“CULTURE is the soul of an organization.” – Gallup
WINNERS:
Corporate Culture Champions
Small: Pophouse Design
Medium-Large: Lockton Cos.
Most Innovative Culture Award
Small: Wilshire Benefits
Medium-Large: Sachse Construction
Customer-Focused Culture Award
Small: Atnip & Associates
Medium-Large: Glover Agency
Workspace Décor & Amenities Award
Small: Atnip & Associates
Medium-Large: DOBI Real Estate
Compensation & Benefits Award
Small: Apex Placement and Consulting
Medium-Large: Cinnaire Corp.
Career Advancement Award
Small: Wilshire Benefits
Medium-Large: Mott’s Children’s Health Center
Teamwork & Collaboration Award
Small: Morrey’s Contracting
Medium-Large: JAN-PRO Detroit
Workplace Flexibility Award
Small: Stuart Mechanical
Medium-Large: Farbman Group
Community Engagement Award
Small: Concetti Corp.
Medium-Large: Kapnick Insurance
Best Leadership Award
Small: Entech Staffing Solutions
Medium-Large: Lockton Cos.
Mentor of the Year
Manuel “Manny” Amezcua
CEO of Mass Mutual Great Lakes
“CULTURE is the soul of an organization,” according to a recent wide-ranging report from the Gallup organization titled “Empowering Workplace Culture Through Recognition.”
“Organizations accelerate toward their goals when they define and reinforce the values and causes that motivate employees to give their best every day,” the report states. “In this way, a strong culture acts both as a catalyst to generate engagement and as a road map to channel that engagement in a way that best serves an organization’s goals and mission.”
The DBusiness Corporate Culture Awards, now in their fourth year, recognize those companies in the metro Detroit region that employees believe are doing their best to empower, educate, reward, and inspire the overall team.
The awards honor overall Corporate Culture champions, one from the ranks of small businesses and the other for medium-to- large companies. The program also rec- ognizes winners in individual categories such as Most Innovative Culture and Customer-Focused Culture, as well as Workplace Décor and Amenities, or culture that unites their employees, it can feel like the only reason work is done is to make money,” the Gallup report asserts. “While ‘money’ and ‘profit’ are essential to the success of an organization, focusing disproportionately on financial outcomes and neglecting the journey to achieve them can cast an organization adrift without an identity.”
CORPORATE CULTURE CHAMPIONS
The overall Corporate Culture Champion among small businesses is Pophouse Design in Detroit. The company’s 20 employees work in a 5,000-square-foot space in the historic David Stott Building that was designed with their input for optimum productivity and comfort.
“In the process of building out our headquarters, we interviewed everyone on our team,” says Jennifer Janus, founder and principal of Pophouse Design. “We tried to figure out the environment that they’re going to want to do work in. As a result, we have most people in the office at least four days a week. That’s because we have an environment here that offers a better place to do their work than at home.”
The second-floor space that overlooks Capitol Park includes a design lab that features virtual reality, so designers and their clients can see what they’re working on and make changes in real time. “For our clients to be able to visualize their project before it’s done is tremendously impactful for them in making decisions and getting approvals,” Janus says.
On the employee comfort side of things, the office kitchen has two different types of coffee makers, a tea kettle, and an oven. “Our team likes to bake cookies,” Janus says.
There’s also a wellness room that can be used by expectant mothers and for prayer and meditation, or just as a place to escape for some quiet time.
“Our overarching philosophy is to create an environment where people can really strive and do their best work, have the best projects to work on, and also work in an environment where we’re really treating every individual with respect and meeting them where they’re at,” Janus says.
She adds that with a team of employees at various stages of their careers and lives, flexibility is key. It’s also important, she says, to help people advance in their careers.
In addition to annual performance reviews that result in annual increases and bonuses, “We discuss career goals with our team members and, if they need something we don’t have, we’ll create a role — and we’ve created multiple different roles,” Janus says. “By doing this, we customize roles based on what the business needs and what the employee wants to accomplish.”
Although Pophouse has been in business for 12 years, Janus says the company still acts like a startup. “We have four core values that we really live by: purposeful, curious, authentic, and fearless. That drives how we do work and how we treat each other as team members.”
