build high-functioning teams.
She also started at the suggestion of an employee what’s called the “Wall of Fame” or the “Awesome Wall” in a high-foot traffic area where employees are encouraged to post messages of thanks, support and recognition of one another.
“It’s shocking what a positive lift that has been,” Jurdana said.
Other businesses honored last week: Family Home Care in Liberty Lake for Job Training/Advancement; Savage Services in Anacortes, Blaine and Vancouver for Workplace Safety; and Energy Northwest in Richland also for Innovative Benefit/Compensation Programs.
Videos highlighting each award-winning company are available on the association’s video page at www.awb.org/awards-videos.
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