What It Takes

How some of the country's most innovative and ambitious people managers are trying to build the perfect workplace.

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Here, in their own words, is how some of the country's most innovative and ambitious people managers are trying to build the perfect workplace

First, a disclaimer: none of the managers whose words you'll read below would presume to be running one of the Best Small Companies to Work For. They are, every one of them, too smart for that.

They know what every experienced company builder knows: that no single company can be best for every kind of employee, and that even if in your own company you're managing to get it right -- to be comprehending and satisfying the needs your employees feel right now, today -- you can be sure your success won't last. At least not as currently constructed.

Things will change, and swiftly. Competitors will come and go; the economy will boom or bust; fortune will smile on you, or frown. Your employees -- experiencing it all -- will change their minds about what they need, want, or think they deserve. So stay loose, say the savvy. Remember that even the cleverest people-management tactics can turn sour in the heat and humidity of real workplace life. Keep trying. Take nothing for granted.

Remember, too, that a reputation for being a great place to work must be earned anew every day -- which requires a lot of juggling. "Things like job security, the work atmosphere, the focus on collaboration, the commitment people have to our mission statement, the compensation-and-benefits program -- they're all parts of the whole, and no single part predominates," says Malte von Matthiessen of YSI, a $30-million instrumentation manufacturer in Yellow Springs, Ohio. "Sometimes one element takes over, and you have to work to bring everything back into balance. That's what leadership is all about today: continually managing that balance."

To report this story, we spoke with dozens of company owners and managers like von Matthiessen across the country. Each had his or her own view about the best ways to nurture a work force. Here, in interviews with Inc. staffers Leslie Brokaw, Anne Murphy, and Jeffrey L. Seglin, is what some of them said.

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM

Dahlin Smith White
John Dahlin, Darrell Smith, and Jon White started the advertising agency that bears their names only six years ago. It was an opportunity to strike out on their own and make some money, and also to create the kind of environment they'd enjoy working in, day in, day out. "We wanted to build the company we'd always wanted to work for," recalls president Dahlin. "Someplace rewarding, stimulating, fun." Ninety people later, Dahlin Smith White, in Salt Lake City, is a $60-million agency, a 1991 Inc. 500 company, and one of the hottest small shops in the West.

In this business we have to have an environment that's a little loose if we're going to foster creativity, new ideas, and great advertising. That means, for starters, being flexible about how and when people work. If people want to play music loud -- every office has a company-bought boom box -- or dance in the hallways, they can. If they want to go skiing or go to a movie in the middle of the day, they can. If they want to play pool, we have a poolroom right here. People have even been known to bowl down the corridors.

Sounds nuts, but that kind of crazy stuff is actually essential to our business. We want people to have fun, to be stimulated, to do something wild.

Even the physical environment -- our office space -- was designed to encourage that. None of the walls are straight; they tilt or angle in. There are two or three different door sizes and different windows. A yellow metal-and-glass staircase lights up and greets you as you enter. We want people to be stimulated as soon as they walk in. By the time I hit my desk, I'm already jazzed. Even customers respond to it. They might not know whether they like it or hate it, but they have a reaction to it. Isn't that what good advertising is supposed to do?

All employees get an art budget of $100 to $200 each to decorate their offices, which makes the decor totally eclectic: Indian tapestries, sculpted glass heads, gigantic light bulbs. Most companies try to force you into some dehumanizing group mold; there's so much pretending in business. We want people to be real, to be themselves. The motto here is "Do Something Wild." We can all do something wild, push ourselves, test our limits. We try to break as many rules as we can without losing our basic stability as a company.

There are lots of dinners, movies, retreats. We go mountain climbing, horseback riding, snowmobiling. We counted 40 parties last year -- Friday the 13th, an April Fools' bowling party -- most of them pretty spontaneous. We keep people thinking there might be something coming to them at any moment. But it's not predictable. It would get boring, become expected, if there weren't some uncertainty surrounding incentives. For instance, we share profits and award bonuses twice a year. But employees never know how much to expect. Bonuses are allocated on a totally subjective basis. Three partners sit down and decide whom to give bonuses to and how much. It might seem arbitrary, but it offends only the people who aren't producing.

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