Building relationships is natural for a construction company.
That's why Paris Otremba, the human resources manager at PCL Construction Services in Burnsville, volunteers at Summit Academy in north Minneapolis, the education and skills-building nonprofit that trains many women and members of minority groups for careers in the construction trades.
PCL donates money and employee time at Summit, Otremba said, because the volunteers have chosen Summit as a favorite nonprofit, partly because it dovetails with PCL's plan to diversify its workforce as older employees retire.
"I enjoy doing the mock interviews with Summit students, and this introduces me to some of their students when it comes time to hire, and we've hired several of their graduates," Otremba said. "Summit really produces a diverse pipeline of candidates. We also have worked together with them on building Habitat for Humanity houses, and that's also a great way to get to know their people."
At staffing-software firm Avionté in Eagan, most of the charitable initiatives are decided by an employee committee.
"Everybody here also gets three paid days a year to go volunteer somewhere," said CEO John Long, a founder of the business. "I'm better off creating an environment on the charitable side of the business but let the employees follow through on their ideas for themselves. It can't just be my ideas. I want this job to be a life-changing experience for our people. We have low turnover, and I think this may be part of the reason. Volunteering can change the world for somebody."
There are numerous reasons why employees have voted their companies a Star Tribune Top Workplace. Workplace-culture experts say once employees feel they are paid and treated fairly, intangible benefits such as ethical leaders and a culture of "giving back" to the community can help employees identify positively with their companies, deepen their commitment and improve retention of valuable workers.
"Our research has found that employees who know and understand their organization's values are 30 times more likely to be fully engaged than someone who works at an organization without values or who is unaware of the organization's values," said Don MacPherson, president of Minneapolis-based Modern Survey, which canvasses employees for employers.