Company wellness includes time away

It is college move in day at Minnesota State Universities. Some events happen only once and being there is a  must. Several years ago, PlastiCert expanded its time off policies. We added two additional holidays (increasing the list to 10 annually). We also added three paid time off (PTO) days, as well as made two-week vacation accrual apply to first year hourly hires as well.

If you ask why, it is because people working hard deserve a chance to play hard. Family demands have never been higher. With virtually every family being a two-income family, the time necessary to deal with day-to-day family occurrences need to be accommodated. We added paid holidays because coworkers should not have to use vacation time to choose to be home with family on days around national holidays (Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve).

Everyone stepping up and learning multiple skills and operations is what enabled winning our multiple When Work Works Awards for Flexibility. We move people around the production floor to allow the company flexibility. That variability puts pressure and a little strain on staff to stay on their toes and be comfortable with constant change. An off shoot of dealing with that level of variability is to decompress on occasion, and added PTO and holidays allow our people to do just that.

A positive company culture is established through communication and a “two-way street” approach to expectations. The company has expectations of its coworkers, and the coworkers have expectations of its company.