Among medium-to-large businesses, Lockton Cos., the world’s largest privately held insurance brokerage firm with local offices in Detroit, Birmingham, and Grand Rapids, has three pillars of culture: taking care of clients, associates, and the community.
“Our focus is on our people and our clients, versus just revenue and profit,” says Elaine Coffman, executive vice president of Lockton Cos., which has its head- quarters in Kansas City, Mo. “We started our (local) operation five years ago, but you can go to any Lock- ton office globally and find synergies in the culture.”
Coffman says culture is important in an industry that most young people have little knowledge of.
“It’s not like anyone grows up saying they want to work in insurance,” she says. “So a lot of how we build camaraderie is through our office environment, which includes being in downtown Birmingham and down- town Detroit. There’s a vibrancy. We need to have our office be a place people want to be.”
The Detroit office has a family room where there are snacks, soft drinks, and a beer fridge.
“We have happy hours in the kitchen,” Coffman says. “We don’t have the constraints of a publicly traded company in terms of creating the culture that you want to have.”
The downtown Detroit office, in the historic Hem- meter Building in Paradise Valley ( formerly Harmonie Park), is near the city’s sports venues and has a rooftop area that’s used for lunch and activities such as Lions tailgates when the weather permits.
Coffman notes that in terms of career advance- ment, along with compensation and benefits, Lockton doesn’t fall short.
“I’m not going to say that we overpay our people, but our performers are taken care of,” she says. “It’s what we do for our clients, so we have to take care of our people. Our bonus structure is healthy.”
Overall, she says there are many opportunities for promotions, career training, and team-building.
“If you’re performing here, there are always professional growth opportunities. That’s part of our secret sauce, because people want to grow and develop by performing versus waiting for opportunities to come to them.”
Lockton fulfills its community pillar by participating in the annual United Way fund drive and following the lead of its Lockton Cares Committee, which orga- nizes monthly community and charity events in which employees can partici- pate. There’s also an internal program to help fellow Lockton employees, such as those impacted by the California wildfires.
MOST INNOVATIVE CULTURE
Wilshire Benefits in Troy and Sachse Construction in Detroit were deemed to have the Most Innovative Cultures.
David Sokol, president and executive relation- ship lead at Wilshire Benefits, in the small business classification, says being innovative didn’t come from reading a manual.
“We’ve been working on our culture for about the last eight years intentionally,” Sokol says. “We hired a company called High Performing Cultures to help us establish the fundamental tenets of how we oper- ate. We’ve been pounding away at those, and it’s just been ingrained.”
Overall, the company has defined 30 fundamentals that describe its unique culture.
“The fundamentals dictate how we treat each other, our clients, and their employees — who really are our customers — as well as our carriers and sup- pliers,” he says. “They allow us to have difficult con- versations without making it personal.
“We spend a lot of time treating people with respect and managing work-life balance,” Sokol adds. “During every biweekly team meeting we pick one of our 30 fundamentals, and we talk about what it means and call people out who exemplify that funda- mental. And now, instead of me or one of our senior people leading the meeting, we rotate it among the team members.”
Among large businesses, the Most Innovative Culture belongs to Sachse Construction, which also has made a concerted effort in the area of innovation.
“It really is about our people, process, and our cul- ture,” says Myra Ebarb, vice president of people, perks, and empowerment for Sachse Construction. “Our cul- ture had to be planned, organized, and systematized. As a company, you have to be willing to commit to it financially and time-wise.”
Sachse also gets high grades for its Workplace Décor and Amenities, but that’s only the start, according to Ebarb. “It’s planned. You can’t just hope it hap- pens,” she says. “It’s in the training.”
Todd Sachse, founder and CEO of the company, teaches a five-hour class six times a year called Four Pillars, which is centers on culture.
“He’s literally in that room teaching about how the culture came about and why it’s important to us,” Ebarb notes. “It’s how we market, it’s in our outreach. It (happens) anytime someone interacts with Sachse.”
CUSTOMER-FOCUSED CULTURE
While most of the DBusiness Corporate Culture Awards are focused on how the workplace environment affects employees, this category takes aim at how culture impacts customers.
