In life, few things are more influential than family. When these close, personal relationships are healthy, they create incredibly strong bonds that give us a sense of identity and belonging.
This is why establishing a family-oriented business culture is critical. Healthy work relationships that produce trust and elicit respect are essential to the growth of world-class companies.
The Importance of a Family-Oriented Work Environment
We spend a significant amount of our time and energy on the daily grind with our fellow coworkers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average U.S. employee (aged 25-54) works more than 40 hours every week.
And that’s just the average, which means some individuals are on the high end of those numbers. When we invest so much of ourselves in our job, it’s nice to know that our work is appreciated. We want to feel like we’re making a difference and that we belong.
The truth is, a working environment is a family environment. Cultivating a family-oriented business culture allows employees to not only feel that they’re important to their company, but to actually be important to their company.
“Our culture at Swiss-Tech does a really good job of this,” HR & Accounting Manager, Kristi Granberg noted. “I don’t ever dread coming into work. I actually look forward to seeing all of my coworkers and spending time each week with people I enjoy.”
Advantages of Family-Focused Businesses
Developing a strong, family-oriented business culture has plenty of advantages for businesses and organizations.
We’ve found that in addition to our employees building strong, relational foundations, our culture at Swiss-Tech has had a positive influence on other aspects of our business, as well, such as:
- Employee retention rates
- Team morale & atmosphere
- Overall quality & consistency of work
- Levels of respect for peers & management
- Relationships with vendors & customers
Swiss-Tech’s Family-Oriented Business Culture
While the advantages of our employee-first atmosphere are certainly striking, these results don’t simply happen on their own. They take some time to cultivate and must be initiated authentically to be effective.
At Swiss-Tech, our high-performing team is very intentional about our family-centric culture. We have weaved many structures and activities into our cultural norm and invested in the well-being of our employees in a variety of ways, including…
1) Birthday Card Policy
Every Swiss-Tech employee’s child under the age of 18 receives a birthday card in the mail with a five-dollar bill enclosed.
This includes our temporary positions, as well. Once you’re working at Swiss-Tech, you’re part of our team and family.
2) FlexTime Options
Swiss-Tech employees also have flextime benefits for when things come up in life that are out of their control.
Say you’re a single mother that needs to pick up a child, or you have an aging parent that needs your assistance – you have the option to flex your hours and make up the time you miss.
“We feel that having the ability to take care of your family without the fear of repercussions at work is essential to a healthy environment. To us, it’s the obvious, ethical thing to do.” – Kristi Granberg
3) Company-Sponsored Events
Brewer games, family picnics, you name it. We enjoy sponsoring internal events for staff to attend.
Our Swiss-Tech Family Picnic is open to each employee’s immediate household. We have a large meal catered, games/bouncy houses for the kids, and even an obstacle course to challenge the adults. It’s a laid-back evening to simply enjoy each other’s company.
It’s important to support our coworkers in their hobbies and interests as well! This year, one of our employees (who makes bag toss boards) built a Swiss-Tech corn hole set that we purchased and raffled off.
4) Shift Accommodations
Many of our employees are part of families with both spouses in the workforce. As a result, it’s not uncommon for each to work an opposite shift from one another.
For couples with kids at home, this can be really challenging. To help relieve stress from these situations, we offer a variety of shift accommodations.
We work with our employees to find an appropriate shift that strikes the right balance between our company needs and their family needs.
5) Health Care Cost Freezes
Typically, when the cost of employee health insurance plans increases, employees unfortunately have to foot the bill…but not at Swiss-Tech.
We feel it is important that our team’s merit raises not be diminished by rising insurance costs, which they have no control over. In 2018, we absorbed that cost, so our employees didn’t have to.
6) Employment Referrals
One of the best indicators that employees love where they work is when they invite others to work there too.
At Swiss-Tech, we often have team members refer friends and family when they hear of an opening at our company. We find this very encouraging.
Interested in Joining Our Family-Oriented Business?
If Swiss-Tech sounds like the kind of workplace you would enjoy, we’d love to hear from you. Our team currently has several openings to fill, and we’re always interested in hearing from those looking to work with us.
To apply for any role – please fill out our online application.
If you have questions, please contact Kristi Granberg at 262-728-6363, Ext. 101.