Heather J. Atnip, owner of the downtown Rochester-based Atnip & Associates law office, leads the small business leader in Customer-Focused Culture.
“The word that we focused on in 2024 was empathy,” Atnip explains. “We’ve been talking a lot about putting ourselves in the position of our clients in different situations. We do a lot of role-playing to make sure we’re thinking about what our clients might be going through at the time we need them to respond to a question or sign a document.”
Many of Atnip’s clients are going through traumatic life events and can benefit from a softer approach to requests for information.
“We’ve been working a lot on fostering empathy. I really felt like we could do a lot better at that,” she says. “By being careful with wording and the tone of communications, and being more respectful of timing, I think it’s helped customer service a lot.”
In the medium-to-large business column, the Glover Agency in downtown Birmingham believes an improved outlook among the team will radiate to clients.
“Our mission statement is ‘Living an unreal experience to deliver one,’ ” Jeff Glover says. “We define the term ‘unreal’ as something so amazing, it’s almost unbelievable.
“What we figured out is if our associates are enjoying their lives while at work and at home with their family and their friends, if they’re really and truly enjoying their life and living a life that’s so amazing it’s almost unbelievable, then that will show up in the customer experience,” he says. “They’ll have better attitudes. The customer experience will never be about the transaction or about the money.”
Glover says the individual Unreal Life Formula for every worker has been taught at the company twice a year since 2019. The formula includes the employee’s business plan, the places they want to go, the things they want to do in life, and the things they’d like to accomplish in both their business and personal lives.
Glover notes that agents and the operations team go through the same process.
“If they’re living an unreal life and customers have great experiences, it’s going to lead to more repeat and referral business,” he says. “It’s going to make them want to come to the office more and prospect more because they enjoy what they’re doing and who they’re doing it with.”
He says since the Glover Agency adopted the Unreal Life Formula, repeat and referral business accounts for more than half of annual revenue, up from 20 percent in 2019.
WORKPLACE DÉCOR AND AMENITIES
Atnip & Associates, which got its start a decade ago, also was recognized for Workplace Décor and Amenities. Owner Heather J. Atnip says she’s deter- mined to make her employees comfortable whether they’re working in the office or at home.
“In their home offices, I pay for their entire setup,” Atnip says. “I just want to make sure they’re really comfortable.”
In the office, Atnip provides whatever teas, energy drinks, or cooking tools they desire.
“They pretty much have carte blanche to get whatever they need to fuel their needs,” she says. The same thing goes for food prep apparatuses, and “We order lunch in a lot, too,” she says.
The company also provides employees with water bottles and an app on their phone that reminds them to drink more water.
“Everything is kind of linked to health and well- ness,” Atnip explains. “I really believe that if you’re happy and healthy 24 hours a day, you can work hard for as long as it takes to get your work done, then use the rest of the day to have a better life.”
Her determination to have a happy and healthy workforce also has a business purpose: To limit the number of people leaving her office.
“I saw what turnover does to a company — the cost of turnover is horrific — and on morale,” she says.
Among larger organizations, DOBI Real Estate in Birmingham leads the way.
“Our office was designed to create the best experience for our agents, so we have a café area with a garage door that opens in the spring, summer, and fall,” says Reina Snively, a real estate agent and operations director at DOBI Real Estate. “It’s exciting to sit there because you can hear top producers talking about their deals. Newer agents like to hear what’s going on, because they can pick up tips and ideas.”
DOBI also has what it calls a Table of Knowledge, where many of the company’s top producers collabo- rate. There’s also The Pit, a quieter space that features more technology in case an agent needs an additional computer screen at any given time, and there are smaller rooms where people can close the door for private client discussions, as well.
Since no agent has their own office, DOBI has “hotel” offices where an agent can set up for an hour or two, or for a full day.
“Our agents love that there are different spaces for different moods or the different ebbs and flows of their business,” Snively says.
DOBI also has a coffee machine that makes lattes and cappuccinos, fully stocked candy and snack draw- ers, and a fridge filled with water and sparkling water. “Our office is very welcoming,” Snively says. “One of our core values is ‘Come Together,’ and you really see that when you come to the office.”
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
Apex Placement and Consulting, an employment agency in Clawson, is the winner in the Compensa- tion and Benefits category among small businesses. Founder, President, and CEO Jennifer Gavin says she believes in paying above the market average in order to attract good employees.
“I come from a couple of really big international staffing firms and my goal is to be above market, which is what we talk to our clients about,” Gavin says. “If you want the best talent, you have to be above market with compensation and have some other features. It’s a competition for good talent. I really try to live by that because that’s the coaching we give to our clients.”
She also says it’s important to get the employer-employee relationship off on the right foot.
“One of the things I do when I’m hiring is look at what the person was making before and give them at least a little bit more than they’re asking for or expecting, because I think that starts the relationship off well,” Gavin says.
Apex also has a program of annual raises, which is unusual in an industry that typically is bonus-based. The company also offers all leadership and salaried people unlimited paid time off. Hourly people get three weeks of vacation to start.
Unfortunately, according to Gavin, Apex was handed a 25 percent increase in health care costs, 10 percent of which were passed on to the workforce.
“I was just transparent about it,” Gavin says. “I do provide really good benefits. I believe in that as an employer. The happier and healthier the employee, the better the job that they’re going to do.”
Cinnaire Corp. in Lansing is the medium-to- large company winner in the Compensation and Benefits category.
“We’re all about providing the perks and benefits to make work cozier, life easier, and both of them a lot more balanced,” the company’s website reads.
Among the benefits Cinnaire offers are unlimited paid time off, a “generous” compensation package including an incentive/bonus plan, company-funded profit sharing, and a self-funded 403(b) plan. It also offers what it calls “top-tier” medical, den- tal, and vision plans, an Employee Assistance Plan, a company-funded mobile phone service, and paid volunteer time.
In addition, there are career development opportunities, complimentary registration on the Calm app, and plenty of snacks and drinks.
CAREER ADVANCEMENT
Career advancement is something every employee is concerned about. Wilshire Benefits in Troy takes it so seriously, it ranked highest in the category as part of the DBusiness Corporate Culture Awards program.
“We’re competing in an intellectual capital busi- ness where the smarter we are, the better we do,” explains David Sokol, president and executive relationship lead at Wilshire Benefits.
To that end, Wilshire pays for professional certifications, licenses, professional designations, continuing education, and advanced degrees, and annually recognizes those who have achieved new education or credentialing levels.
“I never want our people to stop making themselves more valuable to our clients,” Sokol says. “You do that through a never-ending process of learning.
“We’re all about promoting from within,” he adds. “Sometimes, we have to go outside for talent, but I personally get a lot of satisfaction from watching
somebody come in at an entry level and five or six
years later they’re running a department and making
three times the amount of money.”
Career advancement is easier in a firm that reports it has seen 17 percent compound annual growth as a company in recent years.
“It’s hard to maintain that kind of growth if you’re not developing your people,” Sokol says. “It also helps that we’re growing in a way that more than one promotion opportunity arises at the same time.”
Opportunities for promotions are fewer at Mott Children’s Health Center in Flint, a larger organization in general but smaller than a typical health care
group. But that doesn’t stop CEO Todd Wisely from encouraging his staff to embark on a journey of self-improvement.
“We have a relatively small group with long tenure and low turnover for health care, so there aren’t as many opportunities as we wish there were,” Wisley
says. “We put a lot of focus on development of individuals and leaders. Whether that results in a new job is a different story.”
According to Wisely, the focus on staff development started eight years ago. Four years later, Mott Children’s earned its first corporate culture recognition
from the Nonprofit Times.
“Throughout the year, we talk to our people about what they’re interested in, and their career goals,” Wisely says. “We help tailor education, training, and
opportunities for each individual.
“All of this development might help our employee in their current role, their next role here, or their next role not here,” he says. “That’s OK because we all benefit from putting good people out in the health care world.”
TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION
For Morrey’s Contracting in Detroit, a subsidiary of Sachse Construction, teamwork and collaboration are important parts of everyday activities. That’s
probably why it earned the small business honors in this category.
“Leadership pays attention to feedback from our team members, who are better equipped to modify or implement systems or procedures that will help them in the field,” explains Zai Guerro, director of operations
at Morrey’s Contracting.
“We address any questions or concerns or issues immediately, always with the (intent) to make sure everyone is collaborating. We take care of issues
between team members right away. We’re very transparent in our culture.”
Guerro says the company makes a “huge effort” to make sure team members have whatever tools or equipment they need to do their work more efficiently. There also are regular meetings in the field with foremen and project managers, as well as in the office.
“We’re always looking for ways to help and are obsessed with learning,” Guerro says.
On the medium-to-large business side of the ledger, JAN-PRO Detroit in Farmington Hills takes top honors in this category.
According to Jimmy Sevarin, COO and general manager of JAN-PRO Detroit, which recruits, sells, and manages commercial cleaning franchises in metro Detroit, Lansing, and Ann Arbor, and sells supplies and equipment to franchisees, the teamwork and collaboration begins with the owners of the company.
“It starts at the top with ownership that keeps us pointing in the right direction,” Sevarin says.
After that, Sevarin says he makes it a point to continually share the company’s performance and objectives on a recurring basis.
“I get people on my team involved in problem-solving and setting up processes because, when they have ownership, they make sure it’s followed
through and hold people accountable,” he says. “At the end of the day, their buy-in comes from their participation in the creation.
“Sometimes it makes the decision-making process take longer, but I have to get their input and buy-in.”
WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY
Stuart Mechanical in Detroit is a subsidiary of Sachse Construction that installs and repairs commercial HVAC systems for commercial projects. Interestingly, it scored well in the Workplace Flexibility category even though all of its work occurs in the field.
“There’s obviously no working from home in that group,” says Myra Ebarb, vice president of people, perks, and empowerment for Sachse Construction. “That says a lot about the culture at Stuart.”
To balance mandatory in-person work, Ebarb says Stuart provides everyone “generous” paid time off (PTO), which pays off for the staff in the fall months.
“When hunting season comes, they all get to go hunting — although they stagger the time off, so they’re not all gone at once,” Ebard says. “We make
sure they have the resources they need to be able to take that time off.”
Farbman Group, which recently moved into a new office building in Farmington Hills, is tops among larger organizations.
Farbman offers unlimited PTO and has many employees with 20, 30, and 40 years of service, due in no small part to the way they’re treated, according to Andy Gutman, president of Farbman Group, which was founded by the late Burt Farbman.
“We’ve been implementing workplace flexibility for decades, before it was popular and cool,” Gutman says. “It’s always been a great way to keep really
good employees. We have a lot of mothers who want to work from home. For us, it’s treating people like adults, showing that you can trust them, and
getting the work done. We think it’s one of the main factors in our success.”
Farbman’s newly renovated offie building, which was originally designed by famed architect Minoru Yamasaki, embraces flexibility. In addition to having all of its companies under one roof, the renovated space has specially designed meeting rooms, some with shower facilities, permanent desk areas for full-time employees, and “hotel” space for workers who just need a place to set up for a day or even just a few hours.
“If you’re a happy employee, you’re going to do better,” Gutman says, summarizing the company’s corporate culture philosophy.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Detroit interior design company Concetti is the leader in the Community Engagement Category among small businesses.
“One of the things we talk about all the time is an attitude of gratitude,” says Rachel Nelson, founder, CEO, and principal designer at Concetti. “Gratitude
is something really important to me and how I relate to people. It’s part of our promise to ourselves to be the best versions of ourselves to our team and
our community.”
Each year, the company identifies “attitude gratitude” projects, according to Nelson, who says most often they revolve around education. The company
has mentored students at Wayne State University, Central Michigan University, and the College for Creative Studies.
Nelson also says she participates in various
industry events and panel discussions.
“The energy we put out into the world goes beyond our physical body and radiates past us,” she says. “When we’re able to be the best version
of ourselves and show up, it’s a ripple effect into
the community.”
Nelson also equates the work she does with clients to community engagement, like when Concetti worked with Good Cakes and Bakes along Livernois Avenue in Detroit’s Fashion District.
“One of the most amazing pieces of feedback we heard was the community being grateful for having such a beautiful place in their neighborhood,” Nelson
says. “We think it’s important to think about the effect a project will have on the greater community, in addition to the client.”
Kapnick Insurance in Troy is the medium-to-large company Community Engagement winner.
“Like a family, we are caring, empathetic, and supportive,” the company says in its promotional literature. “We value giving back and are always ready to help or give the support needed in our communities.”
Past efforts have included making cash donations to charities, holding company-wide volunteer events, and the more than 1,500 hours of annual
volunteer time put in by Kapnick team members.
LEADERSHIP
Companies that excelled in the leadership category of the DBusiness Corporate Culture Awards were Entech Staffing Solutions in Troy (small business) and Lockton Cos. in Detroit, Birmingham, and Grand Rapids.
“We want our staff to come in and work every single day and be happy about it,” says Kathy Camara, co-owner and CEO of Entech. “By providing the things to them like chef-prepared lunches twice a week, a personal trainer twice a week, and having a light, bright open work environment, our employees like coming to work every day and they want to work hard for us.”
Camara says she leads by example.
“I’m not afraid to step in and do something that needs to be done,” she says. “I’d answer the phones in front. I’ve taken out the trash and unclogged toilets.
Nothing is beneath us.”
In addition, Entech’s leaders have created an environment that’s conducive to learning and being able to communicate openly.
“We want everyone to be truly heard and have an opinion, and we try to incorporate that in what we do on a day-in day-out basis.”
That philosophy trickles down the Entech chain of command.
“The people right below us on the corporate ladder follow our same philosophy,” Camara says.
“They’re really involved in the day to day. They’re a great resource, so no one feels like they’re left out on a limb if a decision needs to be made.”
The entire Entech leadership team has an open door policy and they’re always available to discuss any issue.
Elaine Coffman, executive vice president at Lockton, the winner in the medium-to-large business category, credits the company’s leadership philosophy with enabling her office to become a $20 million operation in five years.
Among the tenets Lockton leadership follows are transparency and frequent communication. It also uses a proactive and thoughtful approach to staffing, and looks for new ways to enhance what has come to be a high-performing team.
“Our entire office cares about each other, and leadership is a big part of setting that example of dedication and support,” she says.
MENTORSHIP CHAMPION
Mentorship is more than sitting down with someone and dispensing advice, says Manuel “Manny” Amezcua, CEO of Mass Mutual Great Lakes in Southfield and founder of The Podium Group, this year’s DBusiness Mentorship Champion.
“Mentorship should have a strategy and a system so that people actually get better,” Amezcua says. “If you don’t have a written plan, it’s just an intention. The sad thing is intentions typically don’t happen. Things that are documented, tracked, scheduled, and implemented — those things happen.”
In the 20 years Amezcua has been in the business world, he estimates he’s recruited more than 200 people into his profession, which offers solutions and financial strategies for individuals, families, business owners, and corporations.
The Podium Group, meanwhile, focuses on serving professional athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs. Amezcua also hosts a podcast called “At the Podium.”
“Mentorship is very intentional,” says Amezcua, who has run weekly and
monthly skill-building and client-building sessions and study groups for his
employees in each of those 20 years. Some are group sessions and others are
one-on-one. “I’ve done that with the firms I’ve been at, as well as in the industry as a conference speaker.”
Amezcua says from a young age he felt “a tremendous amount of pride in
seeing someone succeed.”
With an eye toward the future, Amezcua says the need for mentoring women is vital to his particular industry. He estimates that by the year 2030, two-thirds of the world’s wealth will be controlled by women. He adds in households where there is a woman and a man, women make 84 percent of
the financial decisions in that home — yet women make up less than 10 percent of the financial consulting industry.
In every industry, Amezcua says, mentorship is vital.
“Every meeting I host, I kick off with gratitude for military men and women, first responders, and our teachers and coaches,” he says. “You don’t just have to be in education to consider yourself a teacher and a coach.
“There’s a requirement for mentorship in any profession we’re in, but we made it part of our core mission.